[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 163 (Wednesday, October 4, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S4922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        House of Representatives

  Mr. President, now, on a different note, across the way, yesterday, a 
small band of MAGA extremists plunged Congress into pandemonium. For 
the first time in American history, a Speaker of the House of 
Representatives has been removed from his position at the hands of 
radicals that he empowered from day one. What happened yesterday is a 
failure entirely of the House Republicans' own doing, a disaster in the 
making, to the great detriment of Congress and to the detriment of the 
American people.
  Speaker Boehner, Speaker Ryan, and now Speaker McCarthy have all 
learned the same hard lesson: You cannot allow the hard right to run 
the House or the country. And all three of them were chased out by the 
MAGA right. You cannot allow a small band of MAGA extremists, which 
represent just a very small percentage of the views of the country, to 
tell the overwhelming majority of Americans what to do.
  But Republicans' problems with MAGA extremism seep far deeper than 
any single leader. MAGA extremism is a poison that the House GOP has 
refused to confront for years, and until the mainstream House 
Republicans deal with this issue, the chaos will continue.
  I thought House Republicans would have finally realized the dangers 
of MAGA extremism after what happened last fall, but, year after year, 
they end up making the same mistake, and it always leads to disaster. 
By now, I hope it is obvious: MAGA extremism is not good for House 
Republican leadership. It is not good for the GOP. It is not good for 
Congress. And MAGA extremism is disastrous for the country.
  If MAGA Republicans had their way, they would take our country back 
all the way to the 19th century. They would turn the clock back 
radically on women's choice, on voting rights, on workplace 
protections, on education, on corporate greed, on the environment. They 
would disfigure our precious democracy, all for a handful of greedy, 
very wealthy people who just want to not have anything to do with the 
rest of us.
  The MAGA agenda is a dark and dangerous vision of America, one most 
people overwhelmingly reject. Even so, they are the ones running the 
show right now in the House GOP.
  We find ourselves in a dangerous situation. With about 40 days to go 
before the government shuts down, the House has ground completely to a 
halt. Until Republicans stop their infighting, the House can vote on no 
bills; no appropriations work can get done. If, God forbid, some 
national crisis were to occur that demands immediate action, the House 
would be unable--unable--to quickly respond.

  So let me say this to the next Speaker of the House, whomever that 
may be: Think carefully about what happened to your predecessors before 
trying to coddle the hard right. Each of your predecessors got burnt 
each time. I urge the next Speaker not to make the same mistake, not 
just for their own future but for the country's. Whomever the House 
elects as Speaker will not be able to ignore the realities of divided 
government, no matter what the hard right demands. The need for 
bipartisanship will not change. We will need bipartisanship to keep the 
government open. We will need it to finish the appropriations process. 
We will need it to make life better for the American people. For the 
good of the country, I urge my Republican colleagues in the House to, 
once and for all, accept that reality. If not, it is my fear--deep 
fear--that the chaos from yesterday is just the beginning.