Joe Cunningham: “We have all worked for people that we respect and believe that have vision on both sides of the aisle. And I would like…”

“We have all worked for people that we respect and believe that have vision on both sides of the aisle. And I would like to state that we had our Republican Caucus just before the decision was made about the Speaker and before the Speaker made the decision to come forward to the body. The Speaker's own legal advisors, the special prosecutor that looked into the allegations, came before the caucus and told the Speaker that if he wanted to fight every one of the allegations in that one ethics violation that he would win 100 percent, he could fight them and he would win because they had no basis. And yet, the left leadership of the Democrat Party wanted its pound of flesh and, for them to give us a bipartisan agreement, had to have the extra pound of flesh and the Speaker had to agree to pay the $300,000. Knowing that he could win, why would not the Speaker do it? Because on both sides of the counsel, they told him, Mr. Speaker, you will win, but at what cost; and what the gentleman just covered, we would have been in the year of disruption, with the Democrats demagoguing, with the Democrats attacking and partisan rhetoric, because they want the power here in Washington, DC.”