Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) isn’t the only senior Democrat to lose a hideaway office in the United States Capitol.
After House Democrats joined eight Republicans to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as speaker of the House, Republicans evicted Pelosi from her hideaway office in the Capitol. It was one of the first decisions of House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R).
Republican leadership followed up that move by also evicting Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) from his hideaway office in the Capitol.
“Republicans,” according to veteran Capitol Hill reporter Jake Sherman, “are taking revenge” on Democrats for voting to oust McCarthy.
“Expect more of this, GOP sources tell us,” Sherman reported.
“[W]hether you think it’s right or wrong, Republicans are going to exact revenge for a long while over the [motion to vacate] vote. [Y]es, it was an internal party squabble. [B]ut the GOP thinks Dems shouldn’t have sided [with] Gaetz,” Sherman explained. “[R]emember: the majority controls the Capitol. Rooms, codels, etc.”
Hoyer’s office confirmed that House Republican leadership asked him to vacate his hideaway office.
Lawmakers not in leadership typically do not have offices in the Capitol. However, Pelosi and Hoyer were allowed to keep one after Democrats lost the House majority in the 2022 midterm elections.
The Washington Post explained:
Both Pelosi and Hoyer still have offices across the street from the Capitol, in one of the complex’s attached buildings. But because of their time serving in House leadership — the two octogenarians led the Democratic Party in the House for two decades — they had been assigned offices in the main Capitol building.
Meanwhile, Republicans are allegedly threatening to abandon the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers designed to cultivate bipartisan cooperation.
Republicans on the PSC are angry that Democrats sided with “Gaetz and a single digit number of chaos agents in the Republican Conference,” said a letter GOP members of the caucus drafted, Axios reported.
“It is unfortunate, for America and the institution of Congress, that Democrats in PSC chose not to risk the smallest amount of political capital or show the minimal courage necessary to merely vote against the Motion to Vacate. Instead, they voted for the chaos and now hope to benefit politically from it,” the letter added.
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