Rep. Peter King said Thursday that the pandemonium created when House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy surprisingly pulled out of the race for speaker over opposition by conservative Republicans caused the GOP to "look absolutely crazy."
"Even then we knew we could resolve it ourselves," the New York representative told reporters. "But now, you have a situation where there are 30 or 40 people in their own party who say they are not going to vote for anyone no matter who it is.
"We have to end this," King said. "We look absolutely crazy.”
McCarthy, 50, who has represented California since 2007, announced his decision without any warning at the start of a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference.
He was expected to be nominated to succeed House Speaker John Boehner, who said last month that he would step down on Oct. 30.
The House Freedom Caucus, a group of as many as 40 conservative Republicans, strongly opposed McCarthy's candidacy from the outset — threatening to withhold votes when the full House gathered to weigh in on the matter on Oct. 29.
He would have needed only 51 votes to be nominated Thursday.
Boehner postponed that vote, saying that he would stay on until a successor was elected. The full vote later this month has not yet been rescheduled.
King, 71, who first came to the House in 1993, later slammed the conservative GOP members in an interview with CNN, saying that McCarthy should not have backed down.
"I don't think he should have given up," he
told host Anderson Cooper. "You have to take those guys on. You can't allow a small group like that to hijack the entire party."
He said the episode gave the Republican Party the "appearance of being" a banana republic — saying that Boehner essentially resigned because of pressure from the same band of conservatives.
"We have never removed a speaker under circumstances like this before. In effect, John was removed — and then we have the person who had 90 percent of the votes required, and he suddenly decides not to run.
"We have a government default possibly coming up because of the national debt," King added. "We have budget votes. We have so many important votes coming up — and we don't have a speaker, who is a constitutional officer third in line to be president."
The congressman said that his choice for speaker was Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Ryan, 45, who is in his ninth term, has ruled out a run — but news reports circulated late Thursday that Boehner was pressing the 2012 vice presidential candidate to reconsider.
"I use the word 'pressure' being brought on well-intentioned people who tell him that he could be the only one to bring factions of the party together," King said.
But the congressman's biggest concern is the possibility of a government shutdown. The current funding for the federal government ends on Sept. 30.
A 16-day partial shutdown in October 2013 cost taxpayers $1.4 billion.
"First of all, governmentally, it's wrong and affects the nation's credit rating. We saw that happen two years ago — and as Republicans, it affects our standing with the people."
King added that a shutdown also "sends a terrible message to the world that here you have the world's greatest so-called parliamentary body, congressional body, unable to even select a speaker and not pay debts.
"People say they are conservatives. How can they refuse to pay debts we owe?" he asked.
"Why do they want us to be a dead-beat nation?"
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