GOP Congressman Said 2022 Election Strategy is to Sow Chaos
The Claim
A GOP Congressman said that the Republican strategy leading into the 2022 midterms is to sow chaos.
News posted on
Emerging story
A video leaked from Democratic strategist Lauren Windsor shows Rep. Chip Roy talking about the GOP strategy over the next 18 months. In the video, Roy says, "18 more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done." At the end of the video, former senator Rick Santorum can be heard off-camera saying, "I agree."
The video soon went viral.
Misbar’s Analysis
After looking into the video and the conversation around it, Misbar found that the video is real, as reported first by Business Insider – but that there is nuance to Roy's comments.
While people across social media pointed to this as a long-time Republican strategy for any bill passing through the House and Senate, Roy specifically referenced the bipartisan deal on infrastructure, saying, "[Y]ou're seeing it happen right now on transportation and infrastructure, right? Pelosi is just tacking hard to the left, to AOC and company. You saw it unfold with this Pelosi, Schumer, Biden thing on infrastructure."
He continued, "I mean honestly right now, for the next 18 months, our job is to get in there and slow all that down to get to December of 2022, then get in here and lead."
After some questioning by an audience member about the possibility of reaching a bipartisan deal on infrastructure, Roy said, "I don't vote for anything in the House of Representatives right now."
Ezra Levin, the co-director of Indivisible, posted on Twitter that, "Republican Rep. Chip Roy got caught saying it out loud, but to be clear this has been McConnell's plan all along."
For his part, Sen. Mitch McConnell indirectly confirmed what Roy said out loud at an event held in Kentucky, saying, "The era of bipartisanship on this stuff is over. ... This is not going to be done on a bipartisan basis. This is going to be a hell of a fight over what this country ought to look like in the future and it's going to unfold here in the next few weeks."
Since the video went viral, Rep. Roy has made the news on other occasions. On July 28, Roy walked on to the floor of the House without a mask in an attempted protest on mask mandates. He requested they adjourn for the day, but his request was voted down 225-197, with seven Republicans joining Democrats.
On July 29, however, the Senate voted to move the bipartisan infrastructure bill forward, "clearing a key procedural hurdle on a bill that includes $550 billion in new spending for infrastructure projects around the country." Seventeen Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in advancing the bill.
