Hakeem Jeffries knocks McCarthy allies for recruiting centrist Democrat to switch parties


House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) blasted “desperate” Republicans for reportedly trying to recruit centrist Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) to their party and cast his vote for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) speakership bid.

Jeffries said he confirmed that McCarthy’s allies reached out to Cuellar at a press conference Tuesday and criticized the strategy in light of the GOP spending millions to unseat Cuellar. Republicans will likely only have a small majority once all the midterm election races are called, jeopardizing McCarthy’s run for speaker of the House, as some Freedom Caucus members backed Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) for the position instead.

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“The nerve of these individuals — and how desperate that they literally just spent millions of dollars mischaracterizing Henry Cuellar’s leadership and talked about the emergence of a red wave in the Rio Grande Valley, then get wiped down by Cuellar and Vincente Gonzalez and want to run to them, saying, ‘We need your help, because we’re struggling, because the American people rejected our extremism, because they saw us for who we are,'” Jeffries said.

Multiple people close to McCarthy called Cuellar over the last several days attempting to sway him to switch parties and support McCarthy for speaker as the House Freedom Caucus mounts a rebellion that could block him from reaching the 218 votes needed. Politico reported that neither McCarthy himself nor his staff were involved in the calls.

“Anyone suggesting this is simply exercising in fan fiction. Leader McCarthy is going to be elected Speaker by the current and newly-elected members of the House Republican Conference. Our efforts are exclusively focused on bringing our conference together and saving the country,” McCarthy spokesman Mark Bednar said in a statement.

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Cuellar is the last Democrat in the House who supports some restrictions on abortion and secured a narrow primary victory against a liberal challenger. He beat Republican Cassy Garcia by over 16 points despite GOP hopes that she could flip the district.

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