(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) The recent standoff between Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and roughly 20 GOP lawmakers led by prominent members of the House Freedom Caucus has made some strange bedfellows indeed.
As traditional Freedom Caucus allies like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., excoriated their fellow conservatives for breaking rank with the GOP’s consensus nominee, the unusual exercise in congressional sausage-making found holdouts like Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., making new friends in the unlikeliest of places.
Both were seen conferencing with far-left Squad leader Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y., fueling considerable speculation on Twitter.
What happened here? Can anyone read lips? pic.twitter.com/r7PR3Srcyg
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) January 3, 2023
She’ll claim they are trying to date her, and this one time I hope it’s true.
Because making plans with Democrats is not what any Republican should be doing. https://t.co/iP84mVOHm0— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 3, 2023
In photographs of the encounters, Ocasio–Cortez appeared to be flirting with the two fellow lawmakers and even glancing in the direction of Gosar’s groin area.
The 33-year-old ex-bartender has been known to lustily leverage her feminine wiles at every opportunity.
Among the past victims of her devious thirst trap are billionaire Elon Musk and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
🤷🏽♀️ like I said, ego problems https://t.co/IpyCkMadP8
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 30, 2022
It’s true ☺️ Love ya tío @BernieSanders, thank you for your friendship even though you may not see this and don’t have apps on your phone 🧓🏻👩🏽 https://t.co/P7eE25ctKH
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 21, 2021
AOC’s fixation with the male gaze has targeted Republican lawmakers in particular.
She has broadly accused her cross-the-aisle colleagues of “projecting their sexual frustrations” and being “creepy weirdos,” despite having no publicly known evidence to substantiate those claims.
If Republicans are mad they can’t date me they can just say that instead of projecting their sexual frustrations onto my boyfriend’s feet.
Ya creepy weirdos https://t.co/Z7bZCgXpWJ
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 31, 2021
But on Tuesday, it was she who appeared to be caught leering creepily at Gosar.
First Gaetz and Good, now Gosar.
They never talk to her. https://t.co/vDDOEs4UdT— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 3, 2023
The episode was made all the more bizarre considering the pair’s history. After tweeting a meme in November 2021 that depicted an anime cartoon character being decapitated with Ocasio–Cortez’s head edited into it, Gosar ultimately became the second GOP congressman (after Greene) to lose his committee assignments in an unprecedented display of partisanship by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
AOC was not shy about laying on a performative display of victimization, insinuating that Gosar was a neo-Nazi.
So while I was en route to Glasgow, a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me
And he’ll face no consequences bc @GOPLeader cheers him on with excuses.
Fun Monday! Well, back to work bc institutions don’t protect woc https://t.co/XRnMAKsnNO
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 9, 2021
But that did not stop the two from engaging in what appeared to be a civil discourse that may even have seemed a bit too friendly.
Some, including conservative pundit Charlie Kirk, had fun encouraging Twitter users to caption the photo.
Caption this. pic.twitter.com/HVBY1Fyax0
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 3, 2023
Even Gosar himself got in on the fun, captioning with a Vaudevillian quip about the combustion engine that appeared to evoke an old Simpsons joke.
So then I says "The combustion engine was actually a miracle of engineering that people take for granted today…" pic.twitter.com/oloHkBjlGo
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) January 3, 2023
He later clarified that the two were discussing their mutual concerns about the House speaker flexing too much authority.
We actually talked about the problem of the prior speakerships having too much authority and thus minimizing each member's potential contribution to the House debate. https://t.co/mOeoTCTDVW
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) January 3, 2023
Ocasio–Cortez told The Intercept that her conversation with Gaetz concerned the matter of whether McCarthy might persuade Democrats to vote “present” and thereby lower the threshold needed to secure the speakership without near-unanimous GOP support.
“McCarthy was suggesting he could get Dems to walk away to lower his threshold,” she said. “And I fact checked and said absolutely not.”
Other Democrats likewise confirmed that the idea of McCarthy getting their support to break the impasse was unrealistic.
That has left many to wonder who will be the first to flinch, with the House reconvening at noon Wednesday after three failed rounds of voting in the prior session.
Considerable support online has tilted in the direction of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the presumptive incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee, who has himself voiced strong support for McCarthy.
Despite Jordan’s reluctance, non-scientific Twitter polls appeared to show him with a large margin over McCarthy and other possible contenders—including former President Donald Trump.
Who do you think should be nominated as House Speaker?
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) January 3, 2023
Trump, incidentally, backpedaled after appearing earlier to hedge on his endorsement of McCarthy, issuing his full-throated support via Truth Social.
Democrats, meanwhile, have made hay of the situation, using it to suggest that their monolithic groupthink is more democratic than the spirited debate within the GOP caucus.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., even took a break from his cancer-recovery to fire off a series of highly partisan snipes.
This once-in-a-century humiliation of a party’s nominee for Speaker is chickens coming home to roost for McCarthy, who whitewashed right-wing insurrectionism on the House floor. Nobody’s getting killed now, but the House GOP now sleeps in the bed they made with Trump and Bannon.
— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) January 3, 2023
While some contrasted the situation with Pelosi’s stranglehold on power, she, too, was forced to negotiate and make concessions to secure her place as third in line to the presidency.
Among the greatest thorns in her side was the newly-elected Ocasio–Cortez, who even accused Pelosi of racism for her hardball tactics.
It remains to be seen whether McCarthy is able to broker any sort of a grand bargain, or if Jordan’s support for him is mere posturing while the ex-minority leader draws all the heat, thereby assuring his own inevitable ascension with unanimous support from partymembers.
As for gaining AOC’s support, it seems only one GOP member may hold the key. And Maude Gosar may have a thing or two to say about that.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
