In defence of Hillary Clinton in the wake of the Capitol riot: “It wasn’t for a woman!” Reply to McCarthy on Tuesday
He has mused publicly — purely in jest, his aides later insisted — about wanting to hit her with the oversized wooden gavel used to keep order in the House.
The steps McCarthy is taking to try to secure the speakership – and the future complications that may entail – were evident on Tuesday when he gave Greene, the Georgia Republican, a pass for her latest effort to mock the trauma of the Capitol insurrection. On Saturday, the congresswoman said that if she had been in charge on January 6, 2020, the riot would have succeeded and the mob would have been armed. She later insisted she was being sarcastic after the White House complained her comments were a “slap in the face” to law enforcement and against fundamental US values.
The speaker of the house said she didn’t know what the minority leader was talking about.
The last week of Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign – beset by a report that he paid for a woman he was dating to have an abortion more than a decade ago – has been an utter disaster.
And it’s been made worse by the fact that smart Republican strategists have known for the better part of a year that Walker was a) deeply untested and b) deeply unpredictable as a candidate.
More than a year ago, in response to an Associated Press story detailing Walker’s turbulent past – including reportedly threatening his ex-wife and exaggerating his business successes – Josh Holmes, a longtime confidante to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was blunt in his assessment of the situation.
McConnell was attempting to get Walker out of his position in the Georgia Senate primary.
“McConnell has suggested to allies that former Georgia senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler should take another look at running again, according to three sources familiar with the matter, after their narrow losses in January flipped the Senate to Democratic control.”
Walker is not the most important thing for Cotton, Scott and McConnell. If he is able to win the race, he will return power for the Republicans in the Senate. So there was never any idea that he would be abandoned.
Walker had already been endorsed by Donald Trump. He was (and is) a celebrity in Georgia due to his football accomplishments. The other potential high-profile GOP candidates ended up not running.
He was one of his top political consiglieres to be skeptical of Walker. It was a classic case of, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” in action.
Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, was its obvious star, imbued with moral authority by the fact that she’d sacrificed her position in Republican leadership, and possibly her political career, to stand up to Donald Trump. But there were many others.
The speaker of the Arizona House, who supported the Trump campaign, was quoted in his journal as saying that he wouldn’t compromise on his state’s election results. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump’s chief of staff, defied attempts at intimidation to describe a president at once calculating and berserk.
“When you look back at what has come out through this committee’s work, the most striking fact is that all this evidence comes almost entirely from Republicans,” the committee’s Democratic chairman, Bennie Thompson, said on Thursday.
Yet the Republican Party’s embrace of its most basic instincts is especially notable and perhaps questionable because of the reality of the times. Most often, GOP leaders are enabling and embracing a twice impeached ex-President with clear autocratic tendencies who incited an insurrection to try to overturn a democratic election. Or they are elevating Trump followers who built their careers in his image or on his falsehoods about the 2020 election.
In winning the Virginia governor’s mansion last year, Youngkin adopted a subtle campaign strategy. By talking about the handling of gender issues in schools and referencing “election integrity,” the former businessman sent sufficient “Make America Great Again” messages to ensure turnout in pro-Trump rural counties. But he was also careful not to alienate voters in the state’s more liberal Washington, DC, suburbs where parents frustrated by Covid-19 lockdowns warmed to his education message.
Youngkin urged Republicans to get behind Lake, but also to put their faith in his ideological decision, which he must make for a future in the party.
There is nothing wrong with a political party that focuses only on winning power. Politics is the art of the possible. And successful parties and leaders understand election victories are paramount. Democratic presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Bill Clinton were known for doing what needed to be done to win, reshaping their own principles if necessary. He was ruthless when he won the majority leader position in the Senate. And more recently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not dominated the House for nearly two decades without being determined to use her power.
For a party that once took pride in its heritage of promoting global democracy against tyranny, this is a striking leap. Republicans who defended such values, which were once prized in the party of Lincoln, against Trump – including Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake – were ostracized. Flake did not run for reelection and Cheney, the vice chair of the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, lost her primary this summer to a Trump-backed challenger. Meanwhile, extremists who promote conspiracy theories and question the election, like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, are superstars in the party because the Trump base loves them.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went to Mar-a-Lago to make up with Trump soon after he criticized him over the Capitol insurrection. The California lawmaker knew that his party’s hope of a House majority and his own dreams of being speaker hinged on a rapprochement with Trump and his base voters.
McConnell is facing anger in his own ranks than in the past, although he still has the support to win a third term as leader of the conference.
