Fox News anchor Shannon Bream confronted House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik on Sunday about House Republicans’ “paralyzed chaos” and their low approval rating.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s tenure leading the House GOP conference has been marked by tense divisions between the right-wing hardliners who make up the House Freedom Caucus and more mainstream Republicans. These tensions are coming to a head amid legislative battles over appropriation bills to fund the government, with the most conservative members of Congress threatening to sink funding bills they do not view as sufficiently fiscally conservative.
Due to Republicans’ slim majority in the House of Representatives, they can lose only a handful of votes on any given legislation without turning to Democrats for support. The Freedom Caucus contains more than enough to sink these bills, and failure to strike a deal to fund the government through the next fiscal year by the end of the month could result in a government shutdown, fueling economic concerns for millions of Americans.
McCarthy on Wednesday was forced to cancel a vote on the Pentagon appropriations bill due to a lack of support from the conference’s conservative flank, underscoring the challenge he faces as he tries to avert a shutdown.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP vi