(PatriotWise.com) — Newt Gingrich had some harsh words for the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday, calling them “traitors” and saying they should face primary challengers in 2024, The Hill reported.
While appearing on Fox’s “Hannity” Tuesday, the former Republican speaker noted that only 4 percent of the Republican caucus voted against McCarthy in Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s motion to vacate the chair.
Gingrich said that as a “longtime Republican activist,” he views the eight Republicans as “traitors” and suggests that they should all be primaried and “driven out of public life.”
Gaetz worked with House Democrats to accomplish his quest to drive McCarthy from the speakership. The Democrats unanimously obliged, while only seven of Gaetz’s Republican colleagues joined them, bringing the final vote to 216 to 210.
In addition to Gaetz, the Republicans who voted in favor of the motion were Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Bob Good of Virginia.
Gingrich told host Sean Hannity that the eight Republicans worked with Democrats to “cause total chaos.” He said the slim Republican majority in the House should focus on President Biden, the economy, and the crisis at the southern border. But thanks to Gaetz and the others, “you’re going to get a week or ten days of the media focusing on Republican disarray.”
Gingrich described Tuesday’s vote as “astonishingly destructive behavior” from “egocentric people who think they’re superior to 96 percent of the conference.”
In an op-ed at the Washington Post earlier on Tuesday, Gingrich blasted Matt Gaetz for his “childish behavior” and urged the House GOP to expel him from the Republican conference, arguing that the Florida congressman “has become actively destructive to the conservative movement.”
Gingrich wrote that House Republicans have “more important things to do than entertain one member’s ego.”
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