Former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) said Friday on “MSNBC Reports” that any Republican House Speaker will have to keep House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s (D-NY) phone number “on speed dial” to work with Democrats.
Dent said, “I think the next Republican Speaker has to have Hakeem Jeffries on speed dial because they probably will need him. As we’ve seen many times, Republicans have had a dysfunctional majority in the House for the past few years. Now, with Donald Trump as president, that dysfunction may be less because Trump can lean on them. But just remember there are 30-some votes in the House, and we saw this a couple of weeks ago with the continuing resolution discussion.”
He continued, “There are 30-some Republicans who are never going to vote for continuing resolutions to fund the government or appropriations bills or debt ceilings, so they need Democrats to help them in the House on any number of issues. So they have to get ready for that and just accept it.”
Dent added, “That has always been the challenge in House Republican caucus. The hardliners don’t like to do compromise, particularly in divided government, but now that we have one-party government, Republicans controlling the House, Senate, and presidency, that might help them a bit, but again, there will always be a few people who won’t support the agenda, and it might not be hardliners this time. It could be people from the center who don’t want to support something too hardline because they have to worry about general elections. So the fractures could come from a lot of different directions.”
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