The vote for Speaker of the House is today, and Kevin McCarthy is still down five votes. He moved into the Speaker’s office, too.
Five Republicans already said they would not vote for McCarthy on Tuesday:
Andy Biggs (AZ)
Matt Gaetz (FL)
Bob Good (VA)
Ralph Norman (SC)
Matt Rosendale (MT)
Over the weekend, Newt Gingrich blasted the House members who aren’t supporting McCarthy.
From Real Clear Politics:
NEWT GINGRICH: I don’t understand what they’re doing. They are not voting against Kevin McCarthy, they are voting against over 215 members of their own conference. Their conference voted overwhelmingly, 85%, for McCarthy to be the speaker. So this is a fight between a handful of people and the entire rest of the conference. And they are saying they have the right to screw up everything.Well, the precedent that sets is, so do the moderates, so do the members from Florida, and I mean any five people can get up and say, “I’m going to screw up the conference, too.”The choice is Kevin Mccarthy or chaos, and there’s nobody going to replace Kevin, because he has far more people totally dedicated to him than this handful of never-enders. And the result is going to be anybody who tries to replace Kevin will face total chaos and it will be impossible to govern. So I hope in the next 24 hours that this handful of members will realize that they don’t have the moral right to reject the choice of 85% of their conference. They don’t have the moral right to break up the House against the wishes of over 215 fellow Republicans. I think it is a remarkably shortsighted and, candidly, selfish position, and I don’t understand where they’re coming from. McCarthy has agreed to every policy they’ve asked for.
For his part, McCarthy has reached out to the conservative holdouts.
FOX News reported:
Kevin McCarthy makes major concession to conservatives as his speaker bid hangs by threadRep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is making a final bid to convince the right wing of his party to support his speakership, making major concessions to the group ahead of Tuesday’s vote.McCarthy’s central concession is allowing for any five Republican representatives to force of vote of no confidence in the speaker. He also vowed to end the practice of proxy voting and virtual participation in hearings, requiring lawmakers to be in Washington to participate in hearings and votes.”Just as the Speaker is elected by the whole body, we will restore the ability for any 5 members of the majority party to initiate a vote to remove the Speaker if so warranted,” he wrote in a letter to his Republican colleagues on Sunday.”Congress was never intended for Zoom, and no longer will members be able to phone it in while attending lavish international weddings or sailing on their boat. We will meet, gather and debate in person — just as the founders envisioned,” he added.Previous House rules, put in place by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, required a member of the House leadership from the majority party to initiate a vote to remove the current speaker.Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., and Bob Good, R-Va., have already vowed to oppose McCarthy’s bid.
Here’s the video:
Do Republicans realize that Democrats are watching all of this and loving it?
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