- The latest speakership struggle took extra of a toll on Home Republicans than it appeared on the time.
- One Home Republican mentioned he obtained so stressed that he began vomiting.
- “It took plenty of prayer to get by way of it,” mentioned Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois.
Because it seems, the latest weeks-long emptiness within the speaker’s chair was extra traumatic for Home Republicans than it could have appeared on the time.
After Kevin McCarthy was ousted on October third, Republicans cycled by way of a number of totally different speaker nominees earlier than lastly touchdown on Rep. Mike Johnson 22 days later.
Republican Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois advised POLITICO that he obtained so stressed throughout that interval that he started growing bodily signs, together with complications and an upset abdomen “that sometimes led him to vomiting.”
That stress solely started to alleviate, Bost mentioned, when Rep. Mike Johnson was lastly elected speaker of the Home.
“It took plenty of prayer to get by way of it,” Bost advised POLITICO.
First elected to the Home in 2014, Bost beforehand made waves for screaming at fellow Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on the Home ground throughout the first speakership struggle in January, when Kevin McCarthy was struggling to realize the assist of a bunch of hard-right holdouts.
“This isn’t going to carry anybody,” Bost yelled at Gaetz because the Florida congressman trashed McCarthy’s speakership bid as a “self-importance challenge.”
Nevertheless it’s not simply him — a number of Home Republicans are clearly feeling the load of the previous couple of weeks.
On Tuesday, Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee accused Kevin McCarthy of elbowing him within the again, which the previous speaker later denied.
“He is twelve,” Burchett advised Enterprise Insider moments after the alleged altercation, referring to McCarthy.
And on Wednesday, when Enterprise Insider requested Republican Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina if he was glad the “speaker drama” was over, he laughed.
“Is it?” Murphy replied. “I did not know in case you had been referring to the elbows.”
