Rep.-elect Michael McCaul, R-Texas, issued a call for calm while speaking with Newsmax on Wednesday about the chaos surrounding the election of the speaker of the House.
"Our foreign nation adversaries are taking advantage of this moment, but I would just caution everybody to calm down," McCaul said during an appearance on Newsmax's "The Record with Greta Van Susteren." "I think we're going to get this thing resolved in the next day or so and it's not going to be the end of democracy as we know it."
On Wednesday, House Republicans floundered through a second day of multiple ballots and tried to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker for a fourth, fifth, and sixth time, to no avail. The political chaos has tarnished the beginning of the GOP's new majority and plunged the House into turmoil.
Discussing headlines from around the world about the debacle unfolding in the House chamber, McCaul said the leaders of Communist China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are going to take advantage of the situation and tell their people, "'Hey, see, this is why we told you democracy doesn't work because look what's happening right now.'"
"Now they will say that, but democracy is messy and it's the worst form of government except for all the others," the Texas Republican said. "Winston Churchill said [this] and I agree with him."
"I would just caution the nation: we're going to get through this and it's going to be OK," he continued. "But we do have to govern and we do have to unify as a party to deliver on what we promised the American people we would do."
McCaul said that the "very first thing" the GOP promised Americans it would do if given the majority "is fire the 87,000 new IRS agents and that's what we're committed to do."
The congressman-elect stressed that he doesn't like what's going on "any more than anybody else."
"But the 20 people objecting, they've got their constitutional rights as members of Congress to air out differences," he said. "But I would hope they would also negotiate in good faith with us in terms of the rules package and how can we get to consensus government."
The House adjourned until 8 p.m. Wednesday to focus on negotiations.
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