Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Tuesday his preferred option for solving the chaos among House Republicans in picking a speaker is putting the gavel back in the hands of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
McCarthy, who had been speaker since January, was removed Oct. 3 after a historic motion to vacate vote led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and seven other Republicans – less than 4% of the GOP Conference – with the help of 208 Democrats.
"If there's a way to get back to Kevin McCarthy, I'm there," Gimenez told "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "I have always been a Kevin McCarthy guy. I think he is our leader; he is our natural leader. Ninety-six percent of our conference wanted to keep Kevin McCarthy as the leader. The gang of eight and 208 Democrats removed him.
"I think that that's an abomination, and we should go back and put Kevin McCarthy in."
Absent that – and McCarthy has given no indication he wants job back – Gimenez said he is supporting Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., whose 19th Congressional District on South Florida's Gulf Coast sits atop a portion of Gimenez's, whose 28th Congressional District covers many of Miami's southwestern suburbs, Homestead, and all of the Florida Keys. Gimenez and Donalds also entered the House together after being elected in 2020.
"Byron is a friend of mine," Gimenez said. "He is in a district right next to my district down in Florida. He is a true conservative, and I think he's somebody that can bring the other conference together."
House Republicans had chosen Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., as speaker designee earlier Tuesday after a closed-door vote, the third designee since McCarthy's ouster after Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. But Emmer dropped out later in the day after a scathing critique by former President Donald Trump, leaving the door open for Donalds and others.
Gimenez said he backed Donalds after the 2022 midterm elections to become chair of the House Republican Conference, a job that went to Elise Stefanik of New York.
"He's also a member of my [congressional] class," Gimenez said. "For all those reasons, and many more, I backed Byron Donalds, and I'll be backing him again now in this run, and we'll see what happens."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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