'The last three weeks have been horrible,' Steube weighs in on acrimony among House GOP

VENICE – Congressman Greg Steube kept his composure Friday while recounting the events of Jan. 18, when a branch he was trimming knocked a 25-foot-tall ladder out from underneath him, but quickly teared up while discussing the dysfunction he experienced in Congress leading up to the vote that made Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson the latest U.S. House speaker.

Prior to Steube’s emotional reaction at the South County Tiger Bay program, moderator Laura Benson asked him: “On a scale of one to 10, how relieved are you that your house moved forward?"

“Ten – the last three weeks have been horrible,” Steube responded, before pausing to tear up.

“I’ve never seen that much acrimony amongst your own team and it's going to take a while to rebuild the trust that was lost amongst the members – which is why I think Mike is such a great person for the position

“I can’t think of anybody else in our conference that could bring the conservatives and the moderates together,” Steube said. “He has a deep faith in our lord which I think – I know – will guide him."

Steube said the weeks since U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz called for a vote on the resolution to remove McCarthy have been tough on him, with people from Sarasota contacting him to weigh in on the dysfunction and supporters of Gaetz criticizing him for not aligning with Gaetz and other hard-line conservatives, who he referred to as “The crazy eight.”

Steube said that while he didn’t agree with everything McCarthy had done, he respected the fact that the U.S. is a democratic republic, “where the majority is supposed to rule.

“We all were elected by our district and you had 96% percent of the conference who voted for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker and you had 4% of the conference who decided for personal animus to get rid of him,” he continued. “It has just broken the relationships in the conference.”

‘A large series of blessings’

Steube started the Tiger Bay program by recalling the events of Jan. 18 as told to him by Darrel Woodie – the man who likely saved his life.

Steube still has no recollection of the accident or even being in that portion of his five-acre property.

Woodie, an Amazon driver and part-time field representative for U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan saw Steube fall and called 911.

Steube calls the fact that Woodie even saw him coupled with the fact that he understood the hierarchy in a Congressional office and could loop his staff in on the event all part of “just a large series of blessings that day.”

When Steube later thanked the paramedic for his response, he learned of another blessing – that the chainsaw that he used to trim the branches did not do additional damage.

“The paramedic said, ‘When we got there you were laying face down and the chainsaw was right next to your head and I had to move the chainsaw to put the C-collar on you,'” Steube recalled.

A broken pelvis should have kept Steube bedridden for three months prior to rehab but he was able to start putting weight on his leg after six weeks and four months later pitched in the Congressional softball game and almost hit another home run.

Border security concerns

The lion’s share of Steube’s Tiger Bay talk involved criticism of the Biden administration for a lack of border security, as well as the war in Ukraine and the recent attack on Israel.

He highlighted statistics from Oct. 1, 2021 and Oct. 4, 2023 that he said showed almost 8 million illegal aliens had entered the United States through the southern border with Mexico – which he said equated to roughly four times the population of Nebraska.

Later, Charlotte County resident Danny Nix, who is also a Republican candidate to succeed State Rep. Mike Grant in District 75, asked whether the party will be able to retain control of the House of Representatives in the aftermath of McCarthy’s removal and the failed votes prior to Johnson’s election.

“If the election was held this November, we would lose the house overwhelmingly,” Steube said, then went on to detail 35 districts with vulnerable Republicans. He also noted that much of that could be forgotten by 2024.

He went on to talk about the importance of the House controlling the budget and the possibility of another government shutdown to force a change in the current border policy, but added that the entire House may not follow suit.

“Let Joe Biden and (U.S. Sen.) Chuck Schumer be the ones that shut down the government because we Republicans want to shut down our border and protect our country,” Steube said. “I think we win on that but we have probably 50 people in my conference who don’t agree with me, so I won’t win that vote on the floor.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Rep. Steube airs thoughts on new House speaker and border security