The House of Representatives clerk called Democrats in the chamber to order Wednesday after they reacted to Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., calling them out for mocking the sixth failed vote to install a new Speaker of the House.
"They want us divided. They want us to fight each other. That much has been made clear by the popcorn and blankets and alcohol that has been coming over there," the Daily Caller reported Cammack saying on the floor during the nomination part of the sixth round of voting for a new speaker.
The Democratic side of the aisle then erupted in a series of loud laughs, calling out and other disruptive noises, causing House Clerk Cheryl Johnson to bang the gavel and repeatedly call the body back to order.
Johnson then admonished Cammack for the remarks.
"The Clerk would ask all members-elect to abide by the established decorum of the House while making nominations," Johnson said.
The events came during a Wednesday afternoon session that saw Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., fail in a sixth attempt to get the required 218 floor votes needed to become the new speaker.
McCarthy, who was the House minority leader until Republicans won a slim six-vote majority in the midterm elections, was elected internally by the Republican caucus as its speaker designee in November but does not yet have the majority votes needed to win on the floor.
As the new GOP House majority grapples with electing the new speaker, Democrats are seemingly delighted with the disarray on that side of the aisle.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., posted a picture on Twitter Wednesday of him smiling with a bag of popcorn with a caption that read, "About to go to the House floor."
While the Republican drama is playing out with a series of votes that have not happened in more than 100 years and been called "a bad look" internationally by President Joe Biden, Democrats had a similar situation in 2019 when progressives in the party — including "squad" members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — attempted to block Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who had served as speaker previously, from being reelected to the job, NPR reported at the time.
The progressives and others opposing Pelosi fell into line, however, and returned her to the office on the first ballot.
"We respect the value of every member of our caucus," Pelosi told reporters in 2019. "The diversity of it all is a wonderful thing. Diversity is our strength. Unity is our power."