OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas made a historic move on the floor of the House on Wednesday as he and other Republicans sparred over Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid for Speaker, who has failed to win the gavel after five votes, which is unprecedented in modern times.
Roy, during a floor speech, offered Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), as a candidate for speaker, though Donalds was just reelected to his second term in November. But that’s not what made the nomination historic. As Roy pointed out, it was “the first time in history, there have been two black Americans placed into the nomination for speaker of the House,” noting that Democrats had nominated the leader of their party, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
The Texas Republican went on to clarify, however, that his nomination wasn’t about the Donalds’ skin color but rather about injecting new blood in GOP leadership after the party underwhelmed during the midterm elections when most political analysts — even many Democrats — were expecting a “red wave.”
“We do not seek to judge people by the color of their skin, but rather the content of their character,” Roy said. “But there’s an important reason for nominating Byron, and that is this country needs a change. This country needs leadership that does not reflect this city, this town, that is badly broken.”
Initially, the 20 conservative Republicans nominated Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, but he turned down the nomination and has publicly supported McCarthy for the position.
But after five ballots — three on Monday and another two on Tuesday — McCarthy has yet to secure the speakership, which has led to no small amount of criticism from within the party’s ranks
That includes conservative pundits such as former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), now a Fox News host and contributor, who blasted the holdouts during an appearance on the network Tuesday evening.
“Look, I got bad news for Kevin’s opponents. He’s got a lot more than 20 friends. So, there are more than 20 people that are going to say, you know what? We are not ever voting for anyone else. Bret, you got a guy who’s got 200 votes and the next leading vote-getter for very good reasons doesn’t want to be the speaker of the House,” Gowdy told anchor Bret Baier.
“And, yet, this kamikaze wing within the Republican Party knows better than 85 percent of the rest of the conference. Jimmy doesn’t want the job for a very good reason. I don’t know what happens. I will say this. They didn’t want a secure border. That is not what the negotiation was over, Bret. It was — there are a handful of people who want gavels and want things that they can’t get based on merit, and they can’t get it based on intelligence, but they want it given to them by the speaker of the House, and Kevin said no,” Gowdy added.
WATCH:
McCarthy revealed on Tuesday night that he had spoken to former President Donald Trump — who has called on the GOP to support McCarthy — and that the 45th president still supported him to be the speaker of the House.
“Trump has already reiterated his support; I talked to him tonight,” McCarthy told reporters.
Asked if Trump wanted him to keep pursuing the speaker’s gavel, McCarthy said, “Oh, yeah.”
“He thinks it’s better that all the Republicans get together and solve this, it doesn’t look good for Republicans, but we want to be able to solve it where we’re stronger in the long run,” he said. “Where what we went through today, in the end, becomes a positive that we’re actually focused, united.”
Trump previously warned against House Republicans playing games with the Speaker race.
“I like him,” Trump said of McCarthy in December. “I think it’s a very dangerous game that’s being played. It’s a very dangerous game. Some bad things could happen. Look, we had Boehner and he was a strange person but we ended up with Paul Ryan who was ten times worse. Paul Ryan was an incompetent speaker. I think he goes down as the worst speaker in history. We took [out] Boehner—and a group of people, some of whom are the same, and they’re very good friends of mine. All those people are very good friends of mine.”
“Look, I think this: Kevin has worked very hard,” Trump continued. “He is just—it’s been exhausting. If you think, he’s been all over. I think he deserves the shot. Hopefully he’s going to be very strong and going to be very good and he’s going to do what everybody wants.”
