Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) long had been gunning to be the replacement for outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and to that end he pivoted suddenly, in late January 2021 as a critic of former President Trump’s call-to-insurrection on the 6thto making a “pilgrimage to the holy shrine of the golden commode in Florida,” as Esquire’s Charlie Pierce described it.
McCarthy’s deference to Donald J. Trump over the last 23 months should have placed him in sufficiently good standing with MAGA House Republicans to easily win the House speaker’s gavel in time to stand alongside Vice President Kamala Harris for President Biden’s next State of the Union Address.
And it did, kind of, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) joining Rep. Elise Stefanik [whom McCarthy, as House minority leader in ’21 appointed to replace then-Rep. Liz Cheney as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference] as staunch MAGA-leaning supporters of the representative of California’s 20th.
From the MAGA-right, McCarthy also can count on Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) (see center column) and incoming New York Rep. George Santos, who traded a vote for the would-be-speaker in exchange for being sworn in despite potential legal trouble over lies he allegedly told during his campaign.
But three other staunch MAGA Republicans, Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida led a never-McCarthy coalition Tuesday, following an 11th hour meeting in which they demanded the speaker-in-waiting make House priorities a balanced budget, a Texas-delegation developed U.S. Border plan and term limits for House members. Oh, and they also wanted to reinstate the “motion to vacate,” the House rule that a single member could move to replace the House speaker at any time, which Pelosi had rescinded when she took the gavel.
Gaetz told reporters Tuesday, “I don’t care” if Jeffries wins the speakership, referring to House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries and unanimous support from his party’s members.
Regarding MTG’s split from the MAGA group, “As a result of her alliance with McCarthy, Greene has found herself at odds with her former soulmates,” Charlie Sykes writes in The Bulwark. The takeaway from this jagged split is that the GOP is in disarray far more than the perennially disorganized “big tent” Democratic Party … possibly a sign of an improved GOP to come for never-Trump conservatives like Sykes.
--TL