House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy failed to win the majority needed to become House speaker after 19 House Republicans declined to vote for him.
While a sizable faction of the House Freedom Caucus members opposed McCarthy, one skeptic of the Freedom Caucus gambit is Arizona congressman David Schweikert, a founder of the Freedom Caucus. “It’s absurd, but we just keep doing it, and doing it and doing it until some folks understand that playing chicken with a high-speed tank is really dangerous for the republic,” Schweikert told National Review outside the House chamber between the first and second vote for speaker.
“I’m a founder of the Freedom Caucus,” he said. When the Freedom Caucus was founded, “conservatives weren’t being allowed to offer amendments, legislate, get on committees. Almost every single one of those [requests] has been taken care of in the updated modern Republican Rules package.” Since November, McCarthy has acceded to some but not all of the anti-McCarthy faction’s new demands.
How does this end? “I think it goes a few rounds,” Schweikert said. “There’s multiple players here. Will the Left be tactical . . . and try to promote an alternative?”
“There are all sorts of plays that you and I have no idea you could rotate,” Schweikert said.