Trump’s support for McCarthy stands in contrast with his relationship to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. GOP sources told CNN last week that Trump is calling up his allies in the Senate to gin up opposition to the Kentucky Republican ahead of leadership elections in that chamber Wednesday.
McConnell’s affiliated super PAC is even spending in New Hampshire, where the GOP nominee has said he wouldn’t vote for the Kentucky Republican for leader. It could bolster a possible GOP majority.
The impulse to win control of Congress at all costs was on display when US senators flew into Georgia earlier this month to rescue Hershel Walker, the controversial Senate nominee.
Walker’s two surrogates – Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who heads the GOP’s Senate campaign arm, and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton – behaved as though Walker was just any other Republican candidate.
He’s doing much the same now – appearing with Trump candidates like Lake and Michigan GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon, but also stumping with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who fended off Trump’s efforts to oust him earlier this year.
While his endorsement is important to Lake, his rising star power in the Trump world gave him a strong incentive to travel. He embraced the kind of political personality that wouldn’t have been allowed at his events last year, and that’s why he hugged after his speech.
The future of the House is in the red waves: Trump’s anti-McCarthy legacy and his ally Steve Bannon’s radio show
CNN isn’t Predicting whether the Republicans will win the House. But McCarthy is confident that he will win a majority of House GOP votes on Tuesday to lead his conference – and will earn in January the 218 votes necessary to hold the speaker’s gavel.
Title 42 allows border authorities to turn away migrants at the US- Mexico border, which is why the Biden administration continues to use it. According to US Customs and Border Protection data, there were more than 2 million border encounters in fiscal year 2022, despite mass migration in the Western hemisphere. Of those, more than 1 million were turned away under Title 42.
“We will never use impeachment for political purposes,” McCarthy told CNN’s Melanie Zanona. If something rises to the occasion, it would not be used at any other time.
McCarthy is supportive of Ukraine. “I think there has to be accountability going forward. … You always need, not a blank check, but make sure the resources are going to where it is needed. And make sure Congress, and the Senate, have the ability to debate it openly.”
McCarthy said he was confident the Republicans would win at least enough seats to win the majority. McCarthy thinks that anything over 20 is a red wave.
It hasn’t fully broken through despite Trump’s pro-McCarthy campaign. Some of Trump’s staunchest allies have been all over conservative media attacking McCarthy. One of the Trump allies who will vote for McCarthy in the speaker’s contest went on Steve Bannon’s radio show and supported him.
How will you spend your money? When Senator Marjorie Taylor Greene tells CNN she’ll not be leaving the U.S.
“I think ‘Stay in Mexico’ you have to have right off the bat,” he said, referring to the controversial policy where migrants were forced to remain in Mexico while they wait for their immigration proceedings in the United States.
McCarthy said that first you should attack China to stop the poison from coming and then give the border agents the resources they need to prevent anyone from moving it.
McConnell has found ways to avoid default before, but the debt limit is going to be violated sometime next year and there is a big battle to raise it. In the meantime, Senate Republicans are eager to finish up this year’s funding package in the final days of the current Congress controlled by Democrats, a move that would take a major battle over a potential government shutdown off the table early next year.
If you think a person should get a higher limit, would you insist on changing your behavior so you don’t keep raising? He said so. They shouldn’t say, “Oh, I’m going to let you keep spending money.” A household shouldn’t do that.
McCarthy stated that his message was to Democrats who want to spend more. They spent a lot of money, especially just last year, so I wouldn’t be giving them more money.
When pressed on whether he’s willing to risk a default by using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip, McCarthy insisted that wouldn’t happen: “People talk about risking it. You do not risk a default.
To that end, McCarthy has vowed to reinstate freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to her committee assignments, despite being stripped of her assignments by Democrats last year for her inflammatory remarks.
McCarthy will be in charge of doling out those assignments, and when asked if there were any restrictions on which committees Greene can serve, he said no. According to CNN, she wants to sit on the House Oversight Committee, which will be a key role in GOP-led investigations.
She will have the same committees as every other member. Members request different committees and as we go through the steering committee, we’ll look at it,” he said. She is just the same member that gets elected in our conference who can put through the committees she wants.
Greene is not the only member who has spouted conspiracy theories or incendiary rhetoric. Most recently, some Republicans have mocked the brutal attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, or peddled fringe conspiracy theories about the incident.
The First Midterm Campaign in the United States: An Empirical Analysis of the First Elections, the Predictions for the House of Representatives, and Implications for Democrats and Republicans
“The first thing I’ll ask the president to do is not to call half the nation idiots or say things about them because they have a difference of opinion,” he said. I think the president is responsible for leadership matters. The speaker will start it.
