House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Wednesday scolded Republicans for party infighting about the 2022 House speaker race, telling lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that ”Congress is not junior high,” according to The Hill.
Although McCarthy did not single any members out, his remarks appeared to be aimed at Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida. Both have notably challenged McCarthy’s authority.
On the more conservative side, Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Paul Gosar of Arizona have caused an uproar over comments and actions toward their House Democratic colleagues.
Boebert apologized to Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Monday for insensitive comments regarding Omar’s Muslim heritage, The Denver Post reported.
Gosar was censured by the House chamber and on Nov. 17 was removed from committees he served on after he posted an animated video to his Twitter account that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., according to CNN.
Republican Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming voted with Democrats on Gosar’s censure. The actions also led to further responses from more moderate members such as Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, per The Hill.
Mace responded to the Boebert incident on Tuesday and received backlash from Greene on Twitter.
Greene referred to Mace as ”the trash in the GOP conference.” Mace fired back, calling Greene “[expletive] crazy” using emojis.
Kinzinger then tweeted his support for Mace and criticized McCarthy for his lack of action.
Several further-right conference members pushed to remove committee assignments from 13 House Republicans who voted with Democrats on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF).
