SCARBOROUGH: But if you [begins shouting] are in the Problem Solvers Caucus, a caucus that is meant to protect the institution of the United States Congress, do you not, as a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, go, “Hey, guys, why don’t we all just vote present on the Democratic side?” We’ll keep McCarthy in there, we’ll keep him on a short leash, we’ll let him know that, if, if, you know — and, then, suddenly, you have a small group of people that have power! … So the Problem Solvers were actually in a position where they could have saved McCarthy, gone to him and kept him on a short leash.They can say, “you didn’t ask us to do this. We’re not going to do it again if, if you, if you keep moving forward in a way that’s destructive to the institution.”

But they didn’t do it. So why is there a Problem Solvers Caucus —

STEELE: — that didn’t solve the problem?

SCARBOROUGH: If they just went, whoop!, And let one of the worst crises in recent House history go by ’em?

[It’s because they weren’t there to solve problems. They were there to pose. I wrote about this yesterday, and I’m glad to see Scarborough talk about it this morning. But I also reject one point of his premise, which is that McCarthy was acting in a way that was ‘destructive to the institution.’ McCarthy had just allowed the clean CR to go to the floor so that Democrats could vote on it! And they repaid him by stabbing him in the back, each and every one of them. — Ed]