GOP lawmakers reject critics, say there were 'positives' in chaotic House Speaker vote: 'We accomplished an enormous amount'

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There was a time when Rep. Mike Rogers had to be held back from charging at Gaetz.

A small conflict is necessary in this town according to the Texas Republican.

When we saw some of the interactions between Mike Rogers and Matt Gaetz, we need a bit of that. Roy told Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" that they needed to break the glass in order to get to the table and fight for the American people.

—The Recount (@therecount) January 8, 2023

The process was healthy from the standpoint of getting all of these issues resolved now, according to Kentucky Republican Rep. Andy Barr.

The American people are frustrated with the delay in electing a speaker. The framers of the Constitution expected us to debate the operations of the House and the House rules, that's what a healthy democracy actually requires.

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A majority of Republicans were frustrated by the holdouts in the caucus who didn't seem to know what they wanted to negotiate for.

The 200 were upset because they felt they had already agreed to it. This had been going on for a long time. Crenshaw told Tapper on Sunday that they had this stuff. Kevin McCarthy asked one of the leaders of the group what else they wanted during a conference with everyone there. Let's get this done. The turning point for a lot of people was when they couldn't say what else they wanted.

It's not as if we were fighting over something, that's what created all of that animosity. We were not trying to prevent them from getting what they wanted. We don't know what they want.

—CNN (@CNN) January 8, 2023

When Gaetz caved after over a dozen rounds of voting and marked himself as present instead of backing a different conservative, he allowed McCarthy to win. Gaetz said he ran out of things to ask for when he changed his strategy.

Everyone thinks about how that rules package went by and what changes need to be made. I don't agree that it could have been done earlier. The animosity that happened all week was justified by that. It didn't seem like it was worth anything.

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Dan Bishop said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the party wasn't getting enough credit for its success.

"My view is we've had an opportunity to take a hard look at each other in the Republican conference over the course of this past week." People in the media said it was chaotic. We accomplished an enormous amount when we decided the most important questions about how this Congress will proceed.

The North Carolina Republican believes that the country will see a productive congress.

Bishop thinks Kevin McCarthy is a great leader. I am confident that we're going to accomplish a lot for the American people under his leadership.

—Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 8, 2023

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The opposition effort still revealed a few positives according to a statement from Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona.

It was the first time in a long time that we deliberated as a body. We need to keep doing that.

The vote for House Speakership was mirrored by Rep. Tony Gonzalez.

On CBS's "Face the Nation," Gonzales said that the House of Representatives is rowdy. There is more to come. Republicans are not the same as Democrats. We are not just going to jump off the cliff.

The members of the opposition party weren't sure. Colin Allred told CNN not to be fooled by what Republicans said after the speaker election.

Don't be deceived by what they said. This was not what they wanted. They had two months to negotiate. It's a preview of what we're going to see throughout this congress, which is their inability to govern.