Congressman Jason Chaffetz officially announced his candidacy for Speaker of the House on Sunday morning.
Additionally, Chaffetz told Fox’s Chris Wallace Sunday that current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy should not get “an automatic promotion” because he has not been able to quell the internal “conflict going on right now” between House Republicans. (RELATED: Report Claims Chaffetz Might Challenge McCarthy In House)
CHAFFETZ: I think the American public wants to see a change. They want a fresh start. There’s a reason why we see this phenomenon going on across the country. You don’t just give an automatic promotion to the existing leadership team. That doesn’t signal change. I think they want a fresh face and a fresh new person who’s actually there at the leadership table — and the Speaker’s role — you’ve got to speak, you’ve got to articulate the Republican message to the American people and take that fight to the President, but you’ve also got to be able to bridge internally, and that’s where we’ve got some conflict going on right now… [McCarthy’s] been in existing leadership for years and years, and the strife and the divide is getting worse. It’s not getting better.