Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) on Sunday didn’t rule out that a motion might be put forth for the Speakership to be vacated following Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) successfully becoming the new Speaker of the House. In order to win the desired votes McCarthy promised holdouts within his party that the threshold for the House Speaker to be removed would be reduced to only one lawmaker.
Comer told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was not entirely convinced that they can go through an entire Congress without using the option. However, he believed that currently, the majority of Republicans believe that McCarthy should be given a chance to govern. Comer added that he was not in a position to guarantee that there wouldn’t be a single person who tried to abuse the motion, but so far McCarthy had been selected by the party to lead this conference and govern. He added that this was the moment for McCarthy to help the party deliver on all of their midterm election promises.
It took McCarthy 15 ballots to secure the Speakership. During the first three votes that took place on Tuesday, around 20 Republicans had opposed McCarthy as House Speaker by voting for alternative candidates. However, McCarthy eventually managed to get the holdouts to change their position and support his bid for the Speakership. Still, the first week of Congress consisted of a lot of infighting by GOP members who are currently holding the majority in the House.
