'Political fan fiction': Ex-Trump aide scoffs at idea of him being House speaker
The idea of former President Donald Trump becoming speaker of the House is essentially nothing more than "political fan fiction," said former Trump White House communications official Alyssa Farah Griffin on CNN Thursday.
This comes as Republicans scramble to choose a replacement after ousting Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the speakership — and as Trump, who is already running for president again, offers to serve as an interim speaker, something that might not actually be allowed under House rules prohibiting people under major indictments from holding leadership roles.
"Perspective right now from CNN commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin, who once worked for Jim Jordan when he chaired the House Freedom Caucus," said anchor Anderson Cooper. "Jordan is trying to lock down support of moderates. Former president says, put me in, coach. What do you make of this situation?"
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"So listen, both Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan as declared likely candidates kind of take votes from each other," said Griffin. "So Steve Scalise has the moderates in his corner. I would suspect Jim Jordan's meeting with members of the House Freedom Caucus, he would choose a founding member and chairman of tomorrow. I guess as a group they would endorse him as a bloc. As Matt Gaetz suggested, he would lower his requirements for the motion to vacate for a Jim Jordan speaker. That's a big selling point within the conference because this notion of the motion to vacate hanging over everyone's head and speakers only lasting a few months is a problem."
However, said Griffin, "neither of these candidates have 218 votes. Not even close to it. So what I'd expect is next week you're going to see a private conference ballot. They do not make their votes public. And they're going realize that nobody has the majority of votes."
"Now the Donald Trump idea in all this, I'm considering it political fan fiction at this point," added Griffin. "He doesn't know how to do the job. It's a functional role for one thing. He also wouldn't have the votes. Even the most die-hard House Republicans I think would admit that he would be a further agent of chaos. He is not somebody who can fund the government. And I think he would get under 150 votes in a private ballot."
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