McCarthy Gets More Bad News in His Bid to Be House Speaker As GOP Defections Pile Up

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bid to become the House speaker in the next Congress appears to be growing more complicated. On Friday, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) tweeted, “I’ve seen enough. I cannot…

Bradley CortrightNov 18, 20222 min read

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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) accused McCarthy of “threatening and pressuring incoming freshmen House members to vote for him.”

“We have the votes to force a change,” he added.

Biggs explained his decision to opppose McCarthy’s bid for speaker in a post on American Greatness. He noted a “red wave” did not sweep Republicans into power with sizable majorities. Additionally, he wrote that his constituents want new leadership.

“For conservatives, the Republicans are culpable for failing to put the brakes on the Left. Many of my constituents justifiably turned their ire on Republicans,” Biggs said. “They want us to fight. They want us to use every tool in the toolbox to prevent the further devolution of our constitutional rights.”

He went on:

“The Republicans in Congress have decided it’s better to cling to the status quo than to make change. I was told in 2020 that we were in the minority and shouldn’t make changes to our leadership. This year, I was told we would have a ‘red wave’ gaining 25 seats or more, so we wouldn’t want to change our leader, that our leaders earned the right to lead again.”

The Arizona Congressman said the new argument is “that we will barely have a three-seat majority, so we must not change leaders in order to protect unity.”

“I disagree. I believe it is time to make a change. Those thoughts are most immutable,” he added.