Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., said Monday that conservative House Republicans are trying to use the speaker’s election to win changes to the way the House is run, and aren’t trying to insist that a far-right member of Congress becomes the next speaker.
“That’s what this is all about,” Mulvaney said on CNBC when asked how the next speaker can get support from members of the House Freedom Caucus. “People think it’s about conservative vs. moderate, it’s not.”
“The House has been a badly run enterprise for a long time, it’s a poorly run organization, we’re getting bad results as a result,” he said.
Mulvaney said House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has a chance to win the support of conservative members as long as he agrees to certain changes. Among other things, conservatives are seeking are to ensure members aren’t punished for voting against leadership, and to let the GOP caucus vote for who will lead various committees.
“We want new leadership, we want a new leadership style, and if Paul can commit to that, I think he can become successful,” he said.
These are the same sorts of changes Mulvaney and other members were seeking when Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was seeking the speaker’s chair before he dropped out.
McCarthy left by saying he didn’t have the broad support among Republicans he wanted, but Mulvaney’s comments indicate that no one will have the support of the roughly 40 or so conservative Republicans until they make a commitment to rules changes.
Mulvaney also stressed that conservatives realize they are a minority part of the broader GOP, and said they understand that, and just want to have a little more influence in the process.
“We don’t expect to win a lot more. We expect to do a little bit better, but we haven’t even been … participating at the leadership table for the last four years,” he said.
