Disgusted House Democrats were live-tweeting on Thursday as Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) unleashed an hours-long, filibuster-style diatribe on the House floor to delay passage of Democrats’ social spending and environment bill.
McCarthy started speaking at 8:38 p.m. and into Friday, calling the landmark $1.7 billion Build Back Better package ― which would, among other provisions, boost child care assistance, create universal pre-kindergarten, reduce seniors’ prescription drug costs and amp up efforts to curb climate change ― “the single most reckless and irresponsible spending bill in our nation’s history.”
He also brought up subjects including China, Hitler, Thanksgiving, Elon Musk, Vice President Kamala Harris’ laugh and Abraham Lincoln.
Democrats decided soon after midnight to instead vote on the package Friday morning.
“This man clearly will not stop talking but has nothing to say,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said in an Instagram livestream with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) while watching the speech with other Democrats.
McCarthy is “more upset about climate action and universal pre-K and Medicare covering hearing [aids] than he is about his own guy, [Rep. Paul] Gosar, creating a violent homicidal cartoon that he put up on the internet and refused to take down,” Raskin commented. And Republicans are “really upset because we censured him for it yesterday.”
Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) said she had “delivered a baby in less time.”
“Now step aside and let us deliver real change, like paid leave and child care, to American families,” she tweeted.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) described it as a “temper tantrum” and issued a statement with fact checks about some of his claims.
Reactions from other Democrats have been compiled below: