House GOP Media Darlings Are ‘Not Meaningful Players Internally,’ Outgoing Congressman Says

Patrick McHenry, who served North Carolina since 2005, says Republican members most active on TV and social media are lightweights “almost to a person”

Patrick McHenry
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 14: Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) speaks to reporters upon arrival to a House Republican Conference meeting on November 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House is working through a Continuing Resolution presented by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) to avoid government shutdown on November 17. (Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

If you know their names and faces, they’re probably not all that important – so says outgoing congressman Patrick McHenry, who tells Politico in an “exit interview” that his House GOP colleagues most prominently featured on TV and social media are the least powerful internally – “almost to a person.”

McHenry, who has served North Carolina since 2005, came in as a 29-year-old firebrand conservative and exits two decades later as a “paragon of pragmatism,” in Politico’s terms. In a lengthy interview, the site asked McHenry what has changed about his GOP colleagues in the House in that time.

“It’s the dynamic of, you’re leaving the concert, and everyone’s trying to go out one door, and you’re trying to go out the other door,” McHenry began.

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