Despite unifying in cases such as impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, House Republicans have difficulty acting as a unified front in areas such as spending and border security. Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ) bashed the dysfunction in a recent appearance on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast, saying the GOP has "no-men" as opposed to "yes-men" sitting with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Rep. Crane posted the segment on X (formerly Twitter), saying, "The Appropriators & war hawks in the @HouseGOP continue to tell @SpeakerJohnson why we can’t fight, cut spending, or use the power of the purse to secure the border. The truth is, we have the leverage to make a serious move. Huge thanks to Steve Bannon & the War Room Posse."
Additionally, Rep. Crane described in his discussion with Bannon that "Republican leadership continues to surround themselves with not "yes-men," but "no-men" who tell [Speaker Johnson] constantly why he cannot fight, why he has got to kick the can down the road, and unfortunately, the current Speaker is listening to them."
Does Texas have a constitutional right to defy Supreme Court on protecting its border?
Moreover, he warned this was "the same managed decline in the country," and that "it is going to escalate and speed up because [of] the amount of money that we are talking about. I think you are going to see when we come back in a couple of weeks, I think you are going to see spending even increase because the appropriators and a lot of our Congress, quite frankly, acts as if we are not going off of a fiscal cliff."
Host Steve Bannon asked how using a government shutdown as leverage to secure the border is met by these "no-men" House Republicans, a point Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) has advocated.
Crane answered that they say, "You know, this is an election year. One of them said President Trump does not want to be in a government shutdown while he is campaigning and dealing with all of these other things," and the "war hawk" faction will "always have five or six different boogeymen ready for Johnson and for leadership to tell them why we cannot fight," such as national security initiatives.
Other concerns Crane said are brought up by the anti-shutdown Republicans include the loss of the majority and that "we will get beat over the head by the mainstream media."
