Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday voiced his support for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s nomination for House speaker, warning the five Republicans who oppose him that they are «playing a very dangerous game.»
«Look, I believe this: Kevin has worked very hard (…) I think he deserves the opportunity. Hopefully he’s very strong and very good and does what everybody wants,» Trump said in an interview with the Breitbart News portal.
The words of the former president come at a time when the Republican Party is immersed in an internal battle in the election of the president of the House of Representatives, all because of the opposition of five congressmen who demand substantial changes on, among other aspects, the powers and restrictions of the position.
Those five Congressmen Andy Biggs (Arizona), Matt Gaetz (Florida), Bob Good (Florida), Ralph Norman (South Carolina) and Matthew Rosendale (Montana) have threatened to vote as a group to oppose McCarthy in the January 3 vote. The five of them are enough to prevent him from reaching the 218 votes McCarthy needs to preside, because the Republicans have won 222 seats.
Faced with this situation, Trump has warned that the five congressmen are endangering the Republican Party.
«Now, I’m friends with a lot of those people who are against Kevin. I think almost all of them are very much leaning toward Trump and I’m leaning toward them (…) But I have to tell them, and I have told them, they are playing a very dangerous game,» he said.
«You could end up in a worse situation. I don’t even want to say in what way, but I could tell them (the five congressmen) that you could end up in a worse situation,» he added.
If McCarthy does not get the 218 votes he needs, House Republicans will again hold an election on the floor until a Speaker emerges, a situation unprecedented since 1923.
«Now, I’m friends with a lot of those people who are against Kevin. I think almost all of them are very much leaning toward Trump and I’m leaning toward them,» he said. «But I have to tell them, and I’ve told them, they’re playing a very dangerous game.»
The former chairman pointed to the resignation of former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in 2015 in the face of opposition within the Republican Party, which resulted in former Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) taking over as speaker.
«Boehner wasn’t perfect, nobody’s perfect, but Paul Ryan was a disaster for the Republican Party,» Trump said.
Trump and Ryan frequently clashed as the two overlapped as president and speaker, and Ryan has become a staunch opponent of the former president since leaving Congress.
Ryan said in an interview last month that he believes Trump would lose if he becomes the Republican nominee in 2024 and called himself «never Trump again.»
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
