Bitter GOP rivalries return with a vengeance in speaker's race
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Scalise (L) and McCarthy during January's speaker election. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
New tensions are colliding with old feuds in the Republican race to become House speaker, intensifying the GOP's paralysis and raising serious questions about whether any candidate is capable of governing the conference.
Why it matters: The internal chaos has major implications for government funding, aid to Ukraine, the 2024 election and other issues that extend far beyond the walls of Congress. Old wounds reopened by the removal of Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as speaker will only exacerbate those challenges.
Driving the news: McCarthy confidantes quietly have been making calls to advocate against Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is considered the leading contender to become the next speaker.
- Scalise and McCarthy have long been viewed as rivals, with tensions spilling over into public eye on multiple occasions in recent years.
- One of McCarthy's closest allies, Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), took a thinly veiled swipe at Scalise on Wednesday, telling reporters: "I think this whole narrative about every member of the existing leadership taking one step up is bullsh*t."
- "The body wasn't even cold," one House Republican told The Messenger, criticizing Scalise for quietly launching his campaign moments after McCarthy was ousted Tuesday night.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a founding chair of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, has received endorsements from several McCarthy allies.
- But Jordan's close ties to former President Trump and allegations that Jordan knew Ohio State wrestlers he coached were being sexually abused — which he denies — could cost him dozens of moderate votes.
- Jordan also told NBC News today that he would not support expelling Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), which could anger Republicans itching for retribution against the architect of the McCarthy coup.
- In another sign of old feuds turning nasty, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) — a former House Republican close to McCarthy — accused Gaetz of routinely bragging about his sexual experiences to colleagues on the House floor, which Gaetz has denied.
Down the ballot, influential Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) endorsed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to be majority leader, snubbing next-in-line Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who defeated Banks in last fall's whip election.
The intrigue: House Republicans have publicly and privately expressed particular contempt for Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), a moderate on women's issues who joined with seven GOP hardliners to oust McCarthy.
- Mace, who criticized Gaetz for fundraising off of January's 15-ballot speaker election, has been aggressively soliciting donations of her own after shocking the GOP conference with her anti-McCarthy vote.
- The moderate Republican Governance Group is now considering removing Mace from its caucus.
The bottom line: "The only grudge that I know as a fact is going to last is the one we are going to hold against those eight a**holes," one McCarthy ally told Politico.
