White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ouster Tuesday from his role as House speaker “is like shambolic behavior that we’re seeing from House Republicans.”
Jean-Pierre delivered the criticism after being asked by a reporter if the White House is concerned about getting along with the next House speaker — whomever it may be.
“Again, not going to get into who’s running or who’s not running. That is, again, something for them to figure out,” she responded. “The important fact is Republicans in the House, they have the majority. This is for them to figure out. This is for them to figure out how they are going to move forward. This is a situation that they have created.”
“I don’t want to speak for every American across the country, but I would say a majority of Americans are sick and tired of the infighting that they’re seeing in the House right now. They want to see us work in a bipartisan way,” she continued. “The president is willing to do that.”
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“And so that’s kind of where we are. The Republican conference that we see currently in the House, we’ve never seen that type of behavior. They stand apart from any other conference that we have seen before, whether you’re talking about the Senate or the House,” Jean-Pierre said. “And so this is their creation, this chaos. If you think about it, this is like shambolic behavior that we’re seeing from House Republicans. And so they need to figure it out.”
Eight Republicans voted with every present Democrat on Tuesday to vacate the speaker’s chair. The final vote was 216 to 210 in favor of McCarthy’s ouster.
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Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a measure against McCarthy known as a motion to vacate on Monday night, accusing him of breaking promises he made to win the speaker’s gavel in January.
House Republicans plan to hold a candidate forum next Tuesday and an election the following day.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.