Fox News personality Sean Hannity clashed with Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert after she rejected former Republican President Donald Trump's call for Republicans to support former House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's bid for the House speakership.
Boebert said Trump should tell McCarthy to "withdraw" following multiple humiliating votes that have defined what The New York Times referred to as a "right-wing rebellion" designed to block him from the speakership.
Boebert's behavior annoyed Hannity, who condemned her actions, and highlighted the widening rift within the GOP between more establishment conservatives and far-right reactionaries. The two White nationalism espousing conservatives could not stop interrupting each other during an at times tense interview.
You can watch what happened in the video below.
Hannity criticized Boebert's "math," noting a majority of Republicans have endorsed McCarthy's bid, in an effort to paint the right-wing rebellion as baseless and misjudged. He appeared disinterested when Boebert claimed to "understand" his "frustrations" and accused her of not answering "any question" he put forward.
Boebert talked over him anyway and suggested McCarthy will continue to face opposition from a far-right faction that has ground House proceedings to a halt.
"I promise you he does not have the votes and we are hearing from many people who are still voting with Kevin McCarthy who are very supportive of what we are doing and they're cheering us on, so there are more for us than are against us and they are waiting for Kevin to cave."
When Hannity pointed out she had not answered "a direct question" about why she'd rejected Trump's plea for the GOP to fall in line behind McCarthy, Boebert stressed once again McCarthy "does not have the votes" and her colleagues need to select "a consensus candidate to elect the Speaker of the House."
"Can I finish?" snapped Hannity, before reading back Boebert's own quote calling on Trump to tell McCarthy to "withdraw" his bid for the speakership.
"'You don't have the votes and it's time to withdraw.' He has 203. Your side has 20."
"Why is it time for him to withdraw and not you when he has so many more votes?"
A defiant Boebert took a second to compose herself before signaling she has no interest in ending the stalemate in the House.
"Well Sean, he needs 218 and he does not have 218. We've been trying to figure out in private as you said for months but Kevin McCarthy didn't want to listen to us until his disappointing midterms."
At another point in the interview, Hannity suggested Boebert and her fellow hard-right Republicans are orchestrating the debacle in the House like "a game show" after she suggested she might nominate Trump to be the next Speaker.
Boebert said there are "a lot of names being floated around" and continued to speak over Hannity as he criticized her "game show" tactics.
Despite saying that he "can tell" Boebert and other Republicans want to, as she put it, "get the country back on track," Hannity could not get Boebert to walk back any of her remarks and advised her "not to filibuster" as she insisted that the debacle will lead to Republicans "being stronger and better prepared to lead than we ever have before."
And Boebert appeared to have had it with Hannity's criticisms when she declared multiple times in quick succession that she "will not support Kevin McCarthy" and pushed back against what she said were Hannity's attempts to "pit" Trump "against [her]":
"I am not going to support Kevin McCarthy. If I am the last person standing—which I don't believe I will be—I will not."
"Look, I love President Trump. You're not going to turn me on him. You're not going to put him against me."
"I love you, I love President Trump, and I am standing... I have seen the broken trust, I have seen the lack of accountability. We are getting phonw calls saying that we need to stop this [but] Kevin does not have the votes for Speaker, period."
"We need to find a consensus candidate, get this right, and get our country back on track. Thanks so much, Sean."
Hannity's failure to regain control of the interview prompted many to opine that Boebert—and the far-right—have fallen out of favor with Hannity and the Republican establishment that has for so long enabled their views.
By Hannity's own logic, New York Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries—the current Minority Leader—should be the next House Speaker because he has bested McCarthy in all eleven rounds of voting thus far, the result of not a single Democrat falling out of line.
Neither politician has hit the 218 votes needed to free the House from its current paralysis, which makes it impossible to swear in new and preexisting members of Congress, set the legislative agenda, and even receive paychecks.
Trump has tried and failed to swing votes for McCarthy whether through private calls with lawmakers or his public calls via his social media platform Truth Social for Republicans to "CLOSE THE DEAL" or risk "embarrassing" themselves after securing control of the House of Representatives following November's midterm elections.
Boebert has flip-flopped between supporting two of her colleagues, Florida Representative Byron Donalds and Oklahoma Representative Kevin Hern as Republicans continue to struggle to elect a leader.
