Two Small Letters Seen on MTG's Phone Shows Who She Was Talking to During Speaker Vote - It's Huge
Ahead of voting in the 14th ballot on Friday night, House Republicans were cautiously optimistic they might be able to carry GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy over the finish line. As it turned out, it was the 15th round that pushed him over the top to become the speaker of the House for the 118th Congress.
The 14th ballot ended with 216 rep.-elects voting for McCarthy, 212 for Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, two votes each for Republicans Andy Biggs of Arizona and Jim Jordan of Ohio, and two votes of “present” from GOP dissidents Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lauren Bobert of Colorado.
The two present votes lowered the number required to win the speakership to 217 leaving McCarthy just one vote shy of victory.
Needless to say, members exerted tremendous pressure on Gaetz and Bobert to throw their support behind McCarthy and on the four Republicans who had voted for Biggs and Jordan, which included Rep.-elect Matt Rosendale of Montana, to switch their votes to present, which would lower the threshold for victory.
Prior to the close of voting in the 14th round, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was speaking to former President Donald Trump on her phone in the House Chamber.
Trump had apparently asked to speak to Rosendale to persuade him to change his vote.
When Greene approached him with her phone clearly showing the caller was “DT,” Rosendale raised his hand to indicate he would not take the call.
It was the perfect phone call. pic.twitter.com/aRpf5pefoU
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 7, 2023
Greene tweeted a photograph of her interaction with Rosendale with the caption, “It was the perfect phone call.”
This was a reference to Trump’s description of his July 2019 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky which triggered his first impeachment.
According to Punchbowl News editor Heather Caygle, this exchange occurred at the same time as Alabama Rep.-elect Mike Rogers confronted Gaetz.
Caygle tweeted, “MTG was telling Rosendale she has Trump on her phone and he needed to talk to the former president right then[.] Rosendale shouted repeatedly, ‘don’t you ever do me like that!'”
Members tell me MTG and Matt Rosendale we’re getting in heated exchange at same time as Rogers/Gaetz
MTG was telling Rosendale she has Trump on her phone and he needed to talk to the former president right then
Rosendale shouted repeatedly, “don’t you ever do me like that!”
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) January 7, 2023
She did not name the members she had spoken to.
It’s worth noting that despite Rosendale’s refusal to speak to Trump, he switched his vote from Biggs to present on the final ballot.
Moreover, The New York Times reported that Trump had called both Gaetz and Biggs after the 14th ballot.
Following those calls, Gaetz reversed his vote to adjourn the session until Monday morning. And Biggs changed his vote to present in the 15th ballot as did the three others who had voted for Biggs or Jordan in the previous round.
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