McCarthy holdout calls restriction-free C-SPAN cameras during Speaker vote a ‘good thing’

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Sunday said the C-SPAN cameras that televised the drawn-out election for Speaker of the House were a “good thing for our democracy.”

“What the American people were able to see unfold on the floor was a good thing for our democracy and our republic, right? It was a good thing for people to be able to see the inner workings,” Roy told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The public service network, which broadcasts congressional proceedings, is typically restricted in what shots it can film on government-controlled cameras by the majority party in the chamber.

But without a Speaker in place as the votes dragged on, the swearing-in of members and the adoption of a rules package were delayed, leaving C-SPAN with full freedom to focus its shots at the direction of its camera operators.

The footage caught lawmakers in conversation with their colleagues across the aisle, highlighting more of the inner workings of the intense debates than the cameras are usually allowed to capture — which prompted many to argue that C-SPAN should stay in control of the cameras throughout the legislative session.

Roy was one of around 20 Republicans who stymied Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from securing the votes he needed in order to take the top leadership slot, stretching out the election into multiple rounds of voting for the first time in a century and making for highly watched C-SPAN broadcasts.

“We need to be able to see some of the stuff we got to see this week … I think drawing the American people into the conversation, into the debate on the floor, I mean, if you’re gonna have cameras there, let’s look at the action,” Roy said.

The Texas lawmaker said he’d have to look more closely at the “ins and outs” of letting C-SPAN have permanent control of the cameras, but underscored his support for the increased transparency.

“And this isn’t just a shirts-and-skins, red-and-blue, you know, two-team thing. This is history, because this hasn’t happened in the last 100 years … Two party entrenchment has made it to where we don’t have a good back and forth to sit at the table,” Roy said.

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