“Pro-family” groups support seven of the eight far-right Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives who made history Oct. 3 by voting to remove Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy in a 216-210 vote.
Both Matt Gaetz of Florida, who led the charge against McCarthy, and Andy Biggs of Arizona have received the Family Research Council’s True Blue Award for their “perfect voting records” on issues including abortion and LGBTQ rights that make up the political agenda of FRC, which was founded and is aligned with Focus on the Family.
They and the five others who voted to vacate the speaker’s office — Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana — have been endorsed by all the major Christian “pro-family” political groups: FRC Action, American Family Association Action, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, and Eagle Forum.
Biggs, Buck and Rosendale have received 100% ratings from the four “pro-family” groups.
The candidates’ positive ratings from such groups are visible at VoteSmart, a robust political database.
In 2018, Tony Perkins, Family Research Council president, said Gaetz, who is divisive and unpopular among fellow House Republicans, “deserves praise for his unwavering commitment to stand for life, family, marriage and religious liberty” and his work in “rebuilding our nation and protecting the very values that made America great.”
But as the New York Times reported, Gaetz remains the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged sexual misconduct and misuse of funds. The continuing investigation is just one of Gaetz’s many complaints against McCarthy.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) answers questions outside the U.S. Capitol after successfully leading a vote to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the office of Speaker of the House October 3, 2023, in Washington, DC. McCarthy was removed by a motion to vacate, an effort led by a handful of conservative members of his own party. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Christian news outlet Word&Way raised questions about evangelicals’ support for Gaetz in a 2021 article titled “The Curious (Christian) Silence About Matt Gaetz,” writing: “He reportedly bragged to other members of Congress about his sexual escapades, including sharing pictures and videos of naked women. He allegedly paid for sex on multiple occasions, and witnesses claim he used illegal drugs while partying with those ‘escorts.’ The most horrific claims surround the trafficking and improper relationship with a minor, to which an associate has already pled guilty and indicated a desire to cooperate with federal investigators…
“The congressman has denied any wrongdoing, recently telling a group of Ohio Republicans that ‘I’m being falsely accused of exchanging money for naughty favors.’ Ignoring calls to resign, he instead plays the victim card.”
Word&Way reported that Gaetz says he is an active member at First Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., but SBC leaders including Al Mohler and Robert Jeffress have embraced ideology over integrity by failing to criticize Gaetz’s moral failures while regularly calling out problems among Democrats.
“Those who supported him as a moral, ‘family values’ politician worthy of Christian support on election day must reckon with their contributions to the apparent decadence of our society and politics they have long lamented but, at least in this case, aided and abetted,” wrote Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood.
The FRC’s Perkins also had words of praise for Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs when presenting him the True Blue Award: “You have proven you will stand up for the Constitution and fight for the rights of the people.”
Yet Biggs worked to overturn the 2020 election by seeking to illegally decertify his state’s electors and replace them with a slate of fake pro-Trump electors.
Evidence presented by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol showed Biggs met with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Dec. 21, 2020, in a plot to overturn the election. On Jan. 6, 2021, Biggs urged Rusty Bowers, a fellow member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Republican speaker of Arizona’s House of Representatives, to help him in that effort.
Biggs was one of seven Republican legislators subpoenaed by the House Select Committee but refused to cooperate, calling the investigation “pure political theater” designed to “distract the American people from the Democrats’ and Biden’s disastrous leadership.”
He also was one of three who asked Trump for preemptive pardons for acting upon his false claims of election fraud.
Gaetz has been a guest on FRC’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins,” including a Sept. 19 appearance in which he shared “the latest on the budget debate on Capitol Hill.” But on Monday, Oct. 2, Perkins urged those seeking to oust McCarthy to stop.
“Here is my advice to those tempted to blame the speaker: Hold your fire!” he wrote. “Those infamous circular firing squads are not the solution.”
At the same time, Perkins also praised members of the House Freedom Caucus for putting McCarthy under pressure nine months ago as he sought the speaker’s role and for seeking to cut government spending.
“Had members of the House Freedom Caucus not held firm in January over the speaker negotiations at the start of the 118th Congress, we would not be witnessing a transparent and dynamic legislative process no longer scripted in advance by a handful in a back room,” Perkins said.
On Wednesday, Oct. 4, the day after McCarthy’s ouster, Perkins began his weekly “Washington Watch” broadcast by playing a clip of Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, who said: “MAGA extremism is a poison that the house GOP has refused to confront for years, and until the mainstream House Republicans deal with this issue the chaos will continue.”
To whieh Perkins noted: “Fortunately, like most of his advice, it will be ignored.”
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