A dispirited nation worn down by crises and economic anxieties votes Tuesday in an election that is more likely to cement its divides than promote unity.
The country has a new path set in motion by the elections and those who choose their leaders accepting the results.
But the final hours of this midterm campaign laid bare the polarized electoral environment, the specter of political violence and the possibility of disputed races – all of which have raised the stakes of the first nationwide vote since former President Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election and have augured an acrimonious two years to come.
Republicans predict they will win the House of Representatives on Tuesday – a victory that, if it materializes, would give them the power to throttle President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda and clamp an investigative vise on his White House. The race for the majority in the Senate could come down to races in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
Polls show the economy is the most important issue for voters, who are still waiting for the restoration of normality after a once-in-a-century pandemic that Biden had promised in 2020 because of the cost of living crisis.
There was a lot of news on job losses just before the polls opened, making people nervous about a possible slump in the economy, which would destroy one of the bright spots of the Biden economy. Americans are already grappling with higher prices for food and gasoline and now must deal with the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes that will make credit cards more expensive and could lead to a recession.
This is a sign that democracy is working, because the economic situation threatens to set up a classic election rebuke for a first-term president. Elections have for generations been a safety valve for the public to express dissent with the country’s direction.
The run-up to the elections has highlighted the depth of America’s self-estrangement in a political era in which both sides think victory for the other is no match for their country.
Biden is going to have a hard day on Tuesday. The president did not spend the final hours of the campaign battling to get vulnerable Democrats over the line in a critical swing state. Instead, he was in the liberal bastion of Maryland – a safe haven where his low approval ratings likely won’t hurt Democrats running for office. While he did stump for Pennsylvania Senate nominee John Fetterman over the weekend, the venue of his final event encapsulated his drained political juice as he contemplates a 2024 reelection campaign.
“I think it’s going to be tough,” Biden told reporters. He admitted life would become more difficult for him if the GOP took control of Congress, but he thought they would win the Senate.
Even as Trump claimed he didn’t want to overshadow Republican candidates, on the eve of an election in which he is not on the ballot, he made it all about himself. Trump spoke to a crowd in Ohio that was ostensibly for the GOP’s Senate nominee, J.D. Vance, who claimed that America was on the verge of decline. If indicted in criminal probes into his conduct, he’s going to tell the world that he is the victim of a totalitarian state-style persecution.
The most secret thing in politics is that Donald Trump will seek another term in the White House when he makes a huge announcement on November 15. The fact that a twice-impeached president, who left office in disgrace after legitimizing violence as a form of political expression, has a good chance of winning underscores the turbulence of our time.
The false reality that Trump spun over his baseless claims about a stolen election and the scores of election deniers carrying the Republican flag only validated Biden’s warnings in the midterm campaign that democracy is on the ballot – even if most voters appear more concerned with the high cost of feeding their families than the somewhat esoteric debates about the state of the nation’s founding values.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/politics/midterm-fractious-political-environment-analysis/index.html
CNN Meets the Freedom Caucus: How Will We Move Forward? Nancy Pelosi Revealed the Trauma of the Capitol Insurrection
The shadow of violence that has hung over American policies since Trump incited the Capitol insurrection was exacerbated as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recalled the moment of trauma when she was told by police that her husband Paul had been attacked with a hammer. In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, she also condemned certain Republicans for joking about it.
They were putting out an agenda and measuring the drapes. They haven’t won it yet,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “After the election is concluded, depending on who was in the majority, there’ll be judgments made within their own party, in our own parties, as to how we go forward.”
Ron Johnson said that if he were to be re-elected, he would use the power given to him to further bolster investigations in case the Republicans take the Senate.
There is a magic about democratic elections, when differences are exposed in debates. It has been assumed that both sides would abide by the verdict of the people.
“We need to have a real discussion about whether he should be the speaker,” Biggs, who was in Washington, DC, last week for House Freedom Caucus meetings, told reporters. “I think we should have a very frank discussion internally about where we’re going to be going forward.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said it was a “red line” for her, but not everyone in the Freedom Caucus is united on whether to make that a hard line.
The Freedom Caucus, a group that includes dozens of hardline members, have been meeting in Washington, DC, this week for their new member orientation, where they have begun to plot out their strategy for the speaker’s race. With a smaller-than- expected majority, they see an opportunity to use their leverage to get more power for the GOP.
Tensions in the party have been made worse by the group pushing for concessions from McCarthy. A senior GOP lawmaker said that they are a bunch of selfish, a**holes who want attention for themselves. They are trading effectiveness for the warm embrace of their social media followers.”
