(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) expressed his concern that the GOP is “stuck in the mud” and suffering from “paralysis” shortly after he criticized party leadership for “stalling” during a testy conference meeting on Wednesday.
According to CNN’s Annie Grayer, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) preached “patience” during Wednesday morning’s meeting, but his message “didn’t sit well with everyone, as fractures develop & tempers start to rise.”
“Byron Donalds stood up and called on his party’s leadership to stop stalling,” wrote Grayer.
After the meeting, Donalds spoke to reporters about the message he hoped to convey to Johnson and the rest of his conference.
“I think we’re stuck in the mud,” said Donalds before submitting that they were suffering from “paralysis of analysis.”
Per The Wall Street Journal‘s Olivia Beavers, Donalds added that “I think at this point we need to just make a clear decision.”
Donalds, close ally of President Donald Trump and member of the House Freedom Caucus, is among those lobbying to pass the bulk of Trump’s agenda through Congress in the form of two separate, rather than one big bill.
Johnson talked about the two approaches during an appearance on Fox News last month:
Yeah, he[Trump] and I have talked about this quite a bit, as you might imagine, over the last few months, determining the pros and cons of the two different strategies. I respect Lindsey Graham and all my friends who kind of preferred a two-step strategy. The idea would be get something done on the border and maybe defense spending right out of the blocks or very quickly and what we would call a skinny reconciliation bill and then do the rest of it in a larger chunk later. But I think at the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill. And there’s a lot of merit to that because we can put it all together – one big up or down vote – which can save the country quite literally because there are so many elements to it. And it’ll give us a little bit more time to negotiate that and get it right.
At the time, Johnson identified border security, the budget, energy, the economy, and taxes as some of the issues he expected his bill to address.
The post Byron Donalds Criticizes House Speaker Over Legislative ‘Paralysis’ After Testy Meeting: GOP Is ‘Stuck in the Mud’ first appeared on Mediaite.