Politics

Report: Jason Chaffetz Might Run For House Speaker

(REUTERS/Jose Luis Magana)

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee Jason Chaffetz is preparing to run for speaker of the House, according to a report.

Outgoing speaker of the House John Boehner has set the conference meeting to elect his replacement for next Thursday.

Politico Friday cited “multiple sources” to say Chaffetz “is planning to run for House speaker, taking on Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in what appears to be a long-shot bid to lead House Republicans.”

Some conservatives have expressed interest in backing an alternative to McCarthy as speaker, though no candidate has emerged to consolidate that support.

“If conservative members of Congress — like the tea party caucus, the freedom caucus and the liberty caucus — go back home to their town halls and say, ‘Guess what, we replaced John Boehner with his right-hand man,’ the constituents are not going to be very happy with that outcome,” Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie said in a recent interview with The Daily Caller.

The only other person running for speaker, other than McCarthy, is Florida Rep. Daniel Webster.

Chaffetz has been in the news this week with the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security admitting that employees of the Secret Service intentionally leaked to the media that he had applied, but failed, to get a job with the service in 2003.

Chaffetz also criticized McCarthy this week for his comments about the political upside of the select Benghazi committee in the House.

“I’m very supportive of Kevin McCarthy, but those statements are just absolutely inappropriate, they should be withdrawn, Mr. McCarthy should apologize,” Chaffetz told MSNBC.

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