Why did McCarthy not deliver the majority at the LEP? Rep. Gaetz, Norman, Scott, Lee, and Scott, and their letters to Scott and McConnell
CNN projected on Friday that the Republicans would have more seats in the House of Representatives than the Democrats.
Norman said the group is working on a longer list of rules changes. McCarthy is not expected to delay next week’s internal leadership elections.
When asked whether McCarthy should get credit for delivering the majority, Norman responded: “The taxpayers that voted the representatives in deserve the credit.”
There is a member who said that McCarthy had nothing to do to get him to vote for him. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said on his podcast that not only was McCarthy not his first choice to lead, he was not “even in my top 100”.
Gaetz said that the C team shouldn’t be starting with a slim majority. We have to put our star players in a good position so that they can shine bright and help us get more people to read our policies.
Even in the Senate, where control hangs in the balance, Senators Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah circulated a letter asking for a delay in leadership elections, amid calls from the former president to depose Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as the Republican leader.
The Red Wave: Why the ‘Red Wave’ Gone Too Fast for the GOP and What We Need to Do to Make It Happen
“We are all disappointed that a red wave failed to materialize, and there are multiple reasons it did not,” they wrote. “We need to have serious discussions within our conference as to why and what we can do to improve our chances in 2024.”
Senator Marco Rubio, handily re-elected to his seat in Florida, seconded the call. “We need to make sure that those who want to lead us are genuinely committed to fighting for the priorities & values of the working Americans (of every background) who gave us big wins in states like #Florida,” he wrote on Twitter, quickly receiving the backing of Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the party’s presidential nominee in 2012, released his own prescriptions for the future, which strongly hinted that Republican losses reflected the party’s embrace of rage and recrimination over policy proposals. He counseled Republicans to work with Democrats in the coming Congress to slow inflation by curtailing spending on Medicare and Social Security, to open broader pathways to legal immigration, and to address climate change globally while increasing domestic energy production.
He wrote that the road was more tempting to pursue pointless investigations, threats and government shutdowns.
Speaking at the University of Chicago on Friday, Cheney signaled that Tuesday’s vote was a step in the right direction.
The ongoing divide between the House and Senate GOP, while nothing new, has been a topic of conversation among members who have recently huddled with McCarthy as they plot their new majority.
And in the Senate, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been calling his colleagues over the last several days to shore up his support as his team plans to plow forward with leadership elections on Wednesday despite grumbling by a faction of dissenters who are trying to slam the brakes after their midterm debacle. They are planning to have a GOP air-clearing session on Tuesday.
Republican lawmakers who have aligned with the Freedom Caucus like Bob Good of Virginia have questioned McCarthy’s grip on power. Good told Fox News that he should be concerned. “There absolutely will be a challenge to Kevin McCarthy’s leadership bid.”
“A lot of people have called me to see if I’ll run,” Scott said. “Here’s my focus, is we still got to win Georgia. I’m not going to take anything off the table.”
Trump, Banks and the Congressional Committee: What does the Party want to do about the 2016 midterm elections? Tom Emmer meets Mitch McConnell
Trump’s aides and allies have privately been critical of Tom Emmer, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee. CNN isn’t projecting which party will control the lower chamber, but Republicans appear to be on top of the House majority. Emmer is competing against Rep. Jim Banks, an ally of Donald Trump Jr., for the position of House GOP whip.
Behind the scenes, the finger pointing has already begun, and those conversations are likely to accelerate as the full House and Senate return to Washington this week for the first time since the midterm elections.
Trump and his allies have tried to get McConnell to fall for the lackluster performance of the Republican Party, accusing him of spending recklessly in states where the GOP faced a lot of headwinds.
There is a high correlation between big losses and candidates from the far right. “I think my party needs to face the fact that if fealty to Donald Trump is the primary criteria for selecting candidates, we’re probably not going to do really well.”
One Republican lawmaker pointed out that McConnell and McCarthy are dealing with different conferences and political dynamics, which explains their sometimes conflicting approaches.
Even though he had very little chance of succeeding, Scott didn’t rule out a challenge to McConnell.
While McCarthy has been willing to hear out his critics and the potential hold outs, so far, he is not giving in to any of their demands for more power and promises of investigations into the Biden administration.
The senior Republican told CNN political physics says it is not possible to appease the moderates and HFC at the same time. “If you straddle that fence, you hope it’s not barbed wire.”
