Trump brokers meeting between McCarthy, House Freedom Caucus leader ahead of next speaker vote

The fourth round of voting in the House speaker election is set to begin Wednesday.

Published: January 4, 2023 11:17am

Updated: January 4, 2023 12:01pm

Former President Trump arranged a meeting with House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Scott Perry and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy ahead of the fourth ballot in the election for House speaker set to occur on Wednesday, Just the News has learned.

A source told Just the News that it was "productive."

However, the response from Perry's Capitol Hill office sounded less optimistic about a deal that would help McCarthy generate votes from enough House Republicans to win the speakership – an effort being thwarted by about 20 lawmakers of the chamber's GOP conference, among them Freedom Caucus members.

"Congressman Perry is standing firm, he will never back down from fighting to end the status quo. Congressman Perry works for more than 725,000 people in Pennsylvania, that’s who he answers to, that is who sent him to Washington to fix what’s broken," a spokesperson for Perry said in response.

On Wednesday morning, Perry said McCarthy still hadn't accepted the conference rules changes, particularly around the federal budget, that the Freedom Caucus had requested.