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On Friday, as the House of Representatives entered its fourth day without a Speaker of the House, McCarthy seemed to be close to reaching a deal with the GOP opposition negotiating team led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).
The majority leader has seen emboldened resistance from the 20 representatives blocking his path to the Speaker’s gavel after he has failed to be elected after a historic eleven ballot attempts. Each time, the 20 GOP holdouts have voted for other nominees including Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and even former President Donald Trump.
In the intervening negotiations between the record-breaking eleventh ballot, McCarthy has provided multiple concessions including lowering the threshold for a no-confidence vote for the Speaker, giving House Freedom Caucus members seats on the Rules Committee, and McCarthy’s Political Action Committee, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), has agreed to stop spending money in safe primary races.
In addition to these concessions, McCarthy has also granted a separate approval process for earmarks, he will allow a vote on term limits in the 118th Congress, and there will be a specific vote on border policy legislation, according to Fox News.
On Thursday evening in a huddle with reporters, McCarthy was asked whether or not he thinks that the concessions he is giving weaken the Speakership to which he responded with the following: “No. I’d only be a weaker Speaker if I was afraid of it.”
‘I WILL RESIGN:’ MATT GAETZ GIVES DETAILS ON SPEAKER DEBATE, SAYS TRUMP IS ‘WRONG’ FOR MCCARTHY ENDORSEMENT
The Republican leader also said that he “isn’t putting a timeline” on the negotiations adding, “I just think we have some progress going on, we have members talking. I think we’ve got a little movement so we will see.”
The Californian also denied that he made any threats to strip committee assignments to those that didn’t vote for him and he assured that “No, members are not going to lose their committee assignments.”
He also explained that he is “very fine” with the idea of giving a single representative the ability to call a no-confidence vote for the Speaker. He also stated that he thinks that he will be able to get to the 218 threshold despite some congressmen like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) being vehement opponents of his election.
“This is a new thought we are going to have to have,” McCarthy said when asked if he would lose moderate Republicans if he continued to grant concessions. “We have a five-seat majority so it’s not one side is going to get more than another. It’s the entire conference is going to have to learn how to work together so it’s better that we go through this process right now so that we can achieve the things that we want to achieve for the American public. What our commitment was. So if this takes a little longer and it doesn’t meet your deadline, that’s okay. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And if we finish well, we will be very successful.”
McCarthy seems to believe that he can still win the Speakership as negotiations are ongoing. A conference call with the GOP opposition was scheduled for 10:15 on Friday to discuss a potential deal and the American people will see if the negotiations have borne fruit at noon on Friday for the twelfth ballot.
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On Friday, as the House of Representatives entered its fourth day without a Speaker of the House, McCarthy seemed to be close to reaching a deal with the GOP opposition negotiating team led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).
The majority leader has seen emboldened resistance from the 20 representatives blocking his path to the Speaker’s gavel after he has failed to be elected after a historic eleven ballot attempts. Each time, the 20 GOP holdouts have voted for other nominees including Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and even former President Donald Trump.
In the intervening negotiations between the record-breaking eleventh ballot, McCarthy has provided multiple concessions including lowering the threshold for a no-confidence vote for the Speaker, giving House Freedom Caucus members seats on the Rules Committee, and McCarthy’s Political Action Committee, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), has agreed to stop spending money in safe primary races.
In addition to these concessions, McCarthy has also granted a separate approval process for earmarks, he will allow a vote on term limits in the 118th Congress, and there will be a specific vote on border policy legislation, according to Fox News.
On Thursday evening in a huddle with reporters, McCarthy was asked whether or not he thinks that the concessions he is giving weaken the Speakership to which he responded with the following: “No. I’d only be a weaker Speaker if I was afraid of it.”
‘I WILL RESIGN:’ MATT GAETZ GIVES DETAILS ON SPEAKER DEBATE, SAYS TRUMP IS ‘WRONG’ FOR MCCARTHY ENDORSEMENT
The Republican leader also said that he “isn’t putting a timeline” on the negotiations adding, “I just think we have some progress going on, we have members talking. I think we’ve got a little movement so we will see.”
The Californian also denied that he made any threats to strip committee assignments to those that didn’t vote for him and he assured that “No, members are not going to lose their committee assignments.”
He also explained that he is “very fine” with the idea of giving a single representative the ability to call a no-confidence vote for the Speaker. He also stated that he thinks that he will be able to get to the 218 threshold despite some congressmen like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) being vehement opponents of his election.
“This is a new thought we are going to have to have,” McCarthy said when asked if he would lose moderate Republicans if he continued to grant concessions. “We have a five-seat majority so it’s not one side is going to get more than another. It’s the entire conference is going to have to learn how to work together so it’s better that we go through this process right now so that we can achieve the things that we want to achieve for the American public. What our commitment was. So if this takes a little longer and it doesn’t meet your deadline, that’s okay. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And if we finish well, we will be very successful.”
McCarthy seems to believe that he can still win the Speakership as negotiations are ongoing. A conference call with the GOP opposition was scheduled for 10:15 on Friday to discuss a potential deal and the American people will see if the negotiations have borne fruit at noon on Friday for the twelfth ballot.
You Can Follow Sterling on Twitter Here