Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement on the vote for House Speaker Paul Ryan today:
“Today we had a Republican Conference vote on nominating a candidate for Speaker of the House election which we will have in early January, 2017, in open session on the House floor. Several Members have pointed out that we had inadequate time to have a fair, true nomination process, having just elected last week the Members who would actually vote on the nomination.”
“We had discussed not voting ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and have as of this writing confirmed with two other Members that they did not vote yes or no as there was no alternative. The Speaker had chosen yesterday not to make a speech and open himself to unlimited questions like most of the candidates.”
“Although some press has said that I ‘yelled’ at Speaker Ryan, I did not yell, but hopefully made my concerns with our Republican leaders’ actions crystal clear. I did not plan to and did not vote for or against Speaker Ryan in the election to nominate a Speaker. I had intended to ask the Speaker to make time for a visit and, to his credit, he agreed to talk.”
“This nation just came to the brink of losing 4 of our 10 original Bill of Rights, and I will not go quietly down another road of failing to use our Majority to accomplish what's been promised.”
Congressman Gohmert is the Chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Vice Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. Prior to being elected to serve in Congress, he was elected to three terms as District Judge in Smith County, Texas and was appointed by then Texas Governor Rick Perry to complete a term as Chief Justice of the 12th Court of Appeals.
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