Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., proclaimed on Sunday the eight House Republicans who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., "unleashed furies" in the GOP conference.
"Well, right now, [the House] can't govern," Gingrich told "Fox News Sunday."
"And I think that the eight people who betrayed the conference and joined the Democrats to defeat the 96% of the conference unleashed furies that I don't think they'd even dreamed of, because it gave every person the right to be equally destructive and equally angry."
Gingrich said the House GOP should've stayed in the session last week after voting to no longer back Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as the party's speaker-designate.
"When they get back here, they should stay," Gingrich continued. "[They] should go into a conference, not come out. Bring food in and stay there.
"Again, very simple test: Can you get the 217 votes? They shouldn't bring anybody out until they have 217. And second, that 217 has to be committed not just to elect a speaker, but to stick together for the next five or six months."
Last week, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., appeared on Newsmax criticizing Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., for calling a recess to legislative sessions amid efforts to elect a speaker. At the time, Gaetz wrote on Twitter that the "Swamp is trying to delay a vote on the House floor as long as possible, hoping conservatives will move backward to Kevin McCarthy."
On Friday, House Republicans voted via a secret ballot to withdraw support for Jordan.
Nonetheless, support for Jordan remains as fervent as ever. On Friday, the small faction of eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy offered concessions going so far as to "censure" themselves from the Republican conference in exchange for other GOP factions backing Jordan.
"We are willing to accept censure, sanction, suspension, and removal in order to see Jordan as speaker. If what these holdouts need are a pound of our flesh, we're willing to give it to them to see Jordan as speaker," the eight Republicans wrote in a letter to their GOP colleagues. Signatories from the letter included Gaetz and Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Matt Rosendale of Montana.
Conversely, last week, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said on "All In With Chris Hayes" that he would consider supporting such Republicans for speaker as former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming or Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.