In the wake of the stunning exit of McCarthy from the leadership race, fingers are pointing and blame is flying like crazy. The media is happily carrying the narrative that the current chaos in the House GOP is the result of the conservative caucus being intractable and unreasonable, even though no one knows for sure why McCarthy ultimately exited.

Here is the problem with this narrative: it is directly contradicted by the facts. The Freedom Caucus united behind Webster, as is their right. At no point did any of them suggest, publicly or privately, that if they did not get their wish they would forge a coalition with Democrats to elect Pelosi or someone else as speaker. They asked, as reasonable concessions, to be given more committee assignments and for the regular order of debate to be restored. However, all indications were clear that they would have worked out their differences with leadership within the actual Republican caucus.

Immediately after McCarthy’s announcement, CNN’s Dana Bash caught “moderate” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) 30% (R-PA) in the hall and asked him about these developments, and his spoiled brat response demonstrated very clearly that the moderates are the reason right now that the caucus is in chaos…