Gaetz says he will do ‘everything possible’ to stop empowering McHenry

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) said he will do “everything possible” to prevent the empowering of Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.).

“I’m against ‘Speaker Light’,” Gaetz said in a clip posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Thursday. “I’m against Bud Light. I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a Speaker of the House. We need to stay here until we elect a Speaker.”

“And if someone can’t get the votes, we need to go on to the next person,” Gaetz continued. “But, but twisting and torturing the Constitution to empower a temporary Speaker is having a ‘Speaker Light.’ That is not constitutionally contemplated, is deeply infirm, and I will do everything possible to stop it.”

Gaetz was one of the eight Republicans who sided with House Democrats to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) from his role earlier this month. Now, as the House has gone weeks without a Speaker amid multiple crises like the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and a looming government shutdown, some in the lower chamber have considered a resolution to give McHenry more power.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who recently faced two failed attempts to gain the gavel this week, is also reportedly planning to back a resolution to empower McHenry. However, other Republicans, including Gaetz’s fellow hard-right colleague Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), have come out against the resolution.

“I will not sit back and watch a complete betrayal of the GOP base with this ‘plan’ that’s being discussed,” Boebert wrote on X. “I ran because I was sick and tired of politicians coming up here and cutting deals and releasing ‘holier than thou’ statements about why we just had to accept it.”