CNN Host Asks Republican If Her Party Is Still a Mess Today: ‘Any New Reports of Member-on-Member Violence?’

CNN anchor John Berman opened a segment on Wednesday morning with the bipartisan stopgap spending bill that the House of Representatives passed, but he was more interested in the near-violence that took place at the People’s House. Or rather, he wanted to know if there had been any more of it.

Berman welcomed Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) as his guest and flat-out asked her: “Have you heard any new reports of member-on-member violence yet today?”

Her answer didn’t go into too many specifics, but she acknowledged, “I wish we would spend as much energy at governing how we do with fighting,” and called the three confrontations at the Capitol “a waste of energy where we have real problems to deal with,” adding:

[Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)] had the opportunity to govern. And the Republicans didn’t feel that, you know, some of us, that he did the good job. And we have a new speaker now, and he has a big task ahead of him. But we all of us hold our leaders accountable. I think, you know, Kevin needs to get over and just move on.

That led Berman to wonder if there is a potential beef with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Spartz signaled that House Republicans are not too thrilled with the bill that was passed with Democratic support – and not Spartz’s – to keep the government running:

Berman: You noted that you have a new speaker now and he’s got a tough job ahead of him. You may not be making it any easier. You voted against the continuing resolutions yesterday to fund the government. You’re not giving him much of a honeymoon, are you?

Spartz: Well, listen, we give him some honeymoon and I was willing to give him some time, you know, to deal with, you know, our appropriations. But I was very disappointed that last second, he added the farm bill and actually punted until the next fiscal year, until October. … And I was very disappointed that we decided to punt this issue.

And I was, I don’t think it was very wise, and I’m not sure if a lot of governing is going to be happening during the election next year.

There might not be talk of ousting Johnson, but if Spartz’s comments are any indication, he is in for a bumpy ride.

Watch the video above via CNN.