Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said that he has not ruled out vacating House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s position during this Congress.
One of the many concessions McCarthy made in order to secure enough votes to become speaker was allowing a single Republican lawmaker to call for a vote to oust him at any given time. Comer, though not one of the holdouts against McCarthy, isn’t ruling out using the concession if need be.
SPEAKER MCCARTHY MAKES COSTLY CONCESSIONS TO LOCK DOWN THE GAVEL
“I’m not convinced we can go the entire Congress without having it. But I believe that if that’s used, I believe that, right now, the overwhelming majority … of Republicans realize that Kevin McCarthy needs a chance to govern, and we’re going to give him a chance,” Comer said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.
He went on to acknowledge that the mechanism is rife for abuse but that he is optimistic about Congress’s future with McCarthy at the head.
“I’m not going to say there won’t be one person who tries to abuse that motion, but I’m confident that McCarthy’s going to be able to be given the green light to govern and to lead this conference and do the things we told the American people we were going to do during the midterm elections,” Comer added.
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McCarthy faced a public showdown against 20 House Republicans after they refused to vote for him as speaker, leading to a dayslong stalemate that saw 15 consecutive votes. After allowing for numerous costly concessions, he won over enough holdouts to achieve a majority in the 15th and final vote on Friday.
