George Stephanopoulos from ABC News issued a prediction of chaos over the next two years throughout the House speakership of Kevin McCarthy, but the number of Republican guests that he had were not happy about it.
As part of his opening statement this past Sunday on “This Week,” Stephanopoulos claimed that the concessions made by McCarthy to the group of 20 holdout conservative members who stood against his ascension to the role of House speaker would just put the country on edge. He made use of extreme alarmist rhetoric in his interviews with two Republican congressmen, but both legislators quickly rebuked him for his statements.
“On the second anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, Kevin McCarthy clinched his decade-long quest to be speaker of the House,” expressed Stephanopoulos. “It came with concessions to the most extreme members of his caucus, the help of the former president he denounced on the House floor two years ago, and the prospect of two more years of brinksmanship over his hold on the office, the fiscal security of the United States and the basics functions of governing.”
McCarthy’s win means doom. @GStephanopoulos: It “came with concessions to the most extreme members of his caucus…prospect of two more years of brinksmanship over his hold on the office, the fiscal security of the United States and the basic functions of governing.” #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/hcNI9Qrbjl
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 (@BrentHBaker) January 8, 2023
Notably, Stephanopoulos had extreme issues with three of the concessions made by McCarthy: a promised rule which would allow a single member to put forth a motion to vacate the chair of the Speaker, placing the Freedom Caucus members as members of prime committees, and a budget that halts the debt ceiling from going up any more.
Stephanopoulos maintained his overtly negative tone across both of the interviews carried out with House Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY). However, both of these Republicans were quick to speak out and swat down the comments from the host.
To kick things off, Stephanopoulos attempted to try and put Perry in a corner about the idea that the United States would default on its debt if it did not push a debt limit increase and that President Joe Biden was entirely not willing to negotiate.
“We can’t just keep doing the same thing under the same conditions with the same management and expect different outcomes,” shot back Perry. “The American people are sick and tired of this endless debt increasing. While I’ve been in Congress, George, the debt has increased double. It’s gone from about $15 trillion to $31.5 trillion. Where is the end of it? And there’s been no mechanism in sight to rein that in. At least we have a mechanism now.”
“I don’t know why President Biden says he’s not going to negotiate,” expressed Perry about Biden. “Saying you’re not going to negotiate, I think, is an untenable and unacceptable position for almost every single American no matter if you’re on the left, right, or in the center.”
As part of an interview with Barr a bit further into the program, Stephanopoulos made the claim that the motion to vacate the Speaker, to go along with the forced placement of Freedom Caucus members on the Rules Committee, would only end up undermining the authority of the speaker’s gavel.
Barr once again took the host down a peg.
“Well, let’s be clear, George, remember, this motion to vacate was only altered by Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi,” stated Barr. “We’re just going back to the pre-Pelosi rule that was in place since 1910. I don’t think that’s an issue at all in terms of creating chaos. I think it’s what the House has had every term before Pelosi came into power.”
Barr also chose to defend the placement of Freedom Caucus members on committees, claiming that it would make both the party and the legislation much stronger.
“If there are issues, if there’s a difference of opinion, you want those differences of opinion to be aired in committee on the front end, because you don’t want those difficulties when the bill comes out of committee on the House floor. Let’s have the opportunity to have an open amendment process in committee so that you forge that consensus at the beginning of the legislative process, so that the bills that are brought to House floor actually have a meaningful chance of passing.”