The hard feelings could have turned to violence one Republican House member says….
Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) said on Wednesday that he thinks the House GOP conference would have devolved into a physical fight had lawmakers stayed in town after the Tuesday night vote to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) from his post.
“I’ll be really candid. I think if we had stayed together in the meeting last night, I think that you would have seen fists thrown,” Graves said in an interview on CNN’s “The Lead.” “And I’m not being dramatic when I say that.”
Graves, a key McCarthy ally, defended the decision of the acting Speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), to send lawmakers home until next week.
“There is a lot of raw emotions right now. I think it was best to let folks go back home, decompress a little bit and then come back together,” he said Wednesday.
Graves’s remarks come after McHenry’s decision has faced criticism from some who say the House should have stayed in session to elect a speaker. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who spearheaded the effort to oust McCarthy, sharply criticized the decision in an interview Tuesday night. ….