FLASHBACK: Kevin McCarthy Dropped out of the Speaker Race in 2015 - Will He Again?
Well, Kevin McCarthy is well on his way to making history, for taking a lot of ballots to maybe get elected Speaker of the House.
First off, thanks for checking out RedState and keeping up with the rumble in the swamp jungle over who will lead the GOP for the next two years as the Speaker of the People’s House or, as soon-to-be-former Speaker Nancy Pelosi fondly called it, “my gavel piggy bank.”Just for clarity, San Fran Nan never said that, but you know.
Here are some of my colleagues’ stellar offerings on today’s festivities.
Matt Gaetz’s Words About Kevin McCarthy Define the Current State of the Republican Party
‘I Earned This Job’: Kevin McCarthy Adamant He Will Not Withdraw From Speaker’s Race
That last article from Teri Christoph kinda made me chuckle because who in the hell says an elected position is earned among other elected officials?
That might be a bit of a problem with the country that is watching this.
Anyway, that got me thinking about the last time Kevin McCarthy was up for the Speaker of the House job back in 2015 after John “Crier” Boehner stepped down and the next guy in line in the GOP for the top job was…Kevin McCarthy.
Yet he never became Speaker back then.
I happened to mention this in my article earlier today right here Newt Gingrich’s Expert Analysis on the Speaker Vote Is Eye-Roll Worthy about this historical event that lots of GOP types seem to not know.
From that amazingly insightful article that went back in history a whole seven years ago:
Now, I’m not going to get all wound up about whether or not Kevin McCarthy becomes Speaker of the House. I have written about the problems that the Republican Party has nationally and back here in my home state of Michigan and that is long-term-wise to me more critical than this moment about who leads the Republicans with a five-seat lead in the House of Representatives. More articles on that subject along with discussions on my radio show upcoming this year.
However, I am curious as to why McCarthy is still in leadership and running after not having enough votes to become Speaker back in 2015 to replace John Boehner because of lack of votes. If you recall Paul Ryan skipped over the GOP leadership at that time and became Speaker.
Interesting huh?
Let’s go to CNN for the call:
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the race to succeed Speaker John Boehner on Thursday, a shocking move that throws the House into chaos.
The move came without warning as House Republicans were in a closed-door meeting to select their nominee for speaker, with McCarthy’s wife and kids in the room. Boehner subsequently postponed the vote.
“I think I shocked some of you, huh?” McCarthy told reporters following the decision.
Yes, I would say that is shocking. I only say that because the comments section from my last post has been BLOWN UP with people screaming IF NOT KEVIN, WHO?! Presumably, this was also an issue back then, yet they figured it out.
Hint: the picture above of Kevin standing next to some guy named Paul Ryan is what we call foreshadowing about what eventually happened.
So the question that some ask of who, if not Kevin, is nonsensical. The reason why is that Paul Ryan was not in leadership or even mentioned as a replacement when the House GOP caucus met on the day McCarthy announced he was dropping out. As McCarthy himself is quoted as saying, he shocked people by dropping out — and that was correct.
I do not recall an official reason given why McCarthy dropped out of the race for the gavel to replace Boehner but he did not have the votes. Now that the House has adjourned for the day with no resolution on who the next Speaker will be, I guess it is a fair question to ask if Kevin will drop out again.
Only Kevin knows for sure.
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