Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) is worried that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) could seize the House speakership before November.
In an appearance on Kudlow on Fox Business, Tenney expressed her fear that Democrats could take advantage of Republican infighting and get their leader elected as the House speaker. She shared the thought in response to a question about the early retirement of Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), which shrunk the Republican majority.
“We can get a special election. It’s a very safe Republican seat,” Tenney said, referring to Gallagher’s district. “We’ll add to our majority. We don’t have the other special [election] to fill Kevin McCarthy’s seat until April 30. And we’re perilous. We could end up … having a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries in the interim here while we’re waiting for special elections.”
House Republicans are once again mired in dysfunction after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate the speakership because of objections to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) spending bill.
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Though other hard-right Republicans such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) aren’t committing to removing Johnson, the move has stirred fears of another speakership battle, which crippled Republicans for weeks last fall.
For Jeffries to obtain the speakership, he would only need the support of a few disaffected Republicans.
