Last week, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks) had to be restrained while going on an apparent tirade against U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) during the contentious election for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Now, Rogers may be stepping down from the House GOP Steering Committee.
According to Politico reporter Olivia Beavers, no one is encouraging Rogers to step down, and he may change his mind.
NEWS: Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) will be stepping down from serving on House GOP Steering, two members tell me.
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) January 9, 2023
He confirmed it with me this AM and said it will happen later this week. The region members will have to elect a new representative.
The GOP Steering Committee decides committee assignments for Republicans and also advises party leaders on policy.
A stringent ally of now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rogers threatened the group of more-conservative Republicans who withheld voting for McCarthy for days to squeeze more concessions from the establishment with removal from committee assignments if they failed to comply. He also deemed them "legislative terrorists who have no problem killing the hostage."
The Speaker election lasted four days as McCarthy negotiated with his party's hardliners. Though the Republicans now hold the majority in the House, the majority was small enough for the conservative Republicans to leverage their votes against the establishment for promises such as lowering the threshold of members necessary to bring up a vote to vacate the chair back to one, making a stronger commitment to increasing the statutory debt limit, getting a floor vote on term limits and border security and keeping establishment money out of open primaries among others.
After the 14th round of voting on Friday night, Rogers had to be restrained after approaching Gaetz, one of the leaders in the anti-establishment opposition. Gaetz had just voted "present," but McCarthy still fell one vote short of the speakership.
McCarthy obtained the speakership in the 15th round that night after agreeing to more concessions to the conservatives.
Over the weekend, both Rogers and Gaetz said they are now on good terms. Rogers claimed on Twitter that he regretted losing his temper.
It's unclear whether or not the incident had anything to do with Rogers' decision to step down from Steering Committee.
1819 News reached out to a representative from Rogers' office for comment and received no response.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email will.blakely@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.
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