Rep. Darrell Issa said Friday that he’s “considering” running for House speaker.
“I said this morning that I would consider— I am considering whether or not to put my name in the hat,” the California Republican said on CNBC. “To be honest, I probably am better suited to be the Republican leader or committee chairman. But it’s not a question of ‘suiting’ at this point or even experience. It’s a question of can we come together.”
He said later on MSNBC, “The fact is, yes, I think that I could be, potentially, a candidate.”
Issa sits on the House Judiciary Committee, and made a name for himself when he chaired the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee by applying aggressive oversight to the Obama administration in a range of different areas.
Current House Speaker John Boehner announced in late September that he would retire at the end of October. That plan was thrown into chaos on Thursday, however, when his apparent successor, GOP House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, said he was withdrawing from the race.
McCarthy said he was no longer seeking the speakership because he felt that while he could garner a majority of votes from the Republican caucus, it was not enough for him to feel confident that he could manage all 247 other Republicans, which are heavily divided between moderates and confrontation-hungry conservatives.
McCarthy also recently fell under intense criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for apparently admitting that the House Select Committe on Benghazi was a partisan political apparatus meant to damage Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
