North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer said it was “a very dark day” on Tuesday when eight Republicans voted to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy after nine months in the role.
“In some respects, (McCarthy) made too many promises that would be impossible to keep if the people he made the promises to weren’t willing to help him keep them,” Cramer said. “In other words, Matt Gaetz literally set up McCarthy to be a failure as a speaker instead of a success.”
Cramer, who served in the House from 2013 to 2019, said Matt Gaetz insisted that McCarthy promise to bring 12 appropriations bills to the floor for a vote.
Cramer added: “The problem is that Matt Gaetz and the people who threw McCarthy out of office, voted against the rules on the floor to have a vote for appropriations bills, so they literally ensured his failure.”
Cramer said he hopes that the next speaker is not confined to what he called “crazy demands and rules where they have to spend all their time looking over their shoulder, as opposed to working with people on all sides of the political spectrum to get good legislation moving forward in the right direction.”
Cramer made his comments on KNOX’s Critical Thought program with Noah Chelliah.