Montana Congressman Reprimanded During House Floor Speech

In a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this week during the process of attempting to choose a new Speaker of the House, Montana’s Matt Rosendale provided an eye-opening primer on how business is actually conducted in that chamber, while also earning a reprimand for referencing another House member by her first name (Maxine Waters).

The Way it Should be vs. the Way it Actually is says Rosendale

View Rosendale’s address below.

On Friday morning, Rosendale called into the KGVO Talk Back show to explain why he refused to vote for Representative Kevin McCarthy from California to be the new speaker. A Talk Back caller had claimed that Rosendale had nominated former President Donald Trump to be the new speaker, which he denied.

“Let's make it real clear,” began Rosendale. “I did not nominate Donald J. Trump to be Speaker of the House. I nominated Byron Donald from Florida, a legislator that serves with me a member of Congress who had formerly served in the Florida delegation down there.”

Rosendale Firmly Opposes Kevin McCarthy as Speaker

In no uncertain terms, Rosendale explained his opposition to McCarthy as Speaker of the House.

“Kevin McCarthy, as part of the leadership team over the last 12 years, has managed the demise of our country,” he said. “He helped develop or was the architect of spending measures in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 that were so terrible that they had to get more Democrats to support the measure to pass it than they even had Republicans.”

Rosendale said the current condition of the U.S. House requires a drastic change in leadership direction.

“Everybody talks about unity and they would love to see this smooth facade on the Republican Party, but I'm here to tell you, Peter, if the ship is getting ready to go over the waterfall, and everybody's holding hands together, I'm sorry, but somebody needs to stand up on the ship and say ‘we've got to change direction’,” he said.

Rosendale Insists that 'Regular Order' be Restored in Congress

Rosendale went on to say that there must be substantive rule changes to restore what is called ‘regular order’.

“We are not going to go over the waterfall on my watch,” he said. “If we are going to restore regular order in Congress, then we have to change the rules. And we have to put someone in that street that we can trust that's not going to just suspend those rules and put us right back into the same place that we are now.”

Rosendale just won his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives in the newly formed eastern district, with fellow Republican Ryan Zinke serving the western district.