House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries decried the actions of House Republicans surrounding the ousting of Rep. Kevin McCarthy with three P’s: petty, partisan and petulant.
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Mr. Jeffries, New York Democrat, said the decision to remove former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, and Rep. Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, from their courtesy Capitol offices was “petty, partisan and petulant.”
Just hours after the Tuesday vote to remove Mr. McCarthy, Mrs. Pelosi was told by Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, North Carolina Republican, that she needed to clear out of her hideaway office by Wednesday.
At the time, she was paying her respects to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein at a service in California. Mr. Hoyer was told to move out as well.
Mr. Jeffries wrote that Democrats have tried to “show our colleagues in the Republican majority a way out of the dysfunction and rancor they have allowed to engulf the House,” but after the ousting of the former speaker, “things further deteriorated from there.”
“Regrettably, at every turn, House Republicans have categorically rejected making changes to the rules designed to accomplish two objectives: encourage bipartisan governance and undermine the ability of extremists to hold Congress hostage,” he wrote.
He said Mr. McCarthy “publicly declared” before the motion to vacate that he would not join with House Democrats “as a bipartisan coalition partner.”
What’s needed, the minority leader wrote, is for Republicans to look for a different path and confront the “extremism that has spread unchecked,” so that the two parties can work together.
“The House should be restructured to promote governance by consensus and facilitate up-or-down votes on bills that have strong bipartisan support,” he wrote. “Under the current procedural landscape, a small handful of extreme members on the Rules Committee or in the House Republican conference can prevent common-sense legislation from ever seeing the light of day.”
He ended by saying that the House needs “Republican partners willing to break with MAGA extremism,” and to change the rules.
