‘Popcorn and blankets and alcohol’: GOP lawmaker jabs Democrats amid Speaker vote 

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) took a jab at Democrats as she spoke to nominate Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) for Speaker as the House began its sixth consecutive vote for the top leadership slot, after McCarthy failed to secure the required majority in the first five.  

“Diversity of thought is a good thing. It’s one of the things that sets us apart from our friends on the other side of the aisle. Yes, diversity of thought is a good thing. But they want us divided. They want us to fight each other. That has been made [clear] by the popcorn and blankets and alcohol and blankets that is coming over there,” Cammack said as she rose to nominate McCarthy for Speaker ahead of the sixth vote. 

The Florida congresswoman then appeared to laugh as her remarks prompted clamor from Democrats in the chamber.  

“The House is not in order,” Cammack said, smiling, over audible calls for her remarks to be stricken. The clerk asked members to display decorum and Cammack resumed her speech.

Despite calls from lawmakers to “take down her words,” the Speaker elections take place in a nebulous procedural domain as, since no Speaker has been elected, no members of the 118th Congress have yet been sworn in and no rules are technically in place for this Congress.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) had also made reference to popcorn when he rose to nominate McCarthy for an earlier vote Wednesday.  

“There’s headlines about the chaos. This and that. Yesterday our colleagues on the other side of the aisle were tweeting their bags of popcorn that they had out. They love it. The schadenfreude is palpable,” Gallagher said.  

Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.) was among a number of Democrats who poked fun at the ongoing vote process, posting a photo Tuesday of himself holding a paper bag of popcorn outside his office, captioned “About to go to the House floor.”  

“We are breaking the popcorn out in the Dem Caucus till the Republicans get their act together,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) tweeted.

McCarthy has lost out to Democrat Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) in five rounds of voting in the Speakership election, but no candidate has secured the required majority of votes.

All Democrats have backed Jeffries, but 20 GOP lawmakers are holding up McCarthy from getting to the 218-vote threshold, despite Republicans’ control of 222 seats in the new Congress.

“If Dems took a shot every time McCarthy lost a Republican, we’d all be unconscious by now,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Twitter after Cammack’s jab.

It’s the first time in a century that the contest has kicked into multiple rounds of voting, and the process will continue until a candidate secures a majority.  

–Updated 4:16 p.m.