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McCarthy’s internal GOP foes remain SILENT amid a fiery speaker’s battle over whether to back establishment candidate Steve Scalise or dark horse Jim Jordan as secret ballot voting gets underway
Only Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has publicly endorsed and supports Rep. Jim Jordan
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., tweeted Tuesday that he would be “praying a lot” to decide who to support
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The eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy have kept their cards close to their chests about who they will support as the next Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Only Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has publicly expressed support, throwing her support behind Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee.
The freewheeling congresswoman walked into an all-conference meeting Tuesday night wearing a white T-shirt with a scarlet “A” on it. “I wear the scarlet letter after the week I was just a woman here and was demonized for my vote (to impeach McCarthy),” she told reporters.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the fiery Florida congressman who launched the vote to impeach McCarthy, tweeted Tuesday that he would be “praying a lot” to decide who to support Wednesday morning.
He called Jordan and Scalise “two respected and trusted men.”
“You’re not going to get anything from me when it comes to who I support,” Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., told reporters on Tuesday.
“I think so,” he told DailyMail.com when asked whether Republicans would rally around a candidate on Wednesday.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., also said he would pray about who to support.
Reps. Bob Good, R-Va., Ken Buck, R-Colo., Eli Crane and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., all dismissed reporters’ questions about who they will support.
Scalise, as a current member of the Republican leadership team, has seemingly gained traction among establishment Republicans, while Jordan is popular with the right wing of the conference.
Rep. Dan Bishop, a McCarthy foe who threatened to endorse him but ultimately didn’t, is now backing Jordan. He did not rule out supporting Scalise, but said he did not believe the majority leader had a “crystal clear plan” to guide the conference through an uphill spending battle.
“Some of (my concerns) about Scalise are so obvious that I’m not going to say them,” Bishop told DailyMail.com. “But do we really think that this institute works so well that we should just move up to the next one?”
“If you think Congress and Republicans in Congress have done a fantastic job for 20 years, that would make sense,” Bishop said. “If you think there are shortcomings, then maybe not.”
But the tensions between McCarthy and Scalise are an open secret in Washington.
They boiled over publicly for the first time when conservatives grew angry over McCarthy’s deal with Joe Biden on the debt ceiling.
Instead of involving Scalise in debt ceiling talks, McCarthy relied on his close friends, Rep. Garrett Graves, R-La., and Chairman Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., to negotiate with the White House.
Both Scalise and Jordan conceded that they would have to introduce a continuing resolution (CR) – a bill to expand government funding at fiscal year 2023 levels and avoid a government shutdown while pursuing a longer-term spending plan to formulate.