- Home Republicans’ slim majority is about to get even narrower.
- Kevin McCarthy’s retiring early, George Santos simply bought booted, and extra lawmakers might go away.
- “Hopefully nobody dies,” stated Marjorie Taylor Greene, bemoaning the state of affairs.
As if it wasn’t tough sufficient already, Home Republicans are about to have a fair tougher time getting something completed subsequent yr.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the just lately ousted speaker of the Home, introduced on Wednesday that he is leaving Congress on the finish of the yr.
Final week, the Home overwhelmingly voted to expel Rep. George Santos of New York from Congress.
Rep. Invoice Johnson of Ohio is ready to go away Congress someday early subsequent yr to change into the president of an area college.
These three vacancies — and there might all the time be extra to observe — will go away the steadiness of energy within the Home at 219-213, which means Republicans, a minimum of for a time, can solely afford to lose three votes on any party-line laws.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia channeled her frustration with this case in a put up on X, writing that GOP voters “did not give us the bulk to crash the ship.”
She particularly blamed the Home Freedom Caucus for McCarthy’s ouster — though the overwhelming majority of the hardline group didn’t help Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida’s movement to vacate — in addition to the 105 Republicans who voted to expel Santos.
“Hopefully nobody dies,” Greene wrote.
It isn’t fairly as dangerous for Republicans as Greene is suggesting.
Rep. Brian Higgins of New York, a Democrat, can be departing Congress quickly. And Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota has been largely absent from the Home since launching his longshot Democratic major marketing campaign towards President Joe Biden.
Moreover, McCarthy and Johnson’s seats are more likely to elect Republicans, each time particular elections are held.
Nonetheless, the departures underscore the dire place the occasion finds itself in, significantly as distinguished conservatives argue that Republicans don’t have anything to point out for his or her time within the majority thus far.
“One factor. I would like my Republican colleagues to offer me one factor — one — that I can go marketing campaign on and say that we did,” a visibly annoyed Rep. Chip Roy of Texas declared in a current flooring speech.
