Hoyer Discusses House Republicans' Deep Divisions on MSNBC's Chris Jansing Reports
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined Chris Jansing Reports on MSNBC to discuss the deeply divided and chaotic House Republican conference. Below is a transcript of his interview and a link to the video:
Click here to watch full interview.
On the House Republican Leadership
“I don't think there's a clear answer. Being a leader means you get people to follow you, and obviously the leadership was for trying to stabilize the Congress and allowing the Congress to work on behalf of the people. And apparently, they [Republicans] just had a conference, their caucus, or their chaos, I might say, that was unable to reach agreement.
“And one of the sad things for the country is, the party that is deeply divided, divisive, and dysfunctional has more members than the Democratic Party, which is clearly very organized and unanimous in its view of where we need to go on the vote for Speaker.
“And it's ironic that Mr. Jordan, who has been a leader of the most divisive faction of the Republican Party, not just of the Congress, but of the Republican Party is now saying, ‘Well, we didn't do what I wanted to do, and what I supported to do’ – he can't even get his followers to do that.
“So it's clear that there is not a leader who commands the majority on the other party. There is a Leader who has the united, unanimous support, as a matter of fact, has had it 17 times this year, voted on unanimously that could do that. But what is really, I think, very sad, we have had bipartisan, constructive votes this year in the past.
“We did it on an agreement on what the spending levels were going to be and how we would move forward on the Appropriation process and not default on our debt. There were over 300 people who voted for that bill. We did it in keeping the government open, with a minority of Republicans in the vote, but a majority of Republicans voted for that, and all but one Democrat voted for that, so it's not as if we have not been able to construct what I call a ‘constructive majority.’
“But it is that we have a willful, angry - as a matter of fact, Chip Roy, one of the leaders of the most conservative element of the Congress, some would say extreme, said he was violently against having an interim speaker or a temporary speaker in the person of Mr. McHenry, violently against.”
On a Bipartisan Path Forward
“Clearly, however, although I think our Caucus, is ready to follow our Leader and the decision he might make as to whether this is in the best interest of the country, in moving ahead on a bipartisan fashion, which he has said over and over and over again, we're prepared to do. And not only that, the three instances that I mentioned: the debt limit, the agreement on how to go forward with the appropriations process, and keeping the government open, were all bipartisan votes. As a matter of fact, the large part of it were Democratic votes.
“So that there is a way forward, there is talking going on - but you have such an angry, divided membership in the Republican conference right now that apparently they cannot get agreement even on what their leaders…
“If Jordan is a leader, he sure didn't lead on this one.”
On Republicans Working With Democrats
“Well, Chris, it speaks for itself that we haven't seen somebody who could get something done on the Republican side of the aisle. So are we speaking to Republicans? We are. …We can come together in a bipartisan way and move forward. We should do that for the country, we should do it because the of crisis that confront our country and the global community, and we should do it for every American.”