Former Ambassador Nikki Haley sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, and the host, after summarizing congressional Republican chaos, noted one GOP lawmaker who conceded that the recent developments on Capitol Hill makes Republicans “look like a bunch of idiots.” Tapper asked the Republican presidential hopeful whether the assessment was right.
“Well, I will tell you what’s right is, under the Biden administration, we have seen chaos within...” Haley started to respond, before the host interjected, “You can’t blame this on Biden.”
The South Carolinian responded, “Well, you have to let me finish. ... What I am saying is, you can’t fix Democrat [sic] chaos with Republican chaos. They need to get it together. They need to get in a room and figure out who this is going to be and come out unified. That’s what Republicans need to do. This is not a good look. This is not good for our country.”
Oddly enough, a day later, Republican Rep. Keith Self of Texas went considerably further down the path Haley ended up avoiding. The Hill reported:
CNN anchor Boris Sanchez fired back at Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) in a Monday interview after the House Republican suggested President Biden was to blame for the chaos in the House around electing a new Speaker.
In context, Sanchez asked the congressman about how international audiences might perceive the breakdown among congressional Republicans. Self replied, "Well, the chaos today is because of the weakness in the Biden administration."
Apparently eager to change the subject, the Texan then started talking about the U.S./Mexico border, which led the host to explain, “Congressman, respectfully, the reason the House doesn’t have a speaker is not because of Joe Biden. It’s because of members of your party. That’s why the House doesn’t have a speaker.”
When Republicans initially tried blaming House Democrats for Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ouster two weeks ago, the rhetorical strategy was wrong, but it was at least coherent: Democrats actually voted against the then-speaker. Their votes made sense for a variety of reasons, and it was foolish to argue that the House minority party was responsible for the melodrama the GOP created, but I could at least understand why Republicans tried to pass the buck.
But this new tack is significantly worse, in part because there’s nothing “weak” about the Biden administration, and in part because the Democratic president has nothing to do with how the House Republican conference conducts its business.
GOP desperation is understandable, but blaming Biden is not.