An MSNBC reporter accused the Republicans opposing Kevin McCarthy's speaker bid of "election denialism."
"Even though this is a form of election denialism here by some of these Republicans in the anti-McCarthy group, remember McCarthy won a closed-door election overwhelmingly back in November to be the consensus Republican conference pick to be speaker," senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake remarked.
"So these members are denying the results of an election again that has already taken place, with their person winning it, in Kevin McCarthy," he added on the Friday morning MSNBC report.
McCarthy, R-Calif., failed for the 13th time to get the 218 votes needed to become House speaker on Friday afternoon.
Haake's hot take wasn't the only eye-popping analysis uttered on the liberal media network.
Mara Gay, a member of the New York Times editorial board said on the channel Thursday that the Republicans opposing McCarthy's bid were elected to uphold racism.
"The other element here, you touched upon a couple of minutes ago, which is just that some of these individuals were people who were really only elected based on a litmus test to stop the tide of diversity in the country, the browning of America, the fears that surround that, and so they were not elected to go do the work of government. And you're seeing that now," Gay said.
McCarthy was spotted on the House floor having a tense discussion with Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., on Thursday.
On Friday, he managed to flip the Tennessee representative to his side along with 13 other holdouts.
Reps.-elect Dan Bishop, R-NC; Joshua Brecheen, R-Okla.; Mike Cloud, R-Texas; Andrew Clyde, R-Ga.; Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.; Mary Miller, R-Ill.; Ralph Norman, R-SC; Scott Perry, R-Pa.; and Chip Roy, R-Texas; and Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas; Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; and Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. switched their vote to McCarthy from another candidate. Rep.-elect Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., switched her vote from present to McCarthy.
Rep.-elect Matt Gaetz, R-Fla, one Republican leading the opposition to McCarthy's leadership, said to Fox News host Laura Ingraham not to count on a vote for McCarthy from him "under almost any circumstance."
Fox News' Joe Silverstein and Patrick Hauf contributed to this report.
