Gaetz was "schooled by AOC," according to a GOP lawmaker, when he deposed McCarthy, adding, "I can't believe he's that stupid."

On Wednesday, a day after the chamber voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker, a Republican lawmaker from Louisiana vehemently attacked Rep. Matt Gaetz.

According to The Hill, Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves told reporters that he thought Gaetz was "totally manipulated" into submitting a "motion to vacate" on Monday, requiring the House to take a vote to oust McCarthy from the top leadership post in the chamber.

"Matt Gaetz just got schooled by AOC and others," remarked Graves. He was completely duped into acting in this way. To remove the Republican Speaker, 208 Democrats and eight so-called Republicans banded together.

The decision to step down as speaker was made by just eight Republican lawmakers, including Gaetz, as Graves pointed out. Meanwhile, it

The harsh remarks Graves made about Gaetz to reporters on Wednesday were not his first in recent days. Also referred to as a "clown," he added the Florida lawmaker "would be a great dictator on a small island nation or something."

The Louisiana congressman's ire over McCarthy's removal has spread beyond simply Gaetz and is now affecting the whole GOP caucus.

Angryly criticizing his fellow Republicans for raising money off the speakership drama during Tuesday's vote, Graves said, "All of a sudden my phone started sending text messages, text messages saying, 'Hey, give me money... Oh look, here's some cash; I used official actions to file the application to vacate.

Official efforts to gather money, according to Graves, are revolting.

The House will not meet again until next week when they'll reconvene to deliberate and vote on a new speaker. And while some members of Congress have voiced their displeasure with the decision, Graves insisted it may be for the health and safety of the legislative body.

"If we had stayed together in the meeting last night, I think that you would have seen fists thrown," he said.

After Kevin McCarthy was fired from his position as the top Republican in Congress on Tuesday, political analyst Lee Drutman posted one of the funniest social media jokes in recent memory: "GOP learns the hard way: Turning the base up too high blows out your Speaker."

Now what? The Post Opinions columnists Perry Bacon, Jim Geraghty, and Dana Milbank got together for an impromptu discussion about what should happen next for the House of Representatives, who might be the next speaker, and if Democrats should be held accountable for fixing the situation.

Patrick Bacon Was Kevin McCarthy specifically unsuited for this position, or are House Republicans inherently difficult to control? John Boehner was made to resign. Paul Ryan had difficulty speaking. In January, McCarthy narrowly prevailed.

Dana Milbank: I don't believe McCarthy will ever be regarded as a Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Nancy Pelosi, or even John Boehner. Having said that, I overheard Don Bacon, a pretty moderate Republican, say, "I don't think anybody could have done it better," as a few people left the caucus meeting last night.

If there is a way out of this issue, it seems to me that it would include trying to reach some kind of bipartisan consensus—not power sharing, but at least some kind of modifications that would really give Democrats a voice.

Otherwise, we're looking at Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise, who are on Kevin McCarthy's right, and who will be attempting to put together 218 votes in a caucus of 222 Republicans using the same strategy. And that seems like a fool's errand to me.

Unless you have someone who is truly going to be able to bring in enough Democrats to protect against the motion to vacate, it won't matter who is in that position.

Mr. Jim Geraghty If you pay attention to McCarthy's detractors in the House, many of their grievances directly relate to the current situation Republicans find themselves in. "Yeah, well, I think he got a really bad deal." Okay. You don't have a lot of influence. You control a slender majority in the House. The Senate is under Democratic control. Joe Biden is the current president. One-third of the nation's spending is tightly within your control. You won't be able to obtain most of what you desire. It is likely to

Many individuals, including Matt Gaetz, assert that if they were in control, they would tell Schumer and Biden what they were doing. They would be pleading for forgiveness, and they would grant me my requests along with a pony, don't you know?

It's the easiest political position to fill.