California Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is facing rival candidates lining up to put an end to his bid for Speaker of the House.
The former Chairman of tne Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Biggs, Republican from Arizona, teased that there are more candidates who are tempted to run against McCarthy for the position in a Fox News interview.
Rep. Andy Biggs to challenge Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker. pic.twitter.com/ooiucqorwh
— Becker News (@NewsBecker) December 29, 2022
“Is there a candidate that you would support?” Fox News senior national correspondent Rich Edson asked. “Is there a candidate that you want or think should be Speaker of the House?”
“Well, of course I’m running, Rich,” Biggs replied. “But there are some good people… in our conference. I don’t want to put a name on them because I don’t want to put a target on their back. But there are several people that are very capable and actually more than just a few capable of of being Speaker of the House. And I think we’ll get a consensus candidate and we’ll get it in fairly short order and move on.”
Rich Edson pushed back on the notion that Republicans could back a candidate to challenge McCarthy for Speaker and still proceed with House business in an expedient fashion.
“So the argument goes without backing leader McCarthy for Speaker, you are in fact delaying the business of House Republicans delaying oversight, delaying legislation,” Edson asked. “What about that?”
“Well, I think that’s not true and not accurate,” Biggs responded. “Right now, we’ve already seen the appointment of committee chairmen… we have legislation getting ready to go. We normally don’t even begin intense committee hearings and moving forward until late January. The committees could be populated today. Mr. McCarthy’s chosen not to do it. Why? Because he wants the leverage to try to get people to vote for him based on committee assignments.”
“I don’t believe any of that is as accurate,” he added.
“Is there any scenario that you would ever vote for Leader McCarthy on any ballot?” Edson asked. “Any scenario where he gets your vote?”
“I don’t think so,” Biggs replied. ” I do not think so. And here’s why. He’s got a body of work. You go back to ’17 and ’18… look at why we had Democrats voting for the Republican budgets. Because the Republicans didn’t want those budgets. But the floor leader, Mr. McCarthy, cut those deals with the Democrats.”
“President Trump signed those budgets, but he said they were the worst budgets, ever,” Biggs went on. “And he was probably right until the later budgets that we’ve seen from the Democrats.”
In early December, Biggs declared that he is running against McCarthy for the Speaker position.
“I’m running for Speaker to break the establishment,” Biggs tweeted, linking to his op-ed in the Daily Caller . “Kevin McCarthy was created by, elevated by, and maintained by the establishment.”
Biggs laid out his case for McCarthy to be denied the Speakership, then added a salient point about the dire need for change in Washington D.C.
“The purpose of the establishment is not to better the lives of Americans, the purpose is to gain and keep power,” Biggs noted. “If anyone besides the establishment class experiences positive effects from the rule of the establishment, it is merely serendipitous.”
“On the other hand, the establishment is rather indifferent to the consequences of the Swamp’s policies on Americans, just so long as the Establishment, the uniparty remains in power,” he added.
There is a strong case to be made that McCarthy would do very little to change the status quo in Washington, which has put the nation on a perilous path towards national implosion. If nothing changes in Washington, the Republican Party will be as much or even more to blame than the Democratic Party, because it will have given the American people no real alternative.
Follow Kyle Becker on Twitter @kylenabecker.
