On Tuesday, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman noted that former President Donald Trump may be a key factor in why House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is facing the prospect of failing, for the second time in his career, of securing the votes to be Speaker of the House.
"Trump made whip calls on McCarthy's behalf with the holdouts. Now, he declines to say if he's standing by his endorsement," wrote Haberman on Twitter. "Had Trump not forced out the members who voted to impeach him, McCarthy likely would have had the votes."
This comes after reporting that Trump, after both publicly and privately going to bat for McCarthy to secure the votes, is now noncommittal about helping him, simply telling NBC News' Garrett Haake, "We'll see what happens."
Ten House Republican lawmakers voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. All but two of them — Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) and Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) — subsequently either resigned or were defeated in primaries with Trump's encouragement. Two of those who lost — Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) — were ultimately succeeded by Democrats after Trump's chosen candidate lost the 2022 elections.
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This is not the first time McCarthy has fumbled his quest for Speaker; in 2015, he was passed over in favor of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) after the resignation of Speaker John Boehner.
This time, a majority of the caucus supports him, but a far-right cohort denied him the necessary votes to get to 218 — the first time a party leader has lost the first Speaker ballot since 1923.
