U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Wednesday that Republicans should not go to a floor vote until the conference is solidly behind one candidate to replace Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as House speaker.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., defeated Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, in a secret ballot earlier Wednesday, but whether Scalise has the 217 votes needed to prevail in a floor vote was unknown.
Republicans are trying to avoid a repeat of the chaos surrounding McCarthy’s election in January, when it took 15 ballots to make him speaker. House Democrats, led by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have seized on the GOP’s trouble ruling as a unified party.
“One thing that concerned me from the very beginning,” McCormick told “American Agenda.” “I've been very clear in the conference. We should have [unity] before we go to the house floor. That makes sense to me. I'm just a Marine. I'm a simple guy.
“But if you're going to go out in front of the public, if you're going to have this debate publicly, I don't want to hear about Jeffries over and over again. I don’t want to hear how unified they are and how broken we are. I want to make sure we as a conference come out swinging together and that we've unified behind one candidate, and I hope that happens before we go to the floor.”
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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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