Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia claimed that “10 to 15” Republicans would “block” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker at Tuesday’s vote and hinted at a “true candidate” to potentially replace him.
“What we’ll do is we’ll block Kevin. There will be, I suspect, 10 to 15 members who will vote against him on the first ballot tomorrow, that will vote for Andy Biggs,” Good told “Fox and Friends” guest host Griff Jenkins Monday. “But then I think you will see on the second ballot, an increasing number of members vote for a true candidate who can represent the conservative center of the conference, can motivate the base, inspire Republicans across the country, get to 218 votes, bring our conference together to fight against the radical Democrat agenda, the most extreme agenda we’ve ever seen.”
Jenkins noted that Biggs could not win election to the speakership, but Good said that the candidate he had in mind would be revealed “on the second ballot.” The Virginia Republican declined to say who the candidate would be.
Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona launched an unsuccessful challenge to McCarthy for the nomination of the House Republican caucus to serve as speaker of the House, losing by a 188-31 vote on Nov. 15. Biggs, Good and Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana all publicly announced they would not support McCarthy for Speaker.
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“The simple fact is that Congress is broken and needs to change,” McCarthy wrote in a letter to Republican House members, according to Politico, during which he agreed to many rule changes proposed by the House Freedom Caucus. The California Republican would need to secure 218 votes to secure the speakership.
Nine other Republicans who are undecided said “McCarthy’s statement comes almost impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress on January 3rd,” according to a letter obtained by Politico.
McCarthy agreed Sunday to lower the threshold for a “motion to vacate the chair,” which allows rank-and-file members of the House of Representatives to depose the speaker. The process was used in 2015 by then-Rep. Mark Meadows in an attempt to end John Boehner’s tenure as speaker of the House.
“I won’t be voting for Kevin McCarthy tomorrow. He is part of the problem, he’s not part of the solution. I will be following the will of my constituents, the voters of Virginia’s fifth district, who hundreds of which have told me over the past couple of years not to support Kevin McCarthy,” Good said. “What I told them when I started my first term two years ago, is I would judge him by what he did as minority leader and there’s nothing he has done to earn my vote. There is nothing that indicates to me that he is going to change his pattern since he has been in leadership, where he is part of the swamp cartel.”
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