By: Maureen Dowd
On October 5th at 7:00pm, congress members as well as members of the Executive met up with lobbyists to discuss their future plans for this coming Congressional session.
I, along with my colleagues at the Capitol Chronicle, observed and interviewed the happenings of this Cocktail Party and were enlightened to say the least.
Our first interview of the night was with Representative Maria Salazar, a Republican congresswoman of Florida’s 27th District. Representative Salazar was very concerned over the government shutdown and said, ”The government shutdown not only affects our jobs, it most importantly affects the American people and we should encourage whatever cooperation we need to make sure it does not happen again”. Representative Salazar is aware of the current division in the Republican party, but hopes to get through this situation united.
We ran into President Joe Biden himself, but don’t hold your breath he wasn’t that impressive. He commented on how the government shutdown was “pushing off needed action we could be prioritizing in Congress right now, but… yeah…”
From there we continued interviews before finally running into Congress Member Kevin McCarthay of California's 20th congressional district where he confirmed to us his intent to run for Speaker of the House. When asked about the government shutdown Representative McCarthay states, "I did what I had to do, I made sure that everyone in America keeps getting paid, their jobs, there are a few stray Republicans who have issues with me and should not be taking that out on the American people”. Finally we commented on his willingness to work across the aisle to pass legislation.
From there we asked many Congresspeople who they believed would be running for Speaker of the House. We were able to acquire four names: Matt Gaetz, Michelle Steel, Kevin McCarthay, and Steve Scalise. We were also given the name Hakeem Jeffries and Cori Bush to be potential candidates for the role of Minority Leader.
From there we decided to directly ask Cori Bush about what role she is going to be running for. From there we not only were surprised about her assertiveness about running for Minority Leader, but also for Speaker of the House! She showed her support of Hakeem Jeffries running against her, referring to him as “amazing” and a “close friend”. Representative Bush then disclosed to us how Michael Burgess also intended to run for Speaker as well, however he had decided to forgo his campaigning for the position to instead attend a concert that night. She gave good luck to her competitors Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthay before finally stating that,” I am confident that my party will make the right decision”.
Finally we approached the man of the hour himself, Representative Matt Gaetz of the Republican Party. He claimed that the Republican Party was “united” and wished to back up one Speaker. He refused to disclose any names to us for “obvious reasons”. He then disclosed that he does not want a Congressperson who is willing to reach across the aisle with the democrats without common sense due to Republican’s “specific conviction”. Finally he wished for Republicans to “take control of the House and hold Democrats accountable”.
One of the more interesting and honest Congressmember we spoke with was Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington's 7th congressional district. He spoke of his support of Hakeem Jeffiries and described himself as a progressive. He spoke highly of Hakeem Jeffires and described him as a Representative who is willing to work with both progressives and moderates. He then spoke to us about how the Republicans need the support of the minority party in order to get anything serious done. He referred to Republicans as, ”not known for being the most intelligent” and “would like to let Republicans wallow in their pigsty of incompetence and inability to govern”. Finally he said that, ”to say that I only have a few bills and a few causes that I’m devoted to would be a lie”.
We caught Representative Ronny Jackson and Representative Jim Jordan. They continued Matt Gaetz’s secrecy and simply bypassed all our questions by stating that “they still need to discuss”. They expressed their hesitation of working across the aisle. Ultimately we were unable to squeeze out any info from them and moved onto party caucus meetings.
Journalist Megyn Kelly and I were present with the Republican Caucus while my colleague Christiane Amanpour went with the Democrats. We later learned that Christiane Amanpour was unjustly kicked out from the Democratic Caucus meeting. What were the Democrats so secretive of that they wouldn’t want the American people to know?
The Republican Caucus meeting was so uneventful that I honestly wished we were kicked out as well. One representative talked. Another talked after him, but more intensely and crudely. It was the same thing over and over and over again. The only truly interesting event of the meeting was seeing Matt Gaetz comment on Jim Jordan’s drunken appearance.
Our last interview of the night was with two Congressmembers who would remain anonymous. They expressed their frustration with Representative Michael Burgess for his unwillingness to advocate for the Speaker of the House position. They remarked on why they would trust him to show up to work when he can’t even show up for a Cocktail party.
The night had finally finished with my final thought of the night being” Is Jim Jordan going to the bar again?”
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