Kevin McCarthy is still struggling to win over five House Republicans in his bid to become Speaker of the House on January 3rd.
Yesterday he met with these Republicans and offered a rule change to make it easier to force a vote to fire him if he doesn’t do a good job.
Here’s more from Fox News:
Prospective House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is still tussling with some members of his party who are concerned electing him to be speaker would be a “continuation of past and ongoing Republican failures.”
Last week, the California Republican floated a congressional rule change that would make it easier to remove a House speaker in exchange for his rise to the post, a key demand from powerful GOP opponents.
Under current rules, which were imposed under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, only a member of the House leadership can offer a motion to vacate, while the new proposal would allow any member of the House to force a vote to remove the speaker, at any time.
On Sunday afternoon, McCarthy met with GOP members to try and rally support for his speakership vote on Jan. 3, when the new Congress takes office. The embattled Republican leader conceded rank-and-file members will be allowed to call for the speaker’s removal, though he wasn’t clear about how many members would need to sign on to the motion, according to reports.
The meeting came after his letter on New Year’s Eve, titled “Restoring the People’s House and Ending Business as Usual,” which was his admission of the deep dysfunction of the House of Representatives and his pitch to make it right.
Nine Republicans wrote a letter of their own saying that McCarthy’s promises in his letter are too little too late, that he’s part of the problem:
In response to McCarthy’s letter, GOP Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Chip Roy of Texas, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Andy Harris of Maryland and Andrew Clyde of Georgia, along with Rep.-elects Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Eli Crane of Arizona sent a letter of their own.
“Regrettably, however, despite some progress achieved, Mr. McCarthy’s statement comes almost impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress on January 3rd,” the letter stated. “At this state, it cannot be a surprise that expressions of vague hopes reflected in far too many of the crucial points still under debate are insufficient. This is especially true with respect to Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy for speaker because the times call for radical departure from the status quo – not a continuation of past and ongoing, Republican failures.”
The letter continues to say that McCarthy’s 14-year presence in senior house leadership puts the burden of House dysfunction on him, which he now admits.
The vote for a new Republican Speaker sounds like it’s going to be a big fight that could last a few days. We told you last week that a nearly 80 Republicans are vowing to vote for McCarthy as many times as it takes to get him elected.
But Rep. Bob Good from Virginia was on Fox News this morning saying that he will not vote for McCarthy and believes there will be around a dozen members who refuse to vote for McCarthy on the first ballot:
1) GOP VA Rep Good on Fox: I won't vote for Kevin McCarthy tomorrow. He's part of the problem. He's not part of the solution. I'll be following the will of my constituents..which have told me over the past couple of years not to support Kevin McCarthy.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 2, 2023
2) McCarthy: There's nothing he's done to earn my vote. There's nothing that indicates to me that he's going to change his pattern since he's been in leadership where he's part of the swamp cartel. He's the reason on the GOP side why we passed massive omnibus spending bills
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 2, 2023
3) Good: We'll block Kevin. There'll be, I suspect, 10 to 15 members who will vote against him on the first ballot tomorrow that will vote for Andy Biggs..on the second ballot an increasing number of members vote for..a true candidate who can represent the conservative center
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 2, 2023
6) Good: We shouldn't be in a hurry to make a bad decision is worth it to fight for a few hours or even a few days to get the best possible person for Speaker instead of just surrendering to the status quo, surrendering to the establishment
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 2, 2023
Republicans will have 222 seats tomorrow in the new Congress and McCarthy needs 218 votes to become Speaker. In other words he can only lose four Republican votes, which means this fight could go on for a while before someone finally gives in.
UPDATE: From Mark Levin:
Four of the five GOP boneheads — Biggs, Good, Rosendale, and Norman — took money from McCarthy’s campaign PAC this last election. Sounds like they’re RINO swamp creatures, especially Biggs (Mr. Anti-Convention of States).
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) January 2, 2023