Plenty of ink has been spilled this week on a small group of House conservatives who’ve accused Kevin McCarthy of breaking promises he made during the weeklong, 15-vote push to become speaker back in January. This Republican-on-Republican clash has paralyzed the House and led to questions about the viability of the current GOP leadership.
We had a chance to speak at length Wednesday afternoon with McCarthy’s No. 2, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, about the situation. It was a fascinating conversation.
We asked Scalise if McCarthy had broken any promises to conservatives.
Scalise’s reply provides insight into the current state of the House GOP leadership. The short answer — it’s not good.
Here’s how Scalise responded: “I don’t know.”
Oh, by the way, there was a Trump indictment last evening, we hear. Not enough punditry this morning to present to you yet, but I will say Kevin McCarthy’s weakness feeds into his response. McCarthy had to rush out a Trump defense without knowing what the charges were because he needs to appease his right flank.
So let’s be clear. Donald Trump does not, in fact, get away with everything.
We spent a lot of time on House procedure over at David Waldman’s podcast these last two few weeks, but that’s because there’s a throughline from Kevin McCarthy’s Speakership vote via the debt ceiling law to the current right wing rebellion of his caucus.
We saw problems with the Rulers committee, then a failed vote on the Rule (which determines how a bill will be presented on the floor, debated, etc) and the claim by some republicans that they’ve shut down the floor.
And of course, since it can’t be Kevin’s fault, and he’s afraid of the House Freedom Caucus, he’ll blame Steve Scalise. At least, he will behind Scalise’s back to the gossip sheets while Scalise distances himself from McCarthy (see above for the “it’s your fault, not my fault” game).
Washington Post, in case you missed it:
House heads home after hard-right Republicans defy McCarthy, block legislation
The House adjourned until Monday after a standoff between leaders and conservative lawmakers
Just past 6 p.m. Wednesday, after GOP leaders gave up on resolving the impasse this week and canceled the remaining votes for the week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) addressed reporters and explained that part of the ongoing frustration is the hard-line faction’s inability to articulate their demands.
“This is the difficult thing,” he said. “Some of these members, they don’t know what to ask for.”
‘Why the hell are we doing this?’ McCarthy’s fractured leadership team faces new abortion tension
As the speaker and his majority leader trade barbs over why conservatives have paralyzed the floor, they’re confronting a brushfire among House GOP centrists.
As conservatives continue to snarl the House floor in protest, centrists are taking their turn to squeeze Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Behind closed doors on Wednesday, McCarthy’s No. 2 and No. 3 briefed about a dozen Republicans — mostly battleground-seat members — on their plan to take up two bills next week: Rep. Andrew Clyde’s (R-Ga.) bid to nix a Biden administration gun regulation and a separate proposal bill to strengthen limits on taxpayer funding for abortion.
Brian Rosenwald/”The World According to Brian” on Substack on what might Kevin do next if he decides not to go the MAGA route:
Those could range from looking to do something on paid leave to seeing if there is finally ground for a bipartisan deal on immigration (which seems unlikely, given that Republican primary voters won’t countenance any compromise on the issue) or taxes, to thinking creativity about how he can arm his members in Biden-won districts with a list of accomplishments and to show voters in other swing districts, “see, Republican governance isn’t so scary.”
But that strategy has its own twin downsides: first, it risks the obstreperous wing of McCarthy’s caucus trying to depose him. Even if they don’t, it would make it very difficult to do anything on a partisan basis, because they could block rules and prevent votes on anything where McCarthy didn’t have Democratic support.
Based on the way McCarthy has behaved in the past, it seems most likely that he’ll look to appease the far right faction. He understands that revolts from the right undermined his two Republican predecessors, and seems determined not to lose the right wing.
But especially as 2023 progresses, he will face some degree of pressure from his most moderate members to set them up for tough campaigns with a list of accomplishments. While the most moderate factions in the GOP have never mastered the politics of hardball, with a four seat margin, it gives them a little more leverage, especially if they can find allies in the Senate to push for attaching stuff to must pass legislation — the Farm Bill, the appropriations bills, the annual Defense Authorization Act, etc. Additionally, if McCarthy makes real concessions to the far right after their stunt this week, he risks other members of his caucus, including the Biden district Republicans, also threatening rules to get votes on what they want.
Also in the news are the growing number of Republican wannabes who fear neither Donald Trump nor Ron DeSantis.
Pence gets in, Trump gets pinned
QUOTE HEARD ROUND THE WORLD — MIKE PENCE in Ankeny, Iowa, yesterday, making it official with this grave warning about his former boss, DONALD TRUMP:
“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again.”
How much is Pence leaning into the fact that he did the right thing on Jan. 6? The media wifi password for the event was “KeptHisOath!”
Adam Wren, our resident Pence-ologist, breaks down the ex-veep’s chances: “Why Mike Pence thinks he has a prayer in 2024.”
But, but, but: Despite saying Trump should “never be president” again, in a post-speech interview with Fox News, Pence said he would abide by the RNC requirement that all candidates pledge to support the eventual nominee.
But they can’t get their story straight and consistently blame Trump for January 6 and refuse to support him if he’s the nominee. That latter part is where they give weasel word responses to reporters (“moot point because he won’t be the nominee, I will” etc.) and can’t confront their base with the truth.
That’s why this is so interesting. Everyone knows their lying, everyone knows Trump lies (and he’ll be lying if he says he’ll support the nominee), but somehow politicians are never held accountable for being lying liars. Not by media, not by GOP voters.
And by the way, this is a thread on Pat Robertson’s disastrous international legacy:
Greg Dworkin
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