House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) appears to have his work cut out for him still in attempting to sway members of his conference voicing opposition to him becoming the next speaker, with his critics emerging from a forum to discuss potential House rules changes remaining no’s on Wednesday.
Five conservative lawmakers — former House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Bob Good (R-VA), and Ralph Norman (R-SC) — have publicly voiced that they plan to vote against him during the Jan. 3 floor vote. An additional seven GOP lawmakers recently released a letter calling for substantial changes, including changing the motion to vacate the chair, a mechanism used to oust a sitting speaker; barring leadership from taking sides in primaries; reining in spending; and providing the opportunity for more hard-liners to lead and sit on coveted committees.
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Facing a razor-thin majority, McCarthy can only afford to lose four votes on the floor to get the 218 needed to secure the gavel unless his defectors on either side of the aisle opt not to vote or vote present, which would bring down the threshold.
Biggs, who launched a bid against him for the position but also said he is open to a consensus candidate, said that despite McCarthy’s efforts to open a dialogue on conservative ideas, he doesn’t trust that he will deliver.
“I have to be able to believe that someone who has given me a promise will actually endeavor fully, sincerely, and faithfully to deliver on their promise,” he told reporters.
When asked if anything could change his decision to vote against McCarthy, the Arizona Republican joked that he “could be dead.”
Both Norman and Biggs asserted that the group of five plan to vote as a bloc against McCarthy, with Norman adding that they have not discussed whether that will be the case with other candidates. Multiple members said they expect that number to grow in the coming weeks.
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Norman — who said his biggest area of concern is “the budget” and “financial solvency,” calling for the next speaker to support the Republican Study Committee’s seven-year budget or a similar budget that is fully offset — said McCarthy’s responses to their calls for major reforms have gotten “better and better” as talks have progressed, adding that he believes McCarthy is “looking and considering everything.”
Norman added that discussion of the motion to vacate the chair came up in the meeting, with both sides expressing their viewpoints. Critics of the change argued allowing a single member to file the motion would be “like drowning everyone in gasoline” while giving the entire “conference a match”; proponents noted that it was the long-standing policy before it was changed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Other critics have said changes to the motion to vacate is their hard line — one of the areas McCarthy has been most reluctant to move on.
Members of the Republican Governance Group, which has called for the conference to rally around McCarthy, have stated they will vote against the rules package if the motion to vacate changes are included.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) said the discussions are a “step in the right direction” but argued that the conversations being had are overdue.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction. I also would say that none of this would be happening if we had a 240-seat majority. None of this would be happening, right?” he said. “Because all these viewpoints would be dismissed summarily, which is unfortunate.”
