It seems as though Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Minority Leader, may not be Trumpian enough for some of his coworkers in Congress. That’s according to former Pennsylvania Congressman Charlie Dent, who says that the folks inside McCarthy’s own caucus could be scheming to deny him the House Speaker position, should they take back control of the chamber in the 2022 midterms.
Appearing on CNN, Dent told host Wolf Blitzer that “There seems to be a growing discontent among some members and people on the outside with Kevin McCarthy.”
They were discussing a recent statement from Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that there was interest in making Trump himself the Speaker [1] — and that he wouldn’t even need to be an elected member of Congress to get the role.
I think it’s a terrible idea, obviously … Marjorie Taylor Greene just called him weak, Peter Navarro’s taking shots at him, Mark Meadows is suggesting Donald Trump become the Speaker. You may remember it was Mark Meadows and many in the Freedom Caucus who in 2015 prevented Kevin McCarthy from acending to the Speaker’s role. They wouldn’t support him, and that’s how Paul Ryan came to be Speaker. He was the one candidate who could gather 218 Republican votes.
It sounds to me like there is a lot of problems in terms of Kevin McCarthy ascending if he has these folks on the outside nipping at him right now. But putting Donald Trump in would just be insane from my perspective.
Dent, clearly still a Republican, went on to outline what the GOP should be focusing on if they want to win back power in Congress and in legislatures across the country. But the larger party doesn’t seem to be listening to any of that sort of logic.
They’re doubling down on Trump, and turning against anyone who has shown even the slightest inclination of taking any power or authority away from their flaxen-haired Republican savior.
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