(NewsNation) — As Republicans continue to debate who the next speaker of the House should be, one of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s defenders, New York Rep. Michael Lawler, says he is “disappointed” for America because the House will now grind to a halt.
“I’m disgusted,” he said Wednesday on “The Hill on NewsNation.”
Lawler was one of the 210 Republicans who voted Tuesday to keep McCarthy as House speaker. Eight Republicans joined all Democrats to oust McCarthy, a first in U.S. history.
Now, Congress is at a standstill until next week, when the House will try to elect a new speaker.
“I’m honestly just disappointed for our country,” Lawler said. “Republicans were elected to serve in a House Republican majority and to govern, and to tackle the issues facing the American people … and unfortunately, all of that important work has been torpedoed by eight people within our conference who felt their petty personal grievances were more important than the work of the American people.”
The eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy from his post argue he broke multiple promises and was wrong to work with House Democrats on a temporary stopgap funding measure to avert a government shutdown.
Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., one of the eight Republicans to oust McCarthy, said Tuesday the vote was a “win for America.”
Lawler sees it differently. He called those who voted for McCarthy’s ouster “ingrates” and said they should have been thankful for McCarthy’s fundraising efforts to help get them elected.
“I think it was unwarranted. I don’t think the speaker deserved that. If there was an issue, that should have been decided within the conference and dealt with,” Lawler said. “I don’t think these people truly understand what they just did. They took our best player off the field — the biggest fundraiser, the biggest champion for a Republican majority — and frankly, burned everything to the ground.”