It hasn’t fully broken through despite Trump’s pro-McCarthy campaign. Some of Trump’s staunchest allies have been all over conservative media attacking McCarthy. However, one notable Trump ally went on Steve Bannon’s podcast on Monday and expressed support for McCarthy: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called it a “bad strategy” and “risky” to challenge McCarthy given their likely razor-thin majority.
A GOP source claims that Trump has been looking to see which Republican lawmakers have endorsed him in the media. So far, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik has been the highest-ranking Republican to officially back Trump’s 2024 bid.
The vote to elect the next speaker will take place in January at the start of the new Congress, but House Republicans will hold their internal leadership elections to pick a Speaker nominee this week.
If Pelosi does not run for the top leadership post, it would set the stage for a major shakeup in House Democratic leadership and mark the end of an era for Washington. The move would begin a fight for her successor that could expose divisions within the party and lead to other prominent members moving up the leadership ladder.
The Republican Freedom Caucus Speaker’s Pitch: How a Minority Can Imply a Majority or Weakens the Speakership
Republicans are scheduled to hold a candidate forum on Monday evening, followed by leadership elections on Tuesday, November 15, according to a copy of the schedule shared with CNN.
On November 30, whoever is elected to the chair of the House Democratic Caucus will have to run the rest of the leadership elections.
A candidate for the position of Democratic leader need to win a majority of the vote in order to be elected. If more than two candidates run and no one gets a majority, the candidate with the most votes after the first round of voting will be eliminated, and then the voting will continue to a second round. That process continues until one candidate wins a majority.
But if enough members of the Freedom Caucus withhold their support, it could imperil his speaker bid or force him to make deals to weaken the speakership, something he has long resisted.
The candidate didn’t know if a small majority would affect his bid. His pitch to members is the same as McCarthy’s.
The Republican Study Committee chair, Jim Banks of Indiana, the chief deputy Whip, Drew Ferguson of Georgia, and Emmer are running for the post.
Democrat Mike McCarthy and the Freedom Caucus: Where are we going? What do we expect to see from a Democratic caucus chair?
It’s definitely true. Well, you know that I’m not asking anybody – people are campaigning, and that’s a beautiful thing,” the California Democrat told Bash. “And I’m not asking anyone for anything. My members are asking me to do something. But, again, let’s just get through the election.”
Currently, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer serves as the No. 2 House Democrat, in the role of House majority leader, and South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn serves in the role of House majority whip. Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark serves in the role of assistant Speaker and New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries serves as House Democratic caucus chair.
Colorado congressman Joe Neguse has announced that he will run for caucus chair to replace Jeffries who is term limited.
The race to lead the party’s campaign arm, DCCC chair, is starting to take shape up after the current chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York lost his reelection.
Several Democrats including Ami Bera of California and Tony Cardenas of California are being mentioned as possibilities for the spot.
Several members of the Freedom Caucus met with McCarthy in his office Monday as they seek to extract concessions from him in exchange for their speaker votes.
McCarthy has been asked by Good to come to them with his proposal for running the House.
Perry said that while their primary focus has been seeking rules changes that would empower individual members – and weaken the speaker – that is “not the limit” of their issues.
“We want to see this place change dramatically, to reflect the will of the people and to acknowledge how broken it is,” he said. “It’s incumbent upon anybody that wants to lead to kind of lay out their vision and how they would change their portion of it.”
The Republicans used the opportunity to get promises and apologies from their prospective leaders. Representative Steve Scalise asked if he would be willing to investigate Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she would support Mr. McCarthy.
“No, I’m not going to get into speculation,” Scalise told CNN. “Obviously, our focus is on getting it resolved by January 3. And there’s a lot of conversations that everybody has been having, Kevin, surely, with the members who have expressed concerns.”
Mr. Scalise apologized and said he should have waited until he had more facts to comment, according to two people familiar with the exchange who described it on the condition of anonymity.
Comments on Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the 2016 Midterm Pew Referendum: Where are we going? How do we know the future of the House GOP?
The GOP is still trying to figure out how to move forward after their disappointing finish in the election, and has been dealing with the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack. Mr. Trump has received an unusual torrent of internal blame for the string of losses by his own appointees, who were supposed to be his allies.
“It’s going to be a narrow one,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma. It makes it critical you have someone with good political skills. Somebody that knows every part of this conference.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is hoping to pass a crucial test on Tuesday in his campaign to become House speaker despite an underwhelming midterm election performance that launched a search among conservatives for a challenger.
Idaho GOP Rep. Mike Simpson said he’ll support McCarthy for leader, noting the GOP gained House seats the last two elections. Simpson said that he had done a good job.
