This Week: Rep. Pete Aguilar
Interview
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"Well, let me just first say that this was Tuesday was a sad day for the House of Representatives writ large. But clearly based on what Ken Buck said, it's going to be some time. And I would just note that Republicans and Democrats did come together, Democrats providing a majority of votes to avoid the debt limit that sets the spending levels. So, I don't know what Republicans are planning to do to revisit those spending levels that are now law. Democrats provided the votes to avoid the debt limit. And Democrats provided the votes to pass the continuing resolution to fund government."
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"Well, I think there's an element within the House Republican conference that is dead set on shutting down our government to walking up to the breaching the debt limit, or not funding government. There were many of them in the public domain who were cheering for us to shut down the government. That's just -- that's just terrible for the country. It's terrible for our -- our governance, and it just shows an inability to lead among the House Republican Conference."
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"Yes, I just don't buy that for the good of the institution. This is someone who voted. Kevin McCarthy did not vote to certify the election, Kevin McCarthy walked away from a deal that he negotiated with President Biden. This is somebody who has an inability to govern and to lead his conference. I don't -- I don't buy that, that for the good of the institution, because this is someone who just didn't have the credibility to show that he put the institution first. He would not work even, even until the bitter end, hours before the vote, he said that he wasn't going to ask for Democratic votes.
And by the way, I would just say 220 Republicans enabled Kevin McCarthy because they're the ones that change the rules. They're the ones that created this threshold where one person can topple the speaker. And Kevin McCarthy did it all for one reason to be speaker. He negotiated that rule change and he got 220 Republicans to go along with it to start the year."
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"Well, that's something for the Republican conference to figure out. You know, our job is House Democrats. This is not to pick their leader. I nominated I had the privilege of nominating our democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to be speaker. I plan to do that on behalf of the House Democratic Caucus again. Our job is not to -- to pick the Republican speaker, but I -- I would agree with Liz Cheney in what she said about Jim Jordan. I think it would be dangerous for democracy if -- if he is speaker. But that's something that Republicans are going to have to figure out."
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"Thank you."
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