Having a crowded primary race is good for former President Donald Trump's chances in the 2024 GOP race, Rep. Andy Ogles, who has already endorsed Trump, said Wednesday on Newsmax.
"If you're Donald Trump, you're hoping for a crowded primary," the Tennessee Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "The more you've got some slices of the pie that you get in there, it's better for him because his slice is already so large. His floor is greater than most of these candidates' ceilings."
Ogles predicted that even if Trump ends up being indicted in connection with investigations that are taking place about him, "he will be the nominee for the Republican Party."
Ogles also discussed the conservative revolt that took place on the House floor Tuesday, when 11 Republicans, led by the Freedom Caucus, refused to advance procedural bills in a move to protest last week's debt ceiling deal vote.
"The way the sausage gets made in D.C., isn't pretty and there were some threats made during the debt ceiling fight that bills would be held up," he said. "That's been reported by the media."
One of the issues was a bill sponsored by Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., to overturn a new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rule regulating pistols with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles.
Clyde has claimed he was told by House leaders that if he refused to support a vote to advance the debt limit increase, his legislation wouldn't be advanced, which House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., denied, Fox News reported.
"It's imperative that the pistol brace bill that is sponsored by Andrew Clyde, get to the floor and it passed because you have law-abiding citizens that now have been turned into felons," said Ogles.
Another issue that was up for a procedural vote was legislation to keep gas stoves from being banned, and Ogles said he opposes any move to do away with the appliances.
"I'm a country boy that lives in Tennessee," he said. "We have a gas stove. We live back in the valley on top of the hill, and so when storms come in Tennessee, we may be locked in for a few days, so I need my gas stove."
Ogles added that he voted against the debt ceiling bill because the nation is already $32 trillion in debt, and that "we're about to add $4 trillion more."
"When you look at the Limit, Save, Grow Act, a lot of hard work went into that legislation," he said. "It was well thought out. It was responsible and really should have been accepted by the other side. The Fiscal Responsibility Act was a bad deal and it should have never passed."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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