Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has spoken up about regaining his former office as Speaker of the House.
McCarthy’s former office has remained vacant since eight House Republicans including Reps. Matt Gaetz (FL), Andy Biggs (AZ), Ken Buck (CO), Eli Crane (AZ), Bob Good (VA), Matt Rosendale (MT), Tim Burchett (TN) and Nancy Mace (SC) voted with House Democrats to oust him. Concerns about the vacancy intensified this week after Hamas attacked Israel, killing hundreds of innocent civilians.
Kevin McCarthy returns to his office smiling after being removed as Speaker of the US House of Representatives. He said he will not offer himself for re-election. His ouster was sponsored by a Republican pic.twitter.com/xKOM02sEPF
— Stephen Mutoro (@smutoro) October 4, 2023
Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt raised the concern with McCarthy adding that Congress can not afford not to have a speaker amid the attack on Israel. Hewitt told the former speaker that he doesn’t think Congress can get “a Speaker other than Kevin McCarthy this week” before asking the California lawmaker if he would be open to a return as speaker.
“Look, the conference has to make that decision. I’m still a member. I’m going to continue to fight and act,” McCarthy said. “…whatever the conference wants, I will do. I think we need to be strong. I think we need to be united. The eight, in my view … It was a personal thing. It wasn’t about where we were going.”
Representative Kevin McCarthy said he’s willing to return as US House speaker if Republicans want to vote him back into the job https://t.co/vyKzQSq6mK
— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) October 9, 2023
McCarthy maintained that the House Republicans who voted with their Democrat counterpart to oust him did so because of personal grievances they had with him.
“Think for one moment,” McCarthy added. “If you take some of their comments of why they did this, because I kept the government open? Could you imagine? They’re the ones that stopped appropriations bills from going forward. They’re the ones who voted against a continuing resolution that secured our border and cut spending. They’re the ones who wanted a government shutdown. We wouldn’t be paying our troops while we’re putting out a carrier strike force there, 30,000 American men and women in our armed services in the Middle East. If we had shut down the government, we would be blamed for the intelligence failure that led to this massacre (Israel Attack).We did not shut down the government. We still had an intelligence failure. But if we had, you would be blamed for the intelligence failure.”
