Playing “silly games” can lead to “someone like a Liz Cheney taking the gavel,” warned Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, who called on Republicans to “put their personal feelings aside” and back leader Kevin McCarthy, who he described as “our best strategist” and would be “much more conservative than leaders in the past.”
On Friday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Wake Up America,” Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) — who was recently named the House GOP chief deputy whip — discussed the agenda ahead for the new House Republican majority.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” he said. “With a 222 seat majority, every vote is going to be a tight tight vote.”
“So it’s gonna be really important to whip these votes and make sure that we’re playing defense on [President Joe] Biden and the Democrats’ far-left radical agenda,” he added.
Host Tom Basile then asked the congressman how he believed things would play out given the current “fight for the speakership” and those “fringe actors” within the party who are challenging Kevin McCarthy.
“Well to the five individuals that are still holding out, I would say it’s time to put their personal feelings aside and be team players,” Reschenthaler said. “Because if you play silly games, you win silly prizes.”
“And I can tell you what the silly prize can be,” he added. “It can be someone like a Liz Cheney taking the gavel or a moderate former governor, for example.”
Reschenthaler was referring to Republican Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ), Matt Gaetz (FL), Ralph Norman (SC), Bob Good (VA), and Matt Rosendale (MT), who have all indicated they do not support McCarthy.
He explained that “you don’t have to be in the House to be elected speaker of the House, you just need a majority of the votes on the House floor to be elected speaker.”
“So it would be very easy for the moderate Republicans to join with the Democrats to hand that gavel to somebody, again, like a Liz Cheney,” he warned.
Addressing the five individuals holding out, Reschenthaler insisted that McCarthy will be “much more conservative than leaders in the past.”
“He’s certainly much more conservative than [former Speaker of the House John] Boehner [and] much more conservative than [former Speaker Paul] Ryan,” he said.
“So why not take Kevin McCarthy [and] give him the gavel?” he asked.
In addition, Reschenthaler described McCarthy as “our best strategist,” among other praises.
“He’s our best fundraiser, he raised about half a billion dollars last cycle, and he’s our best recruiter,” he said.
“One of the reasons why we’ve been able to win a lot of these tough races, is because we had good candidate recruitment and that goes back to Kevin McCarthy,” he added.
Reschenthaler’s remarks come as House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) runs for speaker amid opposition from a small group of anti-establishment House Freedom Caucus members, who have vocalized that they are either a hard no or leaning no on voting for McCarthyhim.
Last week, McCarthy said he is confident he can narrowly win the speakership in January, even if it takes multiple rounds of voting for that to happen.
“At the end of the day, we’ll get there,” McCarthy said, according to Axios.
On Saturday, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said it would be a “very shameful moment” and that voters would be “immediately betrayed” if establishment Republicans worked with Democrats to install a moderate Speaker.
So in their quest to “own the establishment” by stopping Kevin McCarthy, Andy Biggs and others are actually in effect empowering those who impeached Donald Trump. This is a Democrat dream come true for a GOP Congress.
Genius move guys. https://t.co/SKQ0Kjl6GC— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 3, 2022
In addition, Donald Trump Jr. called out those Republicans who are against McCarthy for the next House Speaker, saying they are “in effect empowering those who impeached Donald Trump.”
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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