Lawler: ‘Gaetz and Seven Useful Idiots’ Weakened Speaker Johnson’s Hand

Representative Mike Lawler (R-NY) said Thursday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had a weakened hand in legislation negotiations because Republicans ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Host Anderson Cooper asked, “Do you believe this foreign aid bill will pass in the next few days? And if so, do you think Speaker Johnson will be speaker for much longer?”

Lawler said, “Yes. The foreign aid bill will pass. It must pass. The United States has an obligation as leader of the free world to support our allies at this most critical juncture and to make it clear to our adversaries that we will not tolerate their actions and what they have done to undermine and destabilize the free world.”

He continued, “This is not about partisan politics, this is about the future of the world to America’s role in it. I think we have to focus on the task at hand. Obviously, I understand frustration of some of my colleagues. I agree about the need for border security.”

Lawler added, “I would remind folks many of the people complaining right now voted against that continuing resolution prior to vacating Speaker McCarthy so some of these folks have nobody to blame but themselves for why Speaker Johnson’s hand in negotiations has been weakened. It’s their actions that have done that. I look at this very simply. In October, the House was thrown into chaos by Matt Gaetz and seven useful idiots that teamed up with him within the Republican Conference and 208 Democrats. And at this moment, when you see what happened in the aftermath of vacating the chair and Israel attacked in a terrorist attack a week later, to do that again would be detrimental to the country and global security.”

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