WASHINGTON -- Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, the insurgent group that helped force out Speaker John Boehner and block Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy from moving up to replace him.
But most of the caucus -- including Loudermilk -- supported Rep. Paul Ryan for the post, despite agitation from grassroots and conservative media against Ryan. On Thursday, Loudermilk took his case to one of conservative media's most prominent figures, Glenn Beck. It got a little heated:
Beck: "The only way to do that, Barry, is with a real reformer. I'm sorry, but the Mitt Romney crowd is not the one to do it. The people who despise people like you, quite honestly, people like me, the real reformers, the ones who actually want to abide by the Constitution are not the guys in the GOP or the Mitt Romney crowd.
"So I'm trying to figure out, Barry, what you heard that was different. Quite honestly, I know what I heard, when I heard from people in the Freedom Caucus, Liberty Caucus and Tea Party Caucus. What I heard was, 'Glenn, we can't always go by somebody's vote. That's why we want Daniel Webster, because he is a real true guy who has a proven record of doing this role in Florida, and this guy will abide by the Constitution.'
"I didn't believe them, Barry, because I don't believe any of you guys in Washington, quite frankly, none anymore. And so I did my own homework. And I really turned over every stone. I don't know if you did that, Barry, other than Googling. But I did. I turned over every single stone and I was told by many members -- before he was even running -- 'If you get somebody like Paul Ryan, it's going to be the same business as usual.
"So I wasn't in the meeting, so what I'm looking for, Barry, from you is what happened in the meeting that made you say: 'You know what, he's not the big GOP Mitt Romney guy that we all know. He's not the Karl Rove pick. He's something entirely different.' What was it that he said that made you believe a guy in the GOP is not that guy?"
Loudermilk: "It wasn't just me, Glenn, it was the most conservative members of the Freedom Caucus of the House of Representatives who are sworn and dedicated to restoring us back to the constitutional principles that have governed us for years. That's what we've got to get back to. When we met with him yesterday we were looking for some things that we have got to have to turn this nation around because if we continue down this path, we are done. I believe we are done."
Beck: "No kidding."
Loudermilk: "Are we going to empower the individual members of Congress? He said, 'Yes, I want to support you guys rewriting the rules to restore it back to the way it was.' One thing I asked him is, I said, 'Are we going to take a fight to the administration?' I said, 'I think we've wasted a lot of opportunities. We should have been fighting. We keep handing a blank check to Barack Obama through continuing resolutions. Are you going to work with us to restore a budget process, to get a budget and appropriations process through, so we restore the power of the purse so we use it?' He said, 'Absolutely, that is going to be a top priority.' I said, 'Are we going to start fighting for the American people? That's what I'm looking for.' He said: 'Absolutely.'"
Beck: "And if he doesn't, how hard is it going to be to get him out? If it doesn't -- if he lies to you, how hard is it going to be to get him out?
Loudermilk: "If you look at what the Freedom Caucus has done so far this year -- if people had said we were going to be where we are today looking for a new speaker, at the beginning of the year, people would have said: 'No way.'"
Beck: "And you're going to replace him with another Boehner."
Here's a longer version of the exchange.
More from Beck's website, The Blaze:
Loudermilk said he'll be the first person to "stand up and admit" he was wrong about Ryan, but Beck again said it would be too late.
"Well, if you're wrong, we will all stand in poverty or slavery at some point down the road. So thank you," Beck said sarcastically.
After the commercial break, Beck addressed his on-air colleagues' "meanest" claim.
"Here's the thing: I don't want to be mean. I am disgusted. I am disgusted by all of them," Beck said. "So I have no time. You're wasting my airtime, quite honestly. But I wanted to give him a chance to have himself heard."
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