Ana Navarro has been getting a sense of schadenfreude from watching Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy lose in his bid to become the House Speaker for the 118th Congress. The View co-host, who herself identifies as a Republican, revealed that she’s loved seeing him lose the vote a whopping 11 times during the show on Friday, January 6. Despite acknowledging how the turmoil is bad for the country, she did have a sense of joy in knowing that he was losing.
LONGEST HOUSE SPEAKER ELECTION SINCE 1859: While a moment of silence was held at the Capitol to mark the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, the House is paralyzed as Rep. McCarthy awaits a 12th speaker vote — #TheView co-hosts discuss. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/ZOdnO6Ec8A
— The View (@TheView) January 6, 2023
Navarro spoke about the many concessions that McCarthy has made to the few far-right Republican members of Congress who have repeatedly voted against him, preventing him from taking the House Speaker position. She cited one concession that he made which will allow any one member to be allowed to ask to vacate the Speaker. She said that if he does eventually win, it will be the “worst day of his life,” because of the lack of authority. “On his first day, he’s going to be the most castrated, eunuch of a Speaker of the House, we’ve ever had. Yeah, he’ll have the big office, and he’ll have the painting for posterity, but he’ll have absolutely zero power,” she told her View co-hosts.
Navarro said that the Republican leader deserved every single loss because he openly met with former President Donald Trump just weeks after the January 6 attack in 2021. “I know that this is incredibly serious. I know it’s incredibly bad for the country. I know it’s bad for the institution of Congress,” she said. “I am sorry. Indulge me, as I relish every single vote he loses, because he deserves it for being a snake and a weasel and a sniveling coward, and having gone, three weeks after January 6, to go kiss Donald Trump’s ring—among other body parts—to Mar-A-Lago. So you know what, Kevin? You own this.”
Later in the discussion, Navarro also spoke about how the deals that McCarthy has made to try to win over the Republicans voting against him feel very hypocritical when speaking about promises to “drain the swamp,” given how much is being given up. “You’ve seen no more evidence of swampiness than what Kevin McCarthy has been doing this entire week: negotiating away everything. He’s already given away his spine. He’s given away his brain. He’s given away his soul. He’s given away a kidney,” she explained.
The House has undergone 11 votes at the time of this piece to try to elect a new House Speaker. In the most recent vote, McCarthy only chalked up 200 votes, with the faction of Republicans voting against him cast votes for Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern, and one vote for Trump. One person has voted “Present,” and Democrats have been united in casting 212 votes for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.