Anti-McCarthy Republicans Are Raising Money Off Stonewalling Congress

It’s a stunt, of course.

The 20 or so Republicans who have opposed Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the speakership — and thus prevented the House of Representatives from swearing in its members and beginning its business — have claimed they’re doing so in the name of draining the swamp. They’ve put forth no viable alternative, nor have they been swayed by any of the concessions McCarthy had made in an effort to woo them. They have, however, received plenty of press for their efforts.

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Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), two of the staunchest opponents of McCarthy’s bid for the speakership, are now trying to cash in on all the attention. “We BLOCKED Kevin McCarthy from becoming Speaker of the House,” Biggs wrote in an email. “But now, we conservatives must lead the fight to get the leadership we deserve.”

He then asked for money.

“Maybe the right person for the job of Speaker of the House isn’t someone who has sold shares of himself for more than a decade to get it,” Gaetz wrote in a similar email before asking recipients for donations.

Republicans aren’t the only ones trying to parlay the party’s chaos into financial support. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who has received the most votes in every speakership ballot thus far, has been sending out emails, too.

“Republicans are incapable of governing,” Jeffries wrote. “And they’re putting politics over the American people.”

The line may be in service of separating his supporters from their money. He’s certainly not wrong, though.

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