McCarthy on returning as speaker: 'Whatever the conference wants, I will do'

McCarthy said if he had followed the eight Republican rebels, thousands of U.S. troops would be without pay.

Published: October 10, 2023 8:47am

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) did not rule out the possibility of returning to his position as House speaker if the Republican conference decides to elect him to the role again.

Eight Republicans joined Democrats to oust McCarthy from his position as speaker last week in an effort led by conservative Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

"Eight Republicans brought you down. I don’t know if they can change their mind, but I don’t think we’re going to get to a Speaker other than Kevin McCarthy this week," conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt said during an interview with McCarthy on Monday. "Would you be willing to go back if those eight retreated?"

"Look, whatever the conference wants, I will do. I think we need to be strong. I think we need to be united," McCarthy responded.

Explaining why the eight Republicans voted to oust him, McCarthy said, "It was a personal thing. It wasn’t about where we were going."

He also said that the Republican rebels have indicated that they would not vote for him because he "kept the government open" when he tried to pass spending bills to avert a shutdown.

"They’re the ones that stopped appropriations bills from going forward. They’re the ones who voted against a continuing resolution that secured our border and cut spending. They’re the ones who wanted a government shutdown," he said, adding that if the GOP followed the eight Republicans, the 30,000 U.S. service members currently stationed in the Middle East would not be receiving a salary at the moment amid Hamas's war with Israel.

"If we had shut down the government, we would be blamed for the intelligence failure that led to this massacre. We did not shut down the government. We still had an intelligence failure. But if we had, you would be blamed for the intelligence failure," Hewitt responded.

"They thought, 'Let’s pick politics over the best that's for America,'" McCarthy said. "I will never back away from my decision. I put America first, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do."

However, Gaetz said on X, formerly Twitter, after McCarthy's interview, "I know who I work for. And it’s nobody who lives in Washington DC."

Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise have both entered the speaker's race.

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