Republican senators are weighing in on the House of Representatives’ ongoing drama as it works to elect its next speaker, calling it a “family fight” that must be resolved quickly in order for the government to function.
The House is set to convene at 12 p.m. ET Wednesday after three failed attempts to elect a speaker Tuesday. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy needs 218 votes to become speaker. Republicans have 222 lawmakers in their slim majority, so McCarthy, R-Calif., can leave only four GOP minds unchanged.
“Right now the House is having a family fight. They need to resolve the issues ASAP, so we can get to work stopping Joe Biden’s inflationary policies,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital.
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Support for McCarthy is uncertain as some factions of the Republican Party continue to oppose his nomination. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Support for McCarthy is uncertain as some factions of the Republican Party continue to oppose his nomination. His most vocal opponents on Wednesday morning gave no indication they were any closer to accepting him as speaker.
“I hope whoever House Republicans elect speaker will be fully committed to conservative principles and restoring function and fiscal sanity to the federal government,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz” Wednesday that the speaker fight is happening because GOP failed in midterms, and because Democrats “follow orders.”
“A big part of the reason this is playing out is because the election was disappointing,” Cruz said. “The election — we did a lot less — Republicans did a lot less in the election than we should have. We should have a majority in the Senate. We should have a big majority in the House.”
Sen. Roger Marshall speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 5, 2022.
(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“If we’d come out of the election and it was a 30-35 vote majority in the House, I doubt this fight would be playing out. At that level, I think Kevin McCarthy would have had, pretty easily, the votes to be elected speaker. And if you win a big victory, that is typically the result,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has not publicly weighed in on the speakership election. He is in Kentucky Wednesday with President Biden to tout the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in the last Congress.
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Former President Donald Trump weighed in on the drama Wednesday morning, urging lawmakers to vote for McCarthy.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks at an event in Washington on Nov. 9, 2022.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested to reporters in the Capitol Wednesday that the GOP “could carry on as long as they need to” to figure out the speaker.
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Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report.
