The Republicans in the House of Representatives are right now in shambles; they are in the midst of a civil war. They are fighting more with one another than they are with the Democrats, and that is even with their attempts to impeach President Biden. Since Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (Republican) took the position after the midterms, there has been non-stop fighting between House Republicans. Republicans won a majority in the House by a much smaller margin than expected. The Republicans only have a five-seat majority, meaning it is easy for the fringe to control the whole party. We saw this during the Speaker elections, when it took 15 times till the House finally elected McCarthy as the Speaker. The fringe group led by Rep Matt Gaetz (Republican), and to derail votes, all that is needed is five Republicans to vote no with the Democrats, and nothing gets passed. 

Now, let’s jump to more recently, when tensions in the Republican party have risen once again. Gaetz was threatening that if McCarthy did not start to work more with the far right, then Gaetz would attempt to vote McCarthy out as Speaker. So, to try to throw the far right a bone, McCarthy, on September 12, 2023, announced an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The impeachment inquiry tries to prove President Biden has profited from the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden. This angered many of the House GOP’s more moderate and even establishment members. Many Republicans in the House do not want an extensive impeachment inquiry into Biden with very flimsy evidence, and right now, that is precisely what is happening. Republicans in swing districts fear this will significantly hurt their re-election chances. 

After McCarthy started the impeachment inquiry, he hoped that Gaetz and his allies would back off and stop causing problems. That is not what is happening. Since the inquiry started, Gaetz and his allies have threatened to impeach McCarthy; they have sunk a bill to fund the Pentagon twice and are refusing to vote on the continuing resolution (CR) meaning they are extending the deadline to finalize the budget. So, Republicans cannot agree on the thing that extends the deadline, which is rare. The current CR on the floor has some minor spending cuts but nothing significant. The Democrats do not want a CR with spending cuts, so they have voted against every CR. Gaetz and his allies have seen this as an opportunity to get even more spending cuts into the CR. 

So, the CR has been unable to pass, and some more moderate Republicans are getting annoyed at Gaetz for blocking the CR. Two Republicans in particular are willing to work with Democrats on the CR–e Marc Molinaro and Mike Lawler– and they are both newly elected from New York. They fear that if the government gets shut down, the public will entirely blame Republicans, so they want to keep that from happening. Lawler and Molinaro are willing to sign a discharge petition with Democrats, which, if a majority of the House signs it, would be five Republicans and every Democrat. Then, the vote would go straight to the house floor without the Speaker’s permission, completely bypassing McCarthy and infuriating Gaetz and his allies. Through all this, Democrats have just been sitting back, letting all the fireworks unfold, and watching the show.