In recent weeks, part of McCarthy’s pitch to his critics has been warning that if they don’t unify, then Democrats could theoretically band together and peel off a few Republicans to elect the next speaker.
Bob Good, a McCarthy critic, complained in a closed-door leadership candidate forum on Monday that the McCarthy-aligned Super PAC had opposed some pro- Trump candidates and had not called to congratulate him when he won his primary. McCarthy replied that he directed $2 million to Good for his race. Good had to be gaveled down in order to cut him off from speaking so they could move to the next question, the source said.
But McCarthy’s allies have recently attempted to convince moderate Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar to switch parties in hopes of padding their slim margins, according to two sources familiar with the conversation. Cuellar refused to accept the idea. McCarthy’s spokesman said the GOP leader was not involved if these conversations took place and that this is not part of their strategy for the majority or for his speakership bid.
Still, McCarthy and Scalise appear to be in command of their leadership races, while the No. 3 House GOP position remains up for grabs, which would be the role of House majority whip, if Republicans win control of the chamber.
A source in the room said that a Minnesota lawmaker was pressed on his vote in favor of a bill to codify same-sex marriage. His answer was that these divisive social issues shouldn’t be brought to the House floor.
The Young Guns: How Kevin McCarthy became the First Player in the California Lottery and became the Republican Party’s First Whistler
As he likes to tell it Kevin McCarthy’s political career started on a gamble in the California Lottery when he was a young kid living in Bakersfield. I scratched all three of my tickets. The most money you could win was $5,000. I scratch three of them and all three of them say $5,000. And I had never played the game before I go back and read the results as I saw them, and ask if I won. I was one of the first winners in California,” McCarthy recalled in a 2005 conversation with high school seniors recorded by CSPAN. That lucky break led him to invest that money, use it to open up a deli named Kevin O’s, and then sell that business to help pay his way through college. He started working for the Republican Bill Thomas in the mid-twenties. He was elected party leader in 2002 after he won a seat in California’s Assembly. I refer to myself as the Republican leader, because I never like to be referred to as the minority leader. I’m proud of my party,” he said at the time. When Thomas announced he would retire in 2006, McCarthy succeeded his former boss in Congress. McCarthy only faced token opposition for the seat representing his hometown in his campaigns, and he never won a general election with less than 50% of the vote.
He entered congress as a small government conservative, like George W. Bush. His first speech on the House floor was in opposition to a 2007 Democratic bill to raise the minimum wage. “I came to Congress to work to increase opportunities for all Americans, not to harm workers and small businesses.” McCarthy, along with Congressmen Eric Cantor of Virginia and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, was often described as a young “rising star” in the party. Together the trio were the minority party’s self-proclaimed “Young Guns” who wrote a 2010 book, went on a book tour, and produced a glossy Hollywood style ad to promote their agenda, and themselves. “Joined by common sense conservatives across the country. Together they are ready to make history. The ad referred to them as the Young Guns. McCarthy also did the work, he’s credited with helping recruit dozens of outsider candidates to run in the historic 2010 tea party wave, that delivered a Republican majority and with it made him majority whip, right below Cantor who became majority leader. With a more right-wing, combative style of Republican lawmaker, and the party’s “Young Guns”, the party was also part of the establishment. The candidate who ran to the right defeated him in the Republican primary and forced him out of office. McCarthy became the majority leader. The man they elected spent a lot of time recruiting people to join the majority party. When asked if he was conservative enough to lead the Conference, he said he’d had to struggle for whatever he wanted. House Republicans–still stymied by a Democrat in the White House–continued to take out their inability to get much of anything done out on their own leadership. In the fall of 2015, right-wing conservatives led by congressman MarkMeadows of North Carolina led a months long campaign that forced Speaker JohnBohemia to resign. McCarthy quickly announced a bid to succeed him, but he withdrew from that race shortly after when it became clear he did not have the support of the most conservative wing in the party. “If we are going to unite and be strong, we need a new face to help do that,” he said. Paul Ryan took over the role and McCarthy remained the speaker’s deputy.
Donald Trump’s victory in the election realigned the political interests of the Republican party. Tea Party style opposition to spending fell into line with the new leader of the party. While Ryan and Trump were often at odds over tweets and the legislative agenda, McCarthy worked his way in to Trump’s good graces. He once bragged to The Washington Post that after noticing Trump’s favorite Starburst flavors were the red and pink ones, he made a point to deliver a jar of them to the president as a gift.
