Update: This story has been updated to include a statement from Rep. Scott Perry’s office saying the report that Perry would back Rep. Hakeem Jeffries for speaker is false. This story has also been updated to reflect that Rep. Matt Gaetz is not a member of the House Freedom Caucus.
Three leading conservatives reportedly told GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in a private meeting on Monday that they don’t mind if incoming House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wins the speakership.
In a private meeting with McCarthy to negotiate voting for him to become House speaker, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and House Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) said they want to form their own legal entity in the new Congress to wage lawsuits, according to Punchbowl News.
As all three lawmakers appear to be voting against McCarthy to become speaker, the publication noted that the group also told the Republican leader that they don’t mind if the speaker’s vote on Tuesday goes to a plurality and Jeffries is elected to the highest position because they will “fight him.”
Perry’s office responded in a statement to Breitbart News that the notion that he would ever back Jeffries is a “blatant lie.”
Perry said:
It is a blatant lie that we would back Rep. Jeffries at any time. Congressman Perry is fighting to end the status quo, and he remains open to any Republican candidate who will end the dysfunction in Washington. We’ve worked in good faith for months, and, if Kevin McCarthy accepts the offer to reach 218, we expect him to govern in good faith — and that includes no retaliation against those who have worked with us on behalf of the American People to change the status quo in Washington as their voters sent them here to do.
Reportedly, McCarthy also asked his opposers, who are mostly in the House Freedom Caucus, to present their offer to the entire Republican Conference in a closed meeting on Tuesday morning since he did not see the offer as viable. If McCarthy made such a request, it may have been his way of taking his fight with the Freedom Caucus — which has been brewing for over a decade — to them by making it happen in front of the whole conference.
Their offer reportedly included specific committee assignments for many people in their caucus, along with subcommittee chairs, and “amnesty” after the entire negotiation with McCarthy.
On the way to the meeting with the Republican Conference, McCarthy told Punchbowl that his goal for today would be to “unite the team.”
“Explain what we went through,” he continued. “The difficult part here is we went out to the American public with a commitment to America to fight for them, not for a few members here to fight for their own personal. This is about the country, and we’ll have to show the difference.”
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
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