“We’ve proven that a speaker can be removed”, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin, who is not a member of the House but is in contact with the conservative bloc, told the Herald. “I think the next speaker has to agree to that because this place has got to change….” “If Paul Ryan gets in the race, I am a huge fan of Paul Ryan”.
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House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is deciding whether to seek the US House of Representatives’ speaker job, fellow Republican lawmakers said yesterday after they met behind closed doors to try to settle their leadership battle. Others might jump in.
“I’d like to see somebody like Tom Price take a look at it”, Sue Everhart of east Cobb, immediate past chairwoman of the Georgia Republican Party, said of the speaker position.
However, Trump cautioned, there are other people who might grab the brass ring, particularly because Ryan hasn’t declared his intention to run for the position yet. But McCarthy calls it a “big decision” and says Ryan needs to discuss it with “his wife and everybody else”.
That leaves Webster and U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah as still the only announced candidates in the Republican Party. Ryan is assigned as Love’s mentor in Congress. “But he would make it very hard for House conservatives because to oppose Ryan is, in the minds of much of the press, to oppose conservatism itself”, Erickson added.
Ryan has obviously stayed out of the 2016 fray but at just 45 with such strong support and national clout, a presidential campaign in years to come is not out of the question. The two talked on the phone Friday. His top lieutenant, Kevin McCarthy, was expected to replace him, but suddenly backed out last week. “But he’s got to decide”. Congress is in recess next week.
Meanwhile, Ryan’s spokesman, Brendan Buck, said in a statement that “Chairman Ryan appreciates the support he’s getting from his colleagues but is still not running for Speaker”.
Why not? Possible reasons include the presidential ambitions he may well still harbor.
The fate of House Republicans has been in the hands of about 40 out of 246 members.
The House Freedom Caucus should push for a wide-open debate on the next speaker, he said.
It’s been speculated – largely by Fox News host Sean Hannity – that the House could elect Gingrich as speaker if no viable alternatives arise.
“It’s not about the who, it’s about the what”, he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Trump believes Ryan is “strong” but his baggage on entitlements could hurt him.
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“This is an opportunity for the conference to look across the… members that we have and say who is the unifying influential leader that can cast that vision and communicate that vision and help all of us execute that vision”, Flores told reporters on Thursday.
