Top red state Republican in hot-seat after ‘profane tirade’ against the GOP

A candidate for Republican House speaker in Alabama is facing ouster after his “profane tirade” about the Republican Party got leaked to the press.AL.com reports Stan Cooke, a candidate for chairmanship of the Alabama Republican Party, announced on Facebook that he would move to expel House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter from the party if he wins the chairmanship because of a comment Ledbetter let fly during a closed GOP House caucus meeting.The shadow of an unpopular National Republican Party brand may be crashing against Alabama Republicans appeal among their constituents, and affecting the party’s chances of maintaining its comfortable majority in the House and Senate.“My concern is you. We need to do what’s best for this body, period,” Ledbetter raged during the course of the meeting. I could give a s— about the Republican Party.”Cooke, who is also a pastor, said the comment could not stand.“When Elected, I will place a measure before the Steering Committee and the Executive Committee to Immediately CENSURE Nathanel (sic) Ledbetter for his profane tirade against the Republican Party and ask the Steering Committee and the Executive Committee to EXPEL Nathanel (sic) Ledbetter from the Republican Party,” Cooke wrote, according to AL.com.Ledbetter later issued a statement saying: “My priority has been and continues to be getting every Republican member of the Alabama House of Representatives reelected and growing the party’s supermajority.”The audio only consists of about a minute, and Republican representatives in the room all declined to discuss the comment except to say that it was taken out of context, said AL.com.“The quotes were clearly taken out of context,” assured Republican Rep. David Faulkner. “And our speaker cares deeply about all of us. And that’s the point that he was making. … He’s done an amazing job as speaker, and somebody shouldn’t be making comments like that against him. That’s unfounded and unwarranted, in my opinion.” But the Republican dominated Alabama legislature is under stress this legislative session after discovering a new $200 million annual bill courtesy of President Donald Trump and Congressional Republican’s Big Beautiful Bill, which cut federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program serving about 750,000 Alabamians.“It’s a matter of what can we do or should we do — or is there anything that can be (done) to prevent running into that $200 million wall?” said state Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, chairman of the Alabama Senate’s general fund committee, when speaking o the new cuts. “And right now I think that train’s got the light on headed straight for us.”Prior to Trump and Republicans passing the Big Beautiful Bill, the federal government paid the full cost of SNAP benefits and 50 percent of administrative costs. But to fund the permanent extension of the Trump tax cuts, states will pay 75 percent of administrative costs starting in 2027. And the biggest change comes in 2028, when fficials say states will also have to pay a portion of SNAP benefits for the first time.

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