Kevin McCarthy 'needs a red wave' or else Marjorie Taylor Greene will be running the caucus: David Axelrod
Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Screen Grab)

While Republicans are favored to retake control of the House of Representatives at this week's midterm elections, there remains a question of just how many seats the GOP will win.

CNN political analyst David Axelrod argued on Monday that McCarthy had better hope that he wins big, or else he will be at the mercy of fringe members such as the conspiracy theory-spouting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

"The truth of the matter is, he needs more than 20 seats," Axelrod said. "He needs a red wave because if he doesn't get it, he's not going to be running that caucus, Marjorie Taylor Greene and that crowd is."

Axelrod noted that McCarthy invested significant sums of money in a wide swathe of districts in the hopes of getting as big of a majority as possible in order to ensure that he would not be routinely held hostage by his party's hardliners.

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That said, Alexrod predicted that McCarthy could not completely sideline Greene due to "the power that she has with the base of the party," as well as the support from former President Donald Trump, whom he argued could end McCarthy's ambitions to become Speaker.

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