House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) GOP opponents signal their stance is hardening and he is expected to go to the House floor to fight for the Speakership. The heat is starting to turn up on those withholding support, as McCarthy started posturing for a floor showdown.<\/p>\n
House Democrats could pick the Speaker if Republicans \u201cplay games\u201d on the House floor on January 3, McCarthy has warned recently. He was asked by CNN whether he would step down in the race for Speaker if he does not get support from 218 Republicans, but McCarthy shot down the question. He also warned on Fox News that if he does not get a majority of Speaker votes, GOP investigative priorities cannot go forward, reported The Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t start investigating [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas,\u201d said McCarthy. \u201cWe can\u2019t secure the border. We can\u2019t lower the gasoline price by making us energy independent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n For the Speakership nomination, McCarthy won support from more than 80 percent, but 31 Republicans voted against him. Just a handful of GOP defectors on the floor could force multiple Speaker ballots or sink his bid with the GOP winning a slim majority. It would be around 222 seats to around 212 for Democrats, all of whom are expected to vote for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for Speaker. And as the nominee only needs support from a majority of those voting for a candidate, a Speaker can be elected with fewer than 218 votes.<\/p>\n Positions, such as the seat for the late Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), who died just recently, absences and \u201cpresent\u201d votes lower the threshold that a Speaker will have to reach, and potentially give McCarthy some wiggle room.<\/p>\n Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), and Andy Biggs (Ariz.), are the five House Republicans that have explicitly said or strongly indicated that they will not vote for McCarthy on the House floor on January 3. But now, they say that they will not vote \u201cpresent\u201d during the Speakership vote.<\/p>\n Taking the same position as Norman, it was clarified by Biggs and Good that they will vote for an alternative candidate, while Rosendale added that he could only vote for McCarthy under \u201cextreme circumstances,\u201d saying that he will not vote \u201cpresent.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve been a lawmaker since 2010. Never voted \u2018present\u2019 in my life. Don\u2019t plan to start now,\u201d said Gaetz. \u201cIf Jan 3. turns into a circus, it will be a direct result of McCarthy denialism. He doesn\u2019t have the votes. He never had the votes. It is time to move on and consider candidates who lack five objectors in our conference,\u201d Gaetz said. \u201cKevin\u2019s brinksmanship and stubbornness pose the greatest risk of empowering Democrats to impact the Speakership vote,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n On the other side, several other hard-line conservative lawmakers have declined to say how they plan to vote, including Scott Perry (R-Pa.), the House Freedom Caucus Chairman, who said he will not make his position public, as well as Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who has only said that no one has 218 votes for Speaker right now. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said that she is focused on the automatic recount in her election, and has declined to disclose her thinking on the Speakership.<\/p>\n McCarthy is the favorite to ultimately win the contest, as there is no viable GOP alternative to him for Speaker, but even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who is one of McCarthy\u2019s most vocal supporters, has worries about if there might be multiple floor ballots for Speaker. \u201cI don\u2019t want to see that happen. I can\u2019t guarantee that not happening right now,\u201d said Greene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) GOP opponents signal their stance is hardening and he is expected to go to the House floor to fight for the Speakership. The heat is starting to turn up on those withholding support, as McCarthy started posturing for a floor showdown. House Democrats could pick the Speaker if Republicans … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}