Republican Party representatives are being warned that they must vote for Kevin McCarthy to take over as Speaker of the House… or they face a “doomsday” scenario.
According to some Republican leaders, the battle lines drawn over McCarthy threaten the entire Republican Party agenda — and could give Democratic Party leaders a chance to form an unlikely alliance with establishment Republicans to protect President Joe Biden.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told Breitbart News last weekend that if five or more conservative House critics of McCarthy vote against his speakership, it would open a window for Democrats to work with liberal Republicans to install a weak speaker.
“I think it’s of the utmost importance that we agree on a Speaker,” Comer said. “I believe it should be Kevin McCarthy. I believe it will be Kevin McCarthy in the end.”
“But if we have four or five holdouts, that could potentially block Kevin McCarthy and that would allow the opportunity for some of the moderate Republicans to join with the Speaker [Nancy Pelosi]. That wouldn’t accomplish the goal of conservatives that are upset with Kevin McCarthy,” he warned. “We had a vote in conference.”
Comer called for unity after a prior challenge to McCarthy.
“Andy Biggs challenged McCarthy. Andy Biggs is a good friend of mine,” Comer claimed. “We came into Congress together. He’s a great member of the House Oversight Committee. But McCarthy prevailed.”
“He prevailed four to one,” Comer said, chiding conservatives who are unhappy with McCarthy’s leadership. “We need to come together and elect Kevin McCarthy. Obviously, we’re never going to agree 100 percent of the time and we shouldn’t. We don’t need to be like the Democrats and have one leader and everyone follow that leader around like they did Nancy Pelosi.”
“We’re going to have vibrant discussions and debates in our conference. But at the end of the day, we have to agree on the person our conference voted overwhelmingly for, Kevin McCarthy, and not allow the Democrats to kick their foot in the door with a weak, moderate-to-liberal Republican Speaker of the House… which could happen,” Comer said.
“I’m confident Kevin is going to be the next Speaker and I believe he is going to continue to give Jim Jordan and I the green light to do what we want to do with respect to holding this administration accountable.”
Other conservative leaders pushed back and blamed the establishment Republican wing of the party — not conservatives — if McCarthy loses and the moderate wing joins with the Democrats.
“If that were to happen, that would only happen by Kevin McCarthy’s hand,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said. “The important thing for Kevin McCarthy to do now is to drop out of the race and move on to the next viable option”
“If he persists with a floor vote that he is certain he will not win, he’s bringing the Republican conference down with him,” Gaetz, a member of the Freedom Caucus and a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, said.
Gaetz later retweeted the following —
“You can’t drain the swamp if the person leading the crusade is controlled opposition.”
Kevin McCarthy should NOT be speaker. pic.twitter.com/ENPfP51gja
— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) November 25, 2022
The Horn editorial team