San Antonio rep Greg Casar and AOC discuss chaos in Congress in new video

Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the famous (or infamous, depending on your political persuasion) Squad, lending her star power to Casar is undoubtedly a boost for the new Texas representative. Casar is one of a handful of young progressives of color elected in 2022, along with Maxwell Frost, Delia Ramirez, and Summer Lee, a group Slate recently dubbed “the new Squad.”

But before Casar and Squad can begin their tenure, they most be sworn in, though the timeline for that is becoming increasingly unclear. The entire nation has watched Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) lobby six times in two days to become speaker of the house only to actually lose votes. (“He’s trending in the wrong direction,” Casar says in the video.)

McCarthy, whose Republican party has a slim majority of the House, has repeatedly found himself blocked by the slim far-right faction of his party. On Thursday morning, January 5, multiple outlets reported that McCarthy has agreed to make a series of concessions to the 20 GOP members currently holding up his confirmation. As the New York Times “The Daily” podcast pointed out on Tuesday, January 3, McCarthy’s concessions give enormous power to a handful of far-right GOP members in spite of American voters’ rejection of far-right policies during the 2022 midterms.

With little movement on either side, it appears McCarthy is headed for a seventh vote, despite some members of his party declaring they will “never” vote for him. It remains unclear if the Republicans have a candidate who can rally the entire party to a consensus. “I heard there were some Republicans waiting for Tucker Carlson to go on TV last night and tell them what to do,” Ocasio-Cortez quips.

The blockade against McCarthy has largely been led by Texas’ own Chip Roy, a Republican who represents the Texas 21st, a district that borders Casar’s 35th. 

“[Our districts] run down the same highway in Texas,” Casar tells Ocasio-Cortez. “But because of the way segregation historically has worked, and the way gerrymandering works, basically communities of color and Democratic voters are all on one end of the highway that has been drawn into my district and then on [Roy’s] end of the highway has been drawn to be more safely Republican.” 

Though the country being without elected leaders is seriously troubling, Ocasio-Cortez and Casar say they’re having some fun on the floor. Many of the new House members have brought along their spouses and children for the (potential?) swearing-in ceremony, and nearly every member of the house is in the chamber, a rare sight most days. 

“There is something strangely cool about this experience,” Ocasio-Cortez notes, “in that a lot of the time — and you guys might see clips at home of the House floor — it’s usually empty. You usually do not have every member of Congress in the same room.”

While the House of Representatives preps for its third full day trying to cement a speaker, Ocasio-Cortez and Casar say they’re unclear exactly when that might happen – or who it might be.

“My bet is Kevin McCarthy will not be speaker,” Ocasio-Cortez tells Casar, later continuing: “The longer this goes on, the more unpredictable the outcome is going to be.”