Kevin McCarthy Asked Point Blank If He Will Support Jim Jordan To Become Speaker
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) spoke with the press on Friday amid efforts to select a new House Speaker.
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00:00 Are you going to vote for Jordan?
00:02 I would support Jordan, yes.
00:03 You would.
00:04 And if he does not get 217 votes, then what?
00:07 Do you think it's time to hit polls?
00:08 You guys are all the hypotheticals.
00:10 This has happened multiple times.
00:12 I know.
00:13 You know, I've stayed out of these conferences, but I come back in.
00:17 We got to get this back on track.
00:19 We got to solve this problem.
00:20 I think we're on path now to do it.
00:22 They were sitting, wanting to debate a lot of different things.
00:25 They stood up and said, "Let's move through this.
00:27 Let's have a good debate.
00:28 Let's everybody have it."
00:30 They tried to make a motion in there to bring me back, and I just told them, "No, let's
00:33 not do that.
00:34 Let's walk through this and have an election."
00:39 And I think Jim Jordan could do an excellent job.
00:41 Why can't the party come together?
00:43 No, we're a bunch of individuals.
00:45 I mean, but from the same point, why can't the party allow eight people and partner with
00:50 all the Democrats and remove their Speaker with no plan whatsoever?
00:54 I mean, all over the bases that, you know, today's payday for our troops.
00:58 We're sitting in the Middle East.
00:59 Do we really think Gates' idea of not paying those people that want to defend us?
01:03 I mean, I did the right decision, but if I have to sacrifice my job for the good of our
01:07 military, I'm going to do it each and every time.
01:10 But if nobody can get, if nobody can get, there's a time to bolster Patrick McHenry's
01:14 powers.
01:15 Well, look, I disagree with how that's written today.
01:18 I think, I think after 9/11, I mean, as a Speaker, I had the decision who to put in
01:23 there, and it's all for the continuity of government.
01:26 We should have never shut down.
01:27 We should have kept running government and have this election.
01:31 That would be the idea of why you even created that position.
01:34 So I argue that Patrick should have that power right now, and we do the work we have to do
01:39 at the same time we have the election.
01:40 To do what?
01:41 To do what?
01:42 Have you watched what's happening in the world?
01:43 Yeah.
01:44 Keep running Congress.
01:45 Yeah, be the Speaker.
01:46 Keep running Congress.