Republicans Come To Near Brawl on 2nd Anniversary of January 6th as McCarthy Elected Speaker on 15th Ballot

Two years ago today, insurrectionists breached the floor of Congress in an effort to overturn the will of the people.

Two years later to the very day insurrectionists breached the floor of Congress, Republicans nearly came to blows on the floor of Congress after Kevin McCarthy failed to be elected Speaker for the 14th time.

McCarthy confronted Florida Republican holdout Matt Gaetz and there was a heated exchange before McCarthy walked away. As he walked away, Gaetz said something which prompted McCarthy to storm back for more words. In the midst of all this, Alabama Republican Mike Rogers got an elbow to the face when he appeared to lunge towards Gaetz.

Order was eventually restored. A motion was put forward to adjourn the House until Monday, but Republicans did an about face the defeated the motion which seemed to indicate that McCarthy finally had the support he needed with Republicans chanting, "One more time!!!" as if they were at a WWE or AEW event. With six Republicans abstaining with none opposing his candidacy, McCarthy finally got the majority of votes he needed to achieve his lifelong dream of becoming Speaker.

Given that it now takes only a single Republican to challenge McCarthy's leadership his tenure will probably be short-lived. The chaos has only just begun. I shudder to think what could happen if a Republican Congress refuses to lift the debt ceiling and default on the national debt while they are busy trying to impeach President Biden and crucify Hunter Biden, Dr. Fauci and the members of the January 6th Committee. As I said earlier this week, the only good which can come out of it is that voters are so repulsed by Republicans that they see fit to give the House back to Democrats in 2024. But the amount of harm inflicted in the interim will be staggering. 

But Democrats do have Hakeem Jeffries. In his opening remarks, he threw some shade at McCarthy by emphasizing the unity and unanimity of his caucus and valuing the peaceful transfer of power, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, quality over Q-Anon. Republicans won't like it but they seem to like each other even less and that which may be our saving grace.

I'll give McCarthy his small due. He was gracious to Jeffries although he added that he had earned unanimous support by the GOP two years ago. It was also good of him to thank House Clerk Cheryl Johnson for the thankless of presiding over 15 votes. 

Still, when McCarthy spoke about having a country where law enforcement is respected there are lot of officers in D.C. who did not get much respect two years ago today. Nor could Republicans (save for one) be bothered to show up for the officers who were honored today by President Biden for their bravery. Respect for law enforcement doesn't apply to the FBI who he asserts has been "weaponized."

It's also hard to take McCarthy seriously when he says there will be "no one sided inquiries". Obviously, this is a veiled reference to the January 6th Committee. Of course, it was McCarthy (through the cajoling of defeated, former President Trump) who opposed the establishment of a bipartisan commission to investigate January 6th which would have given Republicans equal power to summon witnesses. 

As previously mentioned, we can look forward to a litany of one-sided inquiries concerning January 6th, Dr. Fauci, Hunter Biden not to mention impeachment proceedings against President Biden over policy differences. All of McCarthy's allusions to Abraham Lincoln can't change that particularly when a critical mass of his own party supported those domestic terrorists who stormed the House of Representatives two years ago today.