Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, criticized congressional Republican leaders, who he said have had too much of a “top-down” approach, and made overtures to House conservatives on Sunday.
“Really, the role of the speaker is to be the constitutional officer who makes sure the process is fair, it’s balanced, we protect minority rights, and that we allow these good bills and ideas to percolate from the bottom-up, rather than a top-down driven process where the speaker is telling the body what to do,” Chaffetz said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Chaffetz was also asked by host Martha Raddatz if he would need “compromise” with “hardliners” like the House Freedom Caucus in order to succeed in his campaign for House speaker. Chaffetz demurred, saying, “I don’t think you’ve got to cut a deal with anybody. There’s no deal that you have to cut. I think I’ve earned a reputation for being fair and that I’ll hear all sides from the entire political spectrum.”
He also took shots at Republicans in the Senate for being less willing to fight than House Republicans. “Passing bills out of the House is one step, but we’ve actually got to get those bills on the president’s desk,” Chaffetz said. “When [voters] talk about the dysfunction in Washington D.C., they’re also talking about President Obama, and they’re also talking about the United States Senate.”
“The American people swept us into power because they wanted results, and we’ve got to take that fight to the Senate, we’ve got to take that fight to the president,” he said.
Chaffetz announced his candidacy for House speaker following current Speaker John Boehner’s announcement that he was going to retire at the end of the month. The election is set to take place on Oct. 29. Chaffetz has failed to gain much traction and faces skepticism from many conservatives, most notably the 40-member House Freedom Caucus.