McCarthy refocused his leadership efforts to to win over Trump loyalists in the House, voted against Trump’s second impeachment for incitement of insurrection, and helped oust Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, from party leadership for her criticism of Trump and his role in inciting the Jan. 6 attack. Cheney has since never missed an opportunity to question McCarthy’s fitness for public office. “When Minority Leader McCarthy has had the opportunity to do the right thing or the thing that serves his own political purpose, he always chooses to serve his own political purpose,” she recently told NBC.
In the event that neither McCarthy nor Biggs can get 218 votes on January 3 and neither drops out, some pro-McCarthy Republicans are signaling support for a different approach. The idea of finding a Moderate Republican who could get 218 votes to win the gavel is long-shot, but many said they’d be willing to work with Democrats.
Bacon added if GOP hardliners don’t bend, then he would be willing to work with Democrats to find another more moderate Republican to secure the 218 votes to become speaker.
If Kevin decided to take his name out, there would be good people running. One GOP lawmaker said that the man would most likely be slayer.
If McCarthy fails to get the votes, it’s possible that he would jump into the race.
Even though he had been urged by Gaetz to run for speaker, the conservative is going to chair the Judiciary Committee and won’t jump into the race.
“I will vote for Andy for speaker, subject to what we’re discussing,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican after leaving a meeting in McCarthy’s office on Wednesday. He added: “All this is positive.” We’re having good change, regardless of what happens. And you’ll see more of it.”
McCarthy must work hard to get to 218, as shown by their list of demands which include the promise that leaders won’t play in primaries, more conservatives on key committees, and at least 72 hours to read bill text before a vote.
But McCarthy still has additional levers he could pull. Conservative hardliners are pushing for more representation on the powerful House Rules Committee, a leadership-aligned panel that decides how and when bills come to the floor. In one private meeting with a member of the House Freedom Caucus, McCarthy was urged to take a harder public stance on the coming policy issues for next year, according to a person familiar with the matter.
During a closed-door meeting of House Republicans last month, a majority of them voted against the idea of restoring the motion to vacate the chair. When asked by CNN on Thursday if he would visit the issue, McCarthy laughed and refused to answer.
“I think that’s one of the reasons that we didn’t see a red wave … the idea that people are sick and tired of the noise, and they’re sick and tired of the fighting,” Rep. David Joyce, an Ohio Republican, said of the impact of a January 3 floor fight. I know wherever I go in the district, I see that people are asking why they can’t do things.
As McCarthy scrambles to lock down speaker’s votes, he also delayed the GOP’s internal elections for committee chairmanships. If Buchanan fails to win the gavel it will make McCarthy’s math problem even more difficult because he may retire early. Buchanan disagreed with the notion.
Some democrats said they would entertain the idea, including one who told CNN he had been approached “informally” by his GOP colleagues.
Joyce also said some members have reached out to him about potentially running, but he dismissed it. “At the end of the day, Kevin’s going to be the new speaker.”
Jeffries said there were no behind the scenes conversations to put up an alternative candidate. He would not rule out the possibility of his caucus getting involved in the speaker race if McCarthy could not get enough votes.
The Democrats are organizing the conference according to Jeffries. Republicans are organizing a conference. Let’s see what happens on January 3.
One of the possible consensus picks is retiring Rep Fred Upton of Michigan, who voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol insurrection, and also Brian Fitzpatrick, who is a co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
It would need agreement from all of the Democrats and five of the Republicans. Upton said he has no plans to be in Washington that day, telling CNN: “I’ll be skiing.”
But Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman said this has happened before – nearly a decade ago in his state where minority Democrats in the Arkansas legislature joined forces with a handful of Republicans to elect a GOP speaker of their choice. This case was made at a closed-door meeting by Westerman.
January 3 is worrying: Where are we going? How will Congress respond to Westerman, McConnell, Thune, and the other Republicans?
January 3 is worrying me because we won’t be able to form a congress, organize committees and push the objectives that we want to push.
Westerman added that the discussion over changing House rules is good for the party. But he added: “I’m not really excited about any type of destructive movement.”
Republicans are “wrong” if they want to cut a year-end spending deal with Democrats, McCarthy told Fox News host Laura Ingraham, saying they should instead punt the issue until 2023 when Republicans take control of the House.
And now as Congress is wrapping up its work for the year to fund federal agencies through next fall, McCarthy and McConnell are headed on a collision course, underscoring the competing political forces in their respective conferences that the two will have to work through next year when the GOP takes power in the House.
“It’s a House-Senate dynamic, and the conference in the House, obviously, a lot of times can be in a different place than the conference in the Senate,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the South Dakota Republican who serves as McConnell’s top deputy.
McCarthy, whose office declined to comment, pointed to remarks he made after the November White House meeting where he said that continuing resolutions to fund the government “are not where we want to be.” But the California Republican also warned that a short-term patch to kick the issue until the new Congress might be necessary if Democrats “don’t want to work with us,” adding: “We can get this work done in January as well.”
It’s as old as the republic itself, with the House able to approve legislation by a simple majority and the Senate unable to make much headway until it has at least 60 votes. In the new Congress, McConnell will lead a 49-seat Senate minority while McCarthy will have 222 Republican seats in the House. If McCarthy is elected speaker on January 3, he can only afford to lose four GOP votes to pass legislation, due to the fact that he is a Republican.
A top GOP appropriator said that everybody probably has a reason to oppose it. They could be against it on philosophical grounds, or they could be against it on political grounds.
McCarthy pointed his finger at Democrats after sidestepping a question about McConnell’s support for the emerging funding package.
The Republican from Kentucky told reporters that they were on defense. We are Dealing with the cards we were dealt. He said that they were able to ramp up funding for defense programs and hold the line against Democrats’ push to raise money for other domestic programs.
Even as McCarthy signals his staunch opposition to the massive spending package, some of his critics are complaining about how the process is playing out.
The chairman of the House Freedom Caucus said that the Senate majority leader was preparing to roll the House down on more spending. “Tell me how something changes here. I’m interested to hear, but right now, I don’t see anything changing.”
Republicans in the House will likely whip against the omnibus bill as well, since they are against extending the one-week short-term funding patch until December 23. McConnell is likely to support one of the packages.
Mr. McCarthy doesn’t share his plan with his team, which is seen as a sign of paranoia, because they haven’t been told about the speakership race. He was seen recently around the Capitol and nearby the Republican National Committee headquarters with Jeff Miller, a Republican lobbyist who is close to him.
Mr. Norman, who has described himself as a “hard no” against Mr. McCarthy, declined to discuss his call with Mr. Trump, describing it as a “private conversation.” He said he was still undecided on who to support for speaker. Mr. Crane did not respond to requests for comment.
When Nancy Pelosi in 2018 found herself about a dozen votes short of what she would need to secure the speaker’s gavel, she quietly picked off defectors, methodically cutting deals to capture exactly enough support to prevail. Ms. Pelosi was able to win seven votes because she agreed to limit her tenure and another eight because she promised to implement rules that would foster more bipartisan legislating.
The Republican in California has made a number of pledges to appease the right flank of his party. He traveled to the southern border and called on Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, to resign or face potential impeachment proceedings. He promised Ms. Greene, who was stripped of her committee assignments for making a series of violent and conspiratorial social media posts before she was elected, a plum spot on the Oversight Committee.
He has threatened to investigate the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, promising to hold public hearings scrutinizing the security breakdowns that occurred. He has been quietly meeting with ultraconservative lawmakers in an effort to win them over. On Monday night, he publicly encouraged his members to vote against the spending bill.
The Case for a Bipartisan Framework Agreement Between the Ex-President Donald J. McCarthy and the Subsequent Causality Violation of the Make America Great Again Movement
The tiny GOP House majority that takes over in January, after a disappointing midterm performance, would mean a fragile governing mandate for any party at any point in American history. The ideological battle being waged by pro-Donald Trump extremists inside the party would have made the majority more volatile.
The Republican in California is fighting a rear guard battle against the members who want to make it easier to oust a speaker and he is appeasing ex-president Donald Trump to keep his political power base.
McCarthy has become more assertive in his defiance of theMake America Great Again movement, seeming to seek out soundbite clashes with the press as badges of honor.
This is one reason that a bipartisan framework agreement for which was announced Tuesday night is so important since it could dump a fiscal crisis on the lap of weak and easily manipulated new, which is why the current year-end tussle over funding the government for a full year is so critical.
McCarthy shrugged off the comments, saying she believed she was being facetious. His attitude was consistent with his attempt to rewrite the history of the most damaging attack on US democracy in modern times, when he briefly said that Trump bore responsibility.
McCarthy declined to criticize the ex-president, who met with a white supremacist, at the dinner, because he didn’t want to offend Ye, who made antisemitic comments in the past. In a histrionic performance at the White House after meeting Biden and other congressional leaders last month, the House Republican leader falsely claimed that Trump had condemned Fuentes four times, when he hadn’t done so once.
According to CNN, McCarthy had signaled to the White House meeting that he would be open to a large bill. But while Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell worked on such a measure Tuesday and declared it “broadly appealing,” McCarthy told his members that he was a “Hell no” on the measure.