McHenry calls last three weeks ‘dumbest set of politics’ ever by a majority party

Rep. Patrick McHenry looked frustrated when he slammed down the gavel in the House after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was booted three weeks ago.

When asked Thursday afternoon how he felt in that moment, Mr. McHenry said “pure anger.”

That thunder crack of Mr. McCarthy’s gavel cemented Mr. McHenry, North Carolina Republican, as temporary speaker. It also launched a circus-like three-week paralysis of the lower chamber while lawmakers butted heads over who should replace Mr. McCarthy, California Republican.

Mr. McHenry said little to reporters during that time span, often charging past with a circling detail of law enforcement acting as a shield against questions.

Now, with Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana officially installed to the position and Mr. McHenry no longer speaker pro tempore, he opened up about what it was like temporarily wielding the gavel and how he defined the role.

“The facts and circumstances of the last month will be viewed in history as well outside the normal bounds of this institution,” Mr. McHenry told reporters at the Capitol.

“That’s a nice way to say it, or perhaps the dumbest set of politics or decision-making a majority party in this institution could make,” he said.

The longtime lawmaker said that he first learned he would be placed on the list to be a temporary speaker two weeks before Mr. McCarthy was ousted.

He did not try to argue against being tapped to fill in as speaker, largely because he did not think Mr. McCarthy would be removed from the position. He began doing research on the parameters of the job when he learned he was on the list — research that intensified when Mr. McCarthy’s ouster moved from fiery talking points from Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to reality.

The role of speaker pro tempore was conceived of as a way to continue the function of government after a mass casualty event, he said. The rule for a temporary speaker was officially created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“It was not conceived of that a majority party in the Congress would commit political suicide on the floor and then not be able to put things back together,” Mr. McHenry said.

Mr. McHenry argued that his role as temporary speaker was only to facilitate electing a new speaker and that his goal was to protect the chamber.

Some lawmakers were eager to empower him to move legislation or to elect him as a temporary speaker as the effort to pick a new speaker routinely bogged down. Before finding a moment of unity behind Mr. Johnson, House Republicans went through three different candidates, none of whom, for various reasons, could find 217 votes to secure the gavel.

But Mr. McHenry did not want to be empowered without a formal bill granting him authority being brought to the floor, and even then he did not want to go beyond being a facilitator and protector of the institution.

“I think we’re in a bigger moment in our politics where our institutions have been undermined in significant ways, and I don’t want to participate in any further undermining of our institutional order [or] constitutional framework,” Mr. McHenry said.