U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), the acting speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has just kicked U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) out of a private office that she had in the U.S. Capitol building.
This, according to Fox News, was one of the first actions that McHenry took after becoming the speaker pro-tempore, following the ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
In addition to Pelosi, McHenry has also booted former Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) from the private office that he had in the Capitol building.
Here is a picture of Pelosi's office being cleared:
HAHA! Hakeem Jeffries Staffers Cleaned Out Pelosi’s Office, Hauled Away Her Belongings in Bags As Room Was Re-Keyed via @gatewaypundit https://t.co/BixK7t81w9
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) October 4, 2023
Fox reports, "Capitol hideaways are a mainstay in the Senate, but are a luxury only afforded to a select few House members."
Initially, reports suggested that McHenry's motivation for evicting Pelosi and Hoyer was revenge, revenge for the Democrats' decision to help the small group of eight House Republicans to remove McCarthy from the speakership position.
McCarthy, following his ouster, made a statement in which he suggested that, back in January, when he was struggling to become House speaker, he made a deal with Pelosi such that if a small group of Republicans ever tried to remove him the Democrats would have his back.
McCarthy said:
Interesting, it was in this room, after we had won the majority and I had become speaker, Nancy Pelosi came to me, she was speaker at the time on the way out, and I told her I was having issues with getting enough votes. And, she said, "What’s the problem?" I said, "They want this one person can rule you out." I had the power to call the vote on her, but I never would. I lost some votes because of it . . . She said, "Just give it to them. I will always back you up."
If true, then Pelosi did not hold up her end of the bargain, and this could be a sufficient motivation for revenge from McCarthy's allies, one of whom is McHenry.
But, now, House Republicans are claiming that this is wrong - that there was no seeking of vengeance against the Democrats for McCarthy's ouster.
U.S. Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), for example, has put out a statement, saying:
This was a decision by Speaker Pelosi in getting removed because that is the office for the former speaker. She's no longer the immediately preceding speaker so that was a decision she made by evicting Kevin McCarthy. That was her own decision."
Similar statements have been released by other House Republicans. There has been no statement, however, from McHenry.
We'll leave it to you, the reader, to decide what House Republicans' true motivation is in evicting Pelosi. Either way, though, the eviction was probably overdue.
