Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) warned that the House GOP conference poses a “very real danger” of electing a Speaker and then in a few weeks going “back into the same mess.”
“There’s a very real danger that [the House will] elect somebody, and three or four or five weeks from now, you’re going to have a group of people blow up and decide to go back into the same mess,” Gingrich said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “So they need to pick