It’s no secret that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker of the House is in trouble. Some conservatives in the GOP caucus are adamant in their opposition to McCarthy and say they won’t vote for him under any circumstances.
Five Republicans — Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), and Bob Good (R-Va.) — have promised to vote against McCarthy come hell or high water. If that scenario played out, McCarthy would be denied the speakership since he lacked a majority of those voting in the House.
Related: McCarthy Relying on Moderates in the House to Run Interference for Him
But in an interview with Breitbart, Trump voiced his support for McCarthy’s bid to be speaker and called opposition to him “a dangerous game.”
“Look, I think this: Kevin has worked very hard,” Trump said in the interview, adding, “I think he deserves the shot. Hopefully, he’s going to be very strong and going to be very good and he’s going to do what everybody wants.”
I think it’s a very dangerous game that’s being played,” Trump said. “It’s a very dangerous game. Some bad things could happen. Look, we had Boehner and he was a strange person but we ended up with Paul Ryan who was ten times worse. Paul Ryan was an incompetent speaker. I think he goes down as the worst speaker in history. We took [out] Boehner—and a group of people, some of whom are the same, and they’re very good friends of mine. All those people are very good friends of mine.”
Trump is hardly the first major conservative leader to raise these concerns. Nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin has raised the concerns, as have people such as Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and James Comer (R-KY)—the incoming chairmen respectively of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees. Congresswoman-elect Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, who just defeated outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), has also warned of the concerns.
At this critical juncture, any strife among Republicans only helps Biden and the Democrats. And what these members are asking for — plum committee assignments and most importantly, the return of the “motion to vacate” rule where a single member could call for a vote to oust the speaker — is divisive.
McCarthy is willing to compromise on that issue by setting the threshold to 30% or 40% of Republicans instead of just one member. That may be the best the five rebels are going to get, and along with some subtle pressure from Trump, it should put McCarthy over the top.
Asked if this all means he backs McCarthy in the race, Trump said, “Yeah, I support McCarthy.”
“Everybody wants my support,” Trump said. “I was 99 percent on endorsements [in the primary]. I don’t know the percentage but I was 233 and 22 on general election. Everybody would say that, ‘yeah for the nomination he’s incredible, but for the general election…’ But what’s that percentage? 233 and 22—it’s incredible. They always want my endorsement.”
Nobody denies that where Trump is popular, his endorsement is gold. And where he’s unpopular, his endorsement hasn’t carried much weight. Unfortunately, some of his high-profile endorsements in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona in particular couldn’t put his candidates over the top. Whether losses by Mehmet Oz, Herschel Walker, and Blake Masters were due to their connection to Trump is hard to prove conclusively.
But there’s no doubt Trump’s influence is still felt in Congress. It will be interesting to see if his warning to the five anti-McCarthy holdouts will have any effect on their vote.
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