Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) repeatedly dodged questions from CNN anchor Jim Acosta regarding if he will vote to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.
On Sunday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) announced he plans to file a motion this week to vacate the McCarthy as speaker after Congress barely managed to avoid a government shutdown. Gaetz’s has threatened to revolt against the speaker as way to convince him to give into the demands of the conservative wing of the party.
Good, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, spoke with Acosta on Sunday to give his reaction to the latest move against McCarthy. Despite Acosta repeatedly asking him, the Republican lawmaker refused to state clearly if he supports ousting the speaker.
ACOSTA: Are you going to support Matt Gaetz, his effort to remove McCarthy as speaker? And could that play out this week?
GOOD: Well, I will just say that what we saw happen yesterday was a repeat of past failures by Republican leadership. And frankly, that’s what January was about. What I most spoke about back in January during the speaker contests is that we couldn’t do what we’ve done the last ten, 15 years when Republicans had a majority, which was to pass major spending bills with the predominant majority of Democrat votes. And that’s what happened yesterday. And I urge my Republican colleagues, all 220 of my colleagues, along with the speaker, that we cannot fear a government shutdown to the degree that we will do anything to avoid a government shutdown. And frankly, that’s what yesterday was. Yesterday was a capitulation where we did an unconditional 45 day continuing resolution keeping in place all of the Biden, Pelosi and Schumer policies that are literally destroying the country, bankrupting the country with $200 Billion monthly deficit. And so it was a failure yesterday, it was a failure of leadership. But we should not be buckling down and passing our spending bills and not kicking the can down the road. We should not have relieve the pressure unnecessarily. And the only reason we passed the four spending bills that we did and I’ll remind you, Jim, the Senate has passed no spending bills. The House the House has done four. Speaker McCarthy committed we will do all 15. And that we would also vote on a balanced budget this year. And we’ve done neither one of that.
ACOSTA: So do you want them out?
GOOD: Well, I was concerned about him as speaker, as you know as well, on record on that during January because of the failures of the past. This is a repeat of those failures. And what I’m focused on at the moment is trying to put pressure on to actually pass our bills. I’m glad we’re coming back this week. Let’s see if we have the commitment to cut back to pre-COVID level spending out of the House as he committed in January, as we voted to do that as a House majority in April. That’s simply trying to cut $100 billion on an annual basis when we’re running a $2 trillion deficit and to implement our Republican conservative policies that will reverseda lot of the Democrats are doing country.
ACOSTA: I guess, But I guess so. I guess you just have made up your mind yet or what? What? It’s that you’ve been a critic of Kevin McCarthy for some time now. Why not say you’re linking arms with Matt Gaetz and you’re ready to oust him as speaker?
GOOD: Well, this isn’t about personalities or individuals. This is about doing what’s right by the country. And what’s right by the country is to cut our spending, reverse the policies that are destroying the country under the Biden, Pelosi and Schumer policies from last year’s omnibus. And what my fear is that we’re going to have another C.R. at the end of this 45 days going to an omnibus betrayal of trust the American people placed in us a year ago and let them down once again. So that’s what I’m focused on. I won’t get into the hypotheticals about what might happen, what someone what another member may or may not do. But I will say this was a failure of Republican leadership. And the American people cannot afford that.
