GOP Shows It Can Work With Trump
Just 10 months ago, GOP leadership was so afraid of their members voting on the Confederate flag that they shut down the appropriations process. Now, the leadership permitted the vote and 1/3 of the GOP joined the Democrats voting for removal of the damned flag.
The GOP leadership not only allowed the amendment, they voted for it. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) all voted for the Huffman amendment. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), as speaker, typically does not vote, though he recently expressed his support for removing Confederate flag images from the Capitol.
Ryan pointed to less of a philosophical change on the flag and more of a need for the House to get through the issue. What’s changed, he said, is the understanding that the House has to get through these types of amendments if it is to have an open legislative process that allows anyone to offer an amendment.
“People are going to have to take tough votes,” Ryan said, adding that Republicans realized that “the last thing we should do is derail our own appropriations process.”
After the vote, Huffman expressed disappointment support for the amendment was not broader.
“While I appreciate that today’s vote represents progress, it is shameful that two thirds of the House Republican Caucus voted against this commonsense measure,” he said in a statement. “Symbols like the Confederate battle flag have meaning. They are not just neutral historical symbols of pride, they represent slavery, war, lynchings, and tragedy. To continue to allow national policy condoning the display of the Confederate battle flag on federal property would be wrong and disrespectful to our past.”