Rep. Chip Roy criticized fellow Republican Newt Gingrich for calling him and 19 other House Republicans “blackmailers” for opposing Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker on Wednesday morning.
In an appearance with Larry O’Connor and Julie Gunlock on WMAL’s “O’Connor & Company,” Texas Republican Mr. Roy claimed that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who served from 1995 to 1999, doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
“Newt Gingrich may genuinely be aware of the facts if he chooses to call me on the phone. You may have been a speaker 25 years ago, but you don’t know the current events, and you’re repeating the talking points that are being given to the system in this town and that have been contributing to the downfall of this nation, he added.
“I don’t have time to listen to fossils that sit on Fox News, earn money from their contracts, and then come out and pontificate about subjects they have no knowledge of.”
On @wmaldc‘s “O’Connor and Company” radio program this morning, the House Speaker debate got heated. Former Speaker @newtgingrich says the opponents to McCarthy are “blackmailing the country” and @RepChipRoy clapped back https://t.co/8EX6rS6wG9
— WMAL DC (@WMALDC) January 4, 2023
On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Roy went on to propose Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican from Florida, as speaker.
After four voting rounds since Tuesday, the House still lacks a speaker and has not sworn in its new members. For the first time in a century, the impasse throws the party into disarray and the chamber into uncertainty.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Gingrich claimed that the 20 Republican holdouts were throwing a “temper tantrum” during an interview on “Fox & Friends.”
“On yesterday’s votes, they were trailing 202 to 20. And you would assume that a vote of 202 to 20 tells you something in a healthy, free society. But these 20 have come to the conclusion that they cannot only use extortion to gain favor with the Republican conference,” he said. They are essentially extorting the American people. Keep in mind that the vote to eliminate the 87,000 IRS agents was lost yesterday.
Simply keep in mind that these blackmailers aren’t just targeting the Republican Party, he advised. The entire nation is being blackmailed by them.
