GOP expected Gaetz and Boebert to vote for McCarthy before confrontation, Hudson says
It was a blink-and-you-might-have-missed-it moment — until the images went viral.
Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama, rushed toward Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, to confront him about marking himself present instead of voting for Rep. Kevin McCarthy for House speaker as members of their party expected.
It was the 14th round of voting and came late Friday night as tensions were running high.
Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican from Southern Pines, was close enough behind Rogers to ensure nothing bad happened. He says he pulled Rogers out of the situation.
“It was a really tense moment,” Hudson told WBT, a Charlotte-based talk radio station, Monday morning in his first interview after that night. “I can’t remember a stranger time.”
Gaetz and Boebert’s votes
The House met Jan. 3 to elect its speaker, swear in its new members and vote on new rules.
But 20 Republicans refused to vote along with their party and select McCarthy as speaker. Nothing else could happen in the House until a speaker was chosen and neither McCarthy nor Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader and the Democrats’ pick for House speaker, could secure enough votes for the top spot.
It was the first time in 100 years a House speaker wasn’t decided in the first vote.
More votes followed, culminating on Friday, Jan. 6, the two-year anniversary of the day a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the results of the election President Joe Biden had won.
On Friday night, McCarthy made his way to the House floor, believing he and his lieutenants had done enough negotiations with the holdouts to make the 14th vote his last and secure him the leadership role and a fancy office off the Capitol rotunda.
“We all had a very tense week,” Hudson said. “We’d worked through many conversations and felt like we finally reached the finish line and then we were expecting Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert to vote for Kevin McCarthy, and they both voted present, which left us a vote short, and so at that moment I think there was just a lot of emotion.”
Politico reported that Rogers’ anger stemmed from talk that Gaetz might be offered the opportunity to chair a subcommittee within a committee that Rogers was set to lead.
Hudson told WBT he tried to play the peacemaker throughout the week.
C-SPAN captured Rogers on the House floor making his way toward the row where Gaetz and Boebert sat together, with Hudson trailing behind.
The cameras were actually trained on Rep. Patrick McHenry — a Republican from Denver in Lincoln County — trying to broker peace between Gaetz and McCarthy, who were energetically speaking to one another. As McCarthy began to storm off, the camera caught Rogers reaching toward Gaetz and Hudson grabbing him by the shoulders to pull him back.
“When I saw Rep. Rogers, I could tell by his body language that he was upset, and so I just did what I could do to try and keep that from escalating into something,” Hudson told the radio station. “The real shame of it is, I sort of reached to grab him by the shoulders and as I was pulling him back, he was kind of fighting against me and my hand slipped and went up to his face, so it looks like I was trying to muzzle him.
“It looks a lot more dramatic than it really was.”
McCarthy spun around as a gasp went up in the room. McHenry, who was still looking at McCarthy, also turned to see the scuffle happening right next to him.
Shouts urging lawmakers to stay civil could be heard from Democrats in the chamber.
Hudson said Friday’s events made up one of the saddest moments of his life and that while he’s being hailed a hero, it’s not attention he wanted.
“A goal of mine was never to be trending, but apparently that’s happened,” he added.
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