With only days to go until the vote for Speaker of the House, it is still anyone’s guess who will win.
That’s because a growing number of conservative GOP House members are refusing to back frontrunner Kevin McCarthy.
And Matt Gaetz just stunned RINOs into silence with one brutal truth about those who support Kevin McCarthy’s Speaker run.
The GOP’s slim November victory in the U.S. House means they get to choose the next Speaker.
And everyone assumed that choice was California Republican Kevin McCarthy who currently serves as Minority Leader.
Call him “Cavin’” McCarthy
But a funny thing happened on the way to McCarthy’s coronation, he found out he has opposition.
McCarthy needs 218 votes to grab the Speaker’s gavel, and Republicans have a total of 222 representatives.
But of those 222 a minimum of 5 have already said they will not vote for McCarthy and another dozen or more say they aren’t prepared to support him yet.
Among the 5 no votes is Florida’s conservative firebrand Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL 1).
And Gaetz recently laid out his case in a Daily Caller op-ed.
Gaetz’s op-ed made clear why he won’t be voting for McCarthy for Speaker and pointed out McCarthy has “no ideology.”
Gaetz also told the Daily Caller in an interview that the current GOP Minority Leader is known as “Cavin’ McCarthy.”
But Gaetz went even further stating that most Republicans who support Kevin McCarthy for Speaker “benefit” from special interest money.
The Daily Caller interviewed Gaetz at the recent AmericaFest conference, and also asked Gaetz who he believes should be the next Speaker of the House.
That’s not going to work anymore
McCarthy does have one challenger, Arizona Republican Andy Biggs who is mounting an aggressive campaign.
But other names are being put forward as well.
Especially since it is looking more and more like McCarthy doesn’t have the votes he needs.
To win he can’t have more than four Republicans vote against him and the five no votes all say they will not change their vote.
“I’m not voting for Kevin McCarthy, because I think he’s just a shill of the establishment. I think that Kevin McCarthy is little more than a vessel through which lobbyists and special interests operate,” Gaetz told the Daily Caller.
Gaetz then had a brutal truth for his fellow GOP members who are supporting McCarthy.
“The reason most of my Republican colleagues are supporting him is because they benefit from the redistribution of lobbyist and special interest money through McCarthy to their campaign accounts,” Gaetz said.
He then warned his fellow Republicans, “The bottom line is, that’s not going to work anymore.”
We need someone who has the trust of the party
Gaetz went on to say that the House needs someone like Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH).
This remark came even as Gaetz was tweeting out calls for people to urge Jordan to run.
“We need someone like Jim Jordan as the Speaker of the House, who can cast a vision and who has the trust and confidence of the people across the spectrum in the House,” Gaetz said.
As it stands today, McCarthy will not be taking the Speaker’s gavel.
The five holdouts are Congressmen Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), and Bob Good (R-VA).
Axios recently reported the five plan to vote as a unit when McCarthy’s nomination comes to the floor for a vote.
“We all operate as five. […] We come as five, so we’re going to agree on all [of the concessions we need],” Norman said, according to Axios.
If that holds, it spells trouble for McCarthy, who can only afford to lose four GOP votes next month.
Even more concerning to McCarthy is the growing list of other GOP Representatives who have not said how they plan to vote but did present a list of demands that they expect from the new Speaker.
Given the five members who are opposing McCarthy, it is looking less and less likely we will be hearing from Speaker McCarthy this year.
Deplorable Daily will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
