Mark Meadows Slams Ryan: Calls for ‘New Leadership’ To Deal With Immigration

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Feb 14, 2018
Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus Rep. Mark Meadows (R.-N.C.) (File photo)

House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina is calling for “new leadership” in the House Republican Caucus as Speaker Paul Ryan faces withering criticism for his indecisiveness on the immigration issue.

House Republicans have been expected to whip Rep. Goodlatte’s proposed bill before bringing it to a House vote, but the Freedom Caucus is saying that the whip operation is not happening. Goodlatte’s bill caves on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), allowing DREAMers to stay in the country, but also tightens some other enforcement mechanisms like E-Verify.

Meadows is not happy with Ryan’s inaction on Goodlatte’s relatively moderate bill.

Meadows’ bold statement Wednesday marks a new benchmark in anti-Ryan rhetoric, in calling for “new leadership” to address Republican challenges on Capitol Hill.

Meadows’ Freedom Caucus ally Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio also strongly criticized “leadership” in an interview he conducted with Meadows with The Atlantic, stating: “I’m worried, because we were promised a full-scale push and whip operation on Goodlatte and we’ve just frankly not seen anything close to that. It’s basically Bob Goodlatte going around and talking to people, and the Freedom Caucus going around and talking to people. Other than that, you don’t hear anything from leadership about the legislation.”

The unwillingness of Ryan to put forth a vote allows Democrats and moderate Republicans to continue negotiations that could further water down the immigration plan before DACA expires next month, and keeps hope alive for Democrats to win the immigration fight outright.

Meadows recently invoked President Trump’s trademark Swamp metaphor to slam the recent budget deal, which did nothing to effectively curtail out-of-control government spending.

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