While he has maintained he will not run for House speaker again, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., suggested he would do so to unite the party if he was asked to amid the developing situation in the Middle East.
"Look, whatever the conference wants, I will do," McCarthy told the Hugh Hewitt podcast Monday. "I think we need to be strong. I think we need to be united."
Eight House GOP members voted to vacate him as speaker, but McCarthy said they did it because he did not shut down the government, and in hindsight the weekend's events in Israel make it clear that keeping the U.S. government funded was vitally important.
"It was a personal thing; it wasn't about where we were going," McCarthy told Hewitt. "Think for one moment: If you take some of their comments of why they did this, because I kept the government open? Could you imagine? They're the ones that stopped appropriations bills from going forward. They're the ones who voted against a continuing resolution that secured our border and cut spending. They're the ones who wanted a government shutdown.
"We wouldn't be paying our troops while we're putting out a carrier strike fighter there, 30,000 American men and women in our armed services in the Middle East wouldn't be being paid right now.
"I mean, what weakness would we be at?"
In addition to Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Democrats like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are also on the hook for the congressional unrest before the destabilization of the Middle East and Israel's subsequent declaration of war on Hamas, McCarthy said.
"Don't just look to the eight; also remember what the Democrats did," he continued. "The Democrats made the same political decision that Matt Gaetz and Mace did. This is a Gaetz-Mace-Hakeem-Pelosi decision. They thought: Let's pick politics over what's best for America, right?
"They think take Kevin off the playing field so they could try to win a majority — instead of wondering what the rest of the world's going to look at, and wondering whether their government should stay funded again.
"That is the difficulty that we have in Washington. It's the moment in time for adults in the room to show leadership, put partisanship aside, and do what is best for this nation."
McCarthy has no regrets keeping the American government open and putting his speakers gavel on the line for it.
"I will never back away from my decision," he concluded. "I put America first, and that's what I'm going to continue to do."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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