McCarthy Appears to Contribute to Resistance to Scalise in House Vote

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) has always been loyal to Kevin McCarthy.

It appears amid the talks to try to get Scalise support as the new Speaker, McCarthy did not return that favor.

He appeared less than positive about Scalise’s chances as well as not coming forward to encourage the caucus to vote for him as the new Speaker.

Betrayal

It is no secret that I think McCarthy is a snake in the grass and he is proving me right.

When McCarthy was asked about Scalise getting enough support to get the gavel, this was his response…

MCCARTHY says it’s a “big hill” for Scalise.

He said Scalise was telling people he could get 150 votes — which he obviously fell way short of in the closed-door election.

“He wasn’t there,” McCarthy said.

— Mica Soellner (@MicaSoellnerDC) October 12, 2023

I have yet to see a single report that at any time McCarthy got before the caucus and supported Scalise as the new Speaker, even though he was McCarthy’s Majority Leader in the House.

It was quite the opposite, actually, as McCarthy hinted that if the caucus decided to reinstall him, he would take the gavel back.

McCarthy has lied so many times over the last month or so, you would think he was Joe Biden.

I still cannot get over the fact that he refused to tell his diehard supporters to back Scalise, who is now being portrayed as a member of the Swamp by the Freedom Caucus, who has backed Jim Jordan for Speaker.

Scalise, even though he had more support than Jordan in the vote for the GOP nominee for Speaker, withdrew after he could not budge a soul from the dissenting 99, and this after Jordan even asked the caucus to support Scalise.

Keep in mind, Jordan is also an ally of McCarthy’s, so it will be interesting to see if McCarthy comes out to support him now that he has won the second vote or if McCarthy will continue to sit on his hands on this front.

This could play a major role in Jordan being voted in because there is still a significant contingent in the House that believe McCarthy got screwed over and want to see the gavel back in his hand.

Republicans can spare only four votes if they are to vote Jordan in, so now we have to ask if there are 218 GOP House members that support Jordan, or will that McCarthy contingent stay loyal and drag this out even more?

With Jordan having been nominated on Friday, I would suspect we will have a vote over the weekend or on Monday, but they still have to make sure they have all their ducks lined up before flooring this vote.