A panel on MSNBC predicted Thursday that Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California would not “survive” as speaker because he was “making concessions” to a “chaos caucus.”
“They’re making concessions to their chaos caucus,” MSNBC host Alicia Menendez told “Deadline: White House” host Nicolle Wallace, referring to Republican Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who won re-election with 69.5% of the vote Nov. 8 as Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after midterm elections where they failed to meet expectations of a “red wave.” (RELATED: Schumer Says GOP Will ‘Keep Losing’ If They ‘Embrace MAGA’)
McCarthy fended off a challenge to win the nomination to be speaker of the House from Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, winning 188-31. But McCarthy will still need to secure the support of 218 members in January in order to obtain the speakership.
“Something that’s important to understand here, is people like MTG and all of these faux populists, they thrive on the idea, they sell the idea that government can’t possibly work,” Menendez said. “So they don’t want legislation brought to the floor that they can vote for. They’re not looking for policy, they’re not looking for solutions, they’re looking to make a point and for them, chaos is the point. It actually serves them.”
WATCH:
Republican Reps. James Comer of Kentucky and Jim Jordan of Ohio announced plans to investigate President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Thursday over business dealings in foreign countries, including Ukraine and China. House Republicans claimed that The FBI and Justice Department downplayed potential wrongdoing by Hunter Biden in a report released Nov. 4.
“I think what has happened here is that so many of those Republicans were actually elected in districts where it wasn’t insanity, and so they’re bringing that into the Congress. I look back on the time that Speaker Pelosi served and led the minority. She was very skillful at trying to figure out ways in which she could leverage that support to get benefits for Democrats with a very fractured caucus,” former Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland told Wallace. “This caucus – this Republican conference is even more fractured and I think that it isn’t just about getting the benefit of 30-some votes or whatever is needed for McCarthy to become speaker.”
Edwards questioned whether McCarthy could collect or maintain the 218 votes needed to be Speaker of the House.
“The question is how long he will be speaker, because he’s not going to survive in an environment where he has to cut a deal and get Democratic votes and still go up against that chaos as Alicia said, chaos caucus,” Edwards continued. “And so I just don’t really view his leadership as very short term, I always thought of him as weak and frankly, I will be surprised should he become speaker, but I don’t think it’ll last very long.”
McCarthy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.