CNN’s Tapper: Senate GOP Supported Omnibus to Avoid ‘McCarthy and His Gang of Flying Monkeys’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Tuesday on his show “The Lead” that Senate Republicans were backing the bipartisan omnibus spending package to avoid dealing with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and “his gang of flying monkeys.”

Tapper said, “House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is desperately trying to get the number of votes he needs to become the next leader in the House. He is threatening senators if they vote for this $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package, that any future legislation they offer will be ‘dead on arrival’ when it comes to the House. Take a listen to the one Republican senator reacting to that.”

Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said, “Well, I don’t know if I buy the threat, but I find it — Kevin’s in a tough spot. Statements like that, and statements coming from House Republicans is the very reason that some Senate Republicans feel they probably should spare them from the burden of having to govern.”

Tapper said, “I mean, this is the exact irony, the reason that Senate Republicans are coming into this deal with the devil, in their view, is because they look at Kevin McCarthy and his gang of flying monkeys. They’re not going to be able to legislate.”

Boston Globe Washington Correspondent Jackie Kucinich said, “They were saying it’s going to be dead on arrival anyway because of the composition of your current conference. This is the second time Kevin McCarthy has tried to flex on Mitch McConnell when he doesn’t have the votes to be Speaker. He is having to whip his Speaker vote in a way I’ve never seen. I think there is an expectation that there is going to be multiple rounds of voting.”

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