Republican Nancy Mace on Sunday criticized her fellow GOP member Matt Gaetz for allegedly fundraising off of newly-elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's votes, calling the Florida lawmaker a "fraud."
Mace also said that she was "on the fence" about supporting a rules package that will govern the way that the House operates under the control of the Republican Party. She cited the backroom-deal making that happened with a group of conservatives who initially fought against McCarthy's speakership bid.
Nancy Mace Calls Matt Gaetz a 'Fraud'
While she said that she liked the package for it being the most open, fair, and fiscally conservative package that they have gotten in the last three decades. However, she said that she does not support people trying to get a deal done in private in order to get a vote.
Mace argued that this kind of behavior was exactly what former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did and said that it should not be what the GOP does. It was the only reason she gave for being on the fence with the rules package vote, as per CBS News.
Now, the Republican Party controls 222 seats in the House for the 118th Congress, which is a narrow margin that only allows up to four defections in order for legislation to pass without Democratic support.
During an interview on Sunday, GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas reiterated that he planned to oppose the rules package when it comes up for a vote on Monday. This leaves McCarthy and his leadership team with little room for error if they want the legislation to pass, particularly if Mace also ends up opposing the package.
The measure includes some of the concessions that the new House speaker made in order to win enough votes from his Republican colleagues after a strenuous voting process. McCarthy was only able to secure sufficient support on the 15th ballot late Friday night after more than four days of being in a deadlock.
Concessions for House Speaker Vote
According to The Hill, the reason that Mace called Gaetz a fraud is that every time he voted against McCarthy last week, he sent out a fundraising email. She added that what the American people witnessed last week was a constitutional process diminished by those kinds of political actions.
Gaetz was among a group of 20 holdouts who prevented McCarthy from being elected the House speaker for 14 rounds of voting. The Florida lawmaker was also one of the six individuals who voted "present" in a 15th round of voting that was held early Saturday.
One of Gaetz' fundraising emails read that he had no regrets about casting his vote on the House floor against McCarthy as House speaker. On the other hand, Mace sharply criticized Gaetz and other Republicans who were demanding concessions from McCarthy.
Mace said that she got significant heartburn over the deal-making that she argued was not done transparently. She added that nobody knew what they got or did not get because it has not been seen yet, barring anyone from having any idea of what promises were made, Yahoo News reported.
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