Democratic Representative Ted Lieu (CA.) mocked Republicans’ chaos by posing with a bag of popcorn before the House conducted its Speaker election on Tuesday (January 3).
Lieu’s Twitter post came just before Congress convened the Speaker vote, as questions were still circulating about whether Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA.) had the votes to obtain the gavel.
Lieu essentially compared the Speaker’s vote to entertainment in his post that quickly went viral, receiving 60,000 likes and over one million views.
Yet his post would foreshadow a memorable Speaker’s vote that broke a century-old record.
Going into the vote, Republicans only had 222 seats in the House, four more than the 218 needed to secure the Speaker’s gavel.
The slim majority and the opposition from several members of the Freedom Caucus meant McCarthy’s Speakership bid was in jeopardy.
Despite the opposition, McCarthy still had the support of most of the Republican caucus, but that wasn’t enough to help him obtain the gavel when he only managed to secure just over 200 votes in the Speaker election.
As McCarthy struggled to get the votes, more Democrats mocked Republicans.
Democratic Representative Bill Pascrell (N.J.) tweeted an “update from the House floor” describing the GOP as being in “disarray” along with an emoji of a bucket of popcorn.
Robert Garcia, incoming Democratic Representative from California, tweeted a popular meme from a webcomic series of an anthropomorphic dog saying, “this is fine” as fire engulfs the room around him.
Garcia captioned the post: “took some quick video of Kevin McCarthy from the House floor.”
About to go to the House Floor. pic.twitter.com/81QVxmbHBb
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 3, 2023
