Led by Michael Waltz, House Republican veterans urge 20 holdouts to reconsider McCarthy

After a second consecutive day of three-and-outs for House Speaker-hopeful Kevin McCarthy, a group of military veteran GOP members huddled and urged persistence in a news conference Wednesday.

The U.S. House of Representatives was stymied by an inability of Republicans to rally around McCarthy, their chosen speaker, a scenario that hasn't played out since just after World War I. After six votes, McCarthy failed to earn his speakership.

Twenty GOP holdouts, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, gummed up the works by voting for another Florida representative, Byron Donalds.

It left veterans like Rep. Michael Waltz and Cory Mills, whose districts include Flagler and Volusia counties, frustrated they haven't been able to so much as be sworn into office.

"This is unacceptable, Waltz said. "Some points have been made, concessions have been made. And now is the time to move on, to move forward and to govern the way the American people elected us to do."

Waltz said the holdouts by Gaetz and others are stopping Republicans' agenda, stopping Democrats from actions "which we believe is destructive for this country," such as holding the Biden administration accountable for the "worst withdrawal since Saigon in Afghanistan," fentanyl coming across the U.S.-Mexico border and causing deaths and "crime out of control."

Waltz said McCarthy is responsible for that vision which, he said helped many Republicans get into office, including some that were voting against him.

Rep.-elect Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisconsin, noted there was 291 years of collective military service among the group on stage.

"I want to be clear with everybody: We will compromise. We will compromise. But we will not capitulate. And there’s a very serious difference," he said. "There’s 222 Republicans in our conference now. So if 20 people are able to drive this train however they want to, 202 of us might as well go home."

The members said the delay in selecting a speaker has caused the to be unable to have meetings with military leaders, access to intelligence and conduct the responsibility of overseeing government operations.

Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Mississippi, is a retired Army general who said he's seen combat and led troops into battle.

"When you have troops that question decisions of leaders without good basis for doing so, you either have to articulate that basis or get out of the way," he said. "... You have 20 people demanding that 201 surrender to them unconditionally. Well, I will not surrender unconditionally. If you have conditions, give ‘em to us. We’ll consider them."

Mills, who's yet to be sworn in because of the delay, noted among all the numbers being cited, only one concerned him.

"We have 13 Gold Star families who, because of the failed Afghanistan withdrawal, still don’t have the closure they deserve," Mills said. "... If anything we should be getting ready to hold oversight and bring those who were responsible for this, responsible for the thousands who were left behind, responsible for all the Americans who have died from the fentanyl overdoses."

Waltz said U.S. adversaries including North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and China are pointing to the "messiness of democracy" and contrasting that to the efficiency of authoritarian regimes. He read from an article in Chinese state media: "What happened in the highest hall of the U.S. democracy is not a simple farce, but a political thriller with huge destructiveness and a wide-ranging and far-reaching impact. Faced with the political chaos in the U.S. there is a sharp question whether the political class of the country is able to govern and whether the internal conflicts and contradictions of one of the major political parties contaminate the entire system.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Congressmen Waltz, Mills join GOP veterans in urging McCarthy support