After Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the race to be the next Speaker of the House, Congressman Charlie Dent (R-PA) spoke with CNN. Dent didn’t mask his feelings for the House Freedom Caucus. His anger was evident when he called his conservative colleagues “unreasonable.”
“The next Speaker should not appease those who make unreasonable demands. There are a number of members of our conference. You cannot get the yes on anything. For them the end will be the good. In my view it’s come time to marginalize those members who doesn’t want to be part of the governing majority.”
Dent then clarified that a bipartisan coalition may be needed to elect the next Speaker. The moderate Republican claimed that he would be better served working with Democrats to elect House leadership than working with conservatives.
“I don’t know what will happen. Anything is possible now. It’s pretty clear to me that a number of us are not going to simply appease or exceed to those who will make unreasonable demands. And so I suspect in order to govern around here we need a bipartisan coalition on all major bills. If we can’t get 218 Republican votes for a Speaker, then we’ll have to try other options. I don’t know what those options are, but I certainly don’t want to put somebody in the Speaker’s job who is going to appease those who are making unreasonable demands.”
Dent would rather reach negotiate with Democrats than seek a compromise with House conservatives. This type of approach that has left many conservatives throughout the country to feel abandoned by the more moderate wing of the party.
What would you say if your Republican Congressman stated he would rather work with Democrats than conservatives? Please comment below.
H/T: Truth Revolt