Fifteen rounds of voting to make Kevin McCarthy House Speaker finally came to a head late Friday with the realization that "we weren't going to stop" and that arguments would resume on Monday, Rep. Jeff Van Drew said on Newsmax Saturday.
"Obviously, it was a group of few at the end who decided, okay let's get this done and let's get it over with, and that was a very much last-minute decision," the New Jersey Republican said on Newsmax's "Saturday Agenda."
"This was history in the making. And sometimes history is not as organized or as perfect as you like it to be."
Everyone wants change, he added, but at the same time, "we want a House that is very effective and really gets in and digs into what needs to be done, and is significantly different than what the Democrats did."
Former President Donald Trump has been credited for making some calls that led to the final vote, but Van Drew said he believes "multiple things" also came in to play, including between people who had friendships or government relationships and shared similar philosophies.
"I know I was there talking to some people and I talked about the transition I made when I went from being a Democrat years ago to becoming a Republican, and why I did that and how important it was and that quite frankly, I didn't go through that grueling process to be where we were right at that moment," he said.
It was also stressed that once a speaker was seated, the House Republican majority could go on to pressing matters, including "proper investigations" into the U.S.-Mexico border chaos, Dr. Anthony Fauci and COVID, and much more, said Van Drew.
"Every little factor mattered," he said.
McCarthy made concessions to gain votes, including empowering a single lawmaker to launch the process of ousting the Speaker, and that could happen, but Van Drew said he doesn't think that will happen.
"Kevin is really all hell-bent on doing the job and doing it right and being strong but this nevertheless put a process in place where we didn't do what [Nancy] Pelosi did where she said no, she's there forever," he said. "There's a big difference in what happened and there's a lot of ways to make sure that the right thing will happen."
Meanwhile, Van Drew said he knows from his own experience as a Democrat that members of that party are smart and focused and have "tons of money," so "they're not kidding around."
He also slammed Rep. Hakeem Jeffries for speaking, calling the address "much too long."
"It wasn't his day," he said. "It was the speaker's moment right there."
But the Republicans must make sure they go down a new road of responsibility" as well as finding out what is going on with the border, Hunter Biden's laptop, and more, so that information can be given to the American people, said Van Drew.
"That's all areas where we're on the same page, so we'll have to work out the areas where we're on a different page, and that's part of politics, and it's part of life," he said.
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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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