“And so our hope is to work with someone that can actually win that can accomplish the agenda that we talked about”.
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“Let’s work together to make a difference for our country”, McCarthy wrote on Twitter. Asked how he’ll handle the big, new responsibilities of a speaker and represent voters at home, McCarthy said local constituents will have their biggest voice ever because he will be “running the floor”. “I refer you to my remark at a fundraiser I made in August in Steamboat Springs, Colorado”, Boehner said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) didn’t seem too concerned about passing the major pieces of lingering business in time for Boehner’s October. 30 departure.
Though McCarthy is the favorite, arch-conservatives have yet to endorse him, with a few expressing skepticism that he will be sufficiently conservative. Republicans are scheduled to meet late Tuesday afternoon to discuss the leadership elections. The decision came just one day after Pope Francis visited Congress. Boehner, who is Catholic, was visibly emotional during the Pope’s remarks and had his six-month-old grandson blessed by the Pope during his visit.
Senator Bob Menendez said he felt that Speaker John Boehner, who recently announced he was resigning from his position, was motivated by the recent Papal visit to make his choice.
Boehner warned against trusting a few legislators’ promises. He’ll push bills that most members of the Republican conference want him to move; he won’t act on what they don’t want action on.
Meadows acknowledged that McCarthy is clearly the front-runner to be the next Speaker, but maintained it’s not a done deal yet, saying, “there’s still a lot of uncommitted votes”.
Boehner’s announcement he was leaving one of the most powerful jobs in Washington- he is second in line to succeed the president – shocked almost everyone, opening a rare chance for ambitious lawmakers to climb the congressional ladder and for competing factions to exert new sway as an anti-establishment fever sweeps Republican politics.
Illinois GOP Rep. Peter Roskam, a former member of leadership, pushed for the session as a way to slow down the process.
McCarthy’s run has already set off a scramble for the job of majority leader, as well. Holyoke says this could be a big challenge for McCarthy.
He says a few of the frustration among the caucus’s most conservative members stems from the tight control the speaker and committee chairmen have historically exerted over what gets voted on.
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Then McCarthy seized on a “generational” shift and said he would be “closer to the people”.
