Marjorie Taylor Greene lashes out at ‘destructionists’ blocking Kevin McCarthy’s House speaker bid

Politics

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Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene criticised Republicans who oppose Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker of the House after a heated Republican conference meeting on Tuesday.

House Republicans had a heated discussion in the basement of the Capitol as Mr McCarthy sought to secure the 218 votes necessary to become speaker.

“I think it makes them destructionists,” the Georgia Republican told The Independent. “You can’t accomplish anything if you just say ‘never.’”

Ms Greene’s support for Mr McCarthy puts her at odds with her fellow conservatives. Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, one of the leading opponents of Mr McCarthy, said nothing has changed in the speaker’s bid.

Mr Biggs has led the charge among Republicans to oppose Mr McCarthy’s bid for speaker, alongside conservatives like Bob Good of Virginia and Matt Rosendale of Montana. When asked how many votes he expected to receive, Mr Biggs said “maybe anywhere from 14 to 20.”

Mr Rosendale did not name an alternative consensus candidate for speaker when asked.

“I guess as they emerge, we shall see,” he told The Independent.

Mr Good said that Mr McCarthy’s defiant tone during the meeting hurt his cause.

“I don’t think he won anybody over that he didn’t already have,” he told reporters.

Republicans only have 222 votes in their new majority, meaning Mr McCarthy can only afford to lose four votes in his quest for the speaker’s gavel.

Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas also criticised Republican opponents of Mr McCarthy, telling reporters that they misread how voters miscalculated how voters would see them.

“They calculated that people will see them as these noble freedom fighters fighting for a cause, but they can’t seem to say what the cause is,” he said. “That makes him look pretty f***ing stupid.”

Similarly, Representative Brian Mast said that conservative critics of Mr McCarthy had dug themselves in too deeply to back down.

“You have people that were just sending that went out and made statements with the media that feel a sale ‘well, if I don’t go out there and do what I said, you know, and at least oppose one round or two rounds or something like that, that I’m gonna look like I have no balls back home,’” he told reporters.

Representative Dave Schweikert of Arizona, who is a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus and noted he supported Mr McCarthy despite Mr McCarthy in the past opposing him. said that he expected there to be some kind of reconciliation soon.

“They’re the ones who will have to rebuild the relationships with the other members,” he told The Independent.

Source: independent.co.uk

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