Former President Donald Trump is coming out hard in support of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to become the next speaker of the House, arguing that the California Republican’s defectors are playing a “dangerous game.”
Trump’s comments come as McCarthy faces an uphill battle in garnering the support needed within his conference to obtain the gavel, with some of the former president’s closest allies leading the charge in the push to withhold the backing he needs to lock down the position he has long vied for during his tenure in Congress.
Trump — who previously endorsed McCarthy just ahead of Election Day, before the party fell short of the red wave it anticipated — argued that conservatives could end up with a worse alternative, taking aim at former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and likening his vocal critic, former Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), to Winston Churchill by comparison.
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“I think it’s a very dangerous game that’s being played. It’s a very dangerous game. Some bad things could happen. Look, we had Boehner, and he was a strange person, but we ended up with Paul Ryan, who was 10 times worse. Paul Ryan was an incompetent speaker,” Trump told Breitbart. “I think he goes down as the worst speaker in history. We took [out] Boehner — and a group of people, some of whom are the same, and they’re very good friends of mine. All those people are very good friends of mine.
“Think of it — we ended up with Paul Ryan. Boehner was like Winston Churchill compared to Paul Ryan. Boehner wasn’t perfect —nobody’s perfect — but Paul Ryan was a disaster for the Republican Party. That’s what we got. Now we have to live with him. He’s destroying Fox and he’s destroying the New York Post. We got to live with this maniac,” he added.
McCarthy can only lose four GOP votes during the Jan. 3 floor vote unless his critics opt to vote present or not partake in the vote, which would bring the threshold down from 218.
Five conservatives — former House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Bob Good (R-VA), and Ralph Norman (R-SC) — have voiced their opposition, citing a number of issues ranging from a lack of trust in the leader to concerns he won’t push for conservative policies. An additional seven GOP lawmakers and incoming lawmakers released a letter demanding significant changes to the House rules, including the restoration of the motion to vacate the chair — a mechanism used to oust a sitting speaker and a provision McCarthy has asserted he does not want changed.
His most vocal critics have also asserted there are additional defectors that will emerge in the coming weeks.
Trump has been making calls to his critics in an attempt to sway their support, but multiple sources have repeatedly told the Washington Examiner that outside pressure from people outside Congress is less likely to affect internal elections than it would in a primary race.
The former president had a mixed record of success with his endorsements in the midterm elections, with many of his picks for Senate in swing states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada and his gubernatorial candidates in Michigan and Arizona losing to Democrats. Some within the party have also faulted him with Republicans having lackluster candidates in the House, with some of the candidates he endorsed in primary races against incumbents, including outgoing Rep. Pete Meijer (R-MI) and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), ultimately losing in the general in seats the GOP expected to retain.
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McCarthy has argued that failing to support him on the floor could lead to Democrats choosing the next speaker, but critics have dismissed the notion that is a possibility, with those vowing to vote against asserting they will not vote present. Conservative members have been in discussions about a compromise candidate but have refrained from naming who they plan to rally around in the event that McCarthy fails.
