Two Republicans Weigh in on McCarthy as Speaker: Yes, Says One; and No!! Says the Other
(CNSNews.com) – In three votes on Tuesday, Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s fellow Republicans failed to fulfill Kevin’s dream of becoming House Speaker.
Nineteen Republicans voted against McCarthy in the first two rounds; then 20 said no in the third round of voting. There will be more votes starting around noon today, following negotiations overnight.
“I’m going to vote for Kevin McCarthy on the fourth ballot tomorrow and more ballots after that,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham Tuesday night.
“I mean, I don’t know what’s going to happen overnight. I’m hoping that deals are made overnight, that deals are struck and we go in and have unity tomorrow, let Kevin McCarthy be the speaker so we can roll up our sleeves and move forward.”
‘This is about changing this town’
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is among the Republicans voting against McCarthy. On Tuesday afternoon, he told Fox News, “I’ve been leading the charge for my constituents who are tired of the swamp continuing to do what the swamp does. And we saw it on full display with the $1.7-trillion omnibus bill.”
Roy said he’s holding out for enforceable rules changes that will prevent wasteful spending in the future:
“In other words, we want to be able to have a check against the swamp. We made good-faith changes. We worked hard to get them. But we needed a little bit more in order to ensure that we have the power to actually stop the swamp from rolling over the American people, who are sick of bills that spend money we don’t have, are sick of open borders, are sick of empowering the bureaucrats to go after them.
“And we’re sick and tired of a Congress that’s not doing its job. So, this is about changing this town. I wasn’t sent here for second place. I was sent here to get the job done, and we need the leadership and the tools to do it.”
Roy asked, “Is anybody listening to this actually happy with what Congress is doing? Is anybody out there? Are you? Or anybody in America, do you think Congress is doing a good job? The answer is no.
“So, why would we embrace the status quo? Why would we keep doing the same thing over and over again? That’s what happening in that room.
“And this morning a group of folks threatened some of us, and they lost votes on that. We’re not going to back down until we get in a room and we decide how we’re going to be able to stand up and fight for the American people, no matter who the speaker is.”
Roy said Rep. Mike Rodgers (Mich.), a McCarthy supporter, threatened to kick the anti-McCarthy lawmakers off committees. Roy accused McCarthy and his cronies of solidifying the opposition against them.
“Some of us have been working for 60 days in good faith to get actual changes to fix this place, and we’re still–I’m here at the Capitol and I’m going to turn around and I’m going to go sit down to try to negotiate.
“But the negotiation only works when people want to actually advance conservative policies, and unfortunately we hit a wall last night when Kevin rejected a good-faith offer to give him 218 votes. He had it on his table, he turned it away.”
Roy said he wants “the Rules Committee to reflect ideologically our ability to stop an omnibus spending bill like was just passed in December over the wishes of Republicans by Mitch McConnell and 18 Republicans who didn’t give a crap about Americans. I want the ability to stop that, and I don’t trust leadership to stop it currently.”
Until a speaker is chosen, members of the 118th Congress cannot be sworn in, bills cannot be passed, and committee hearings cannot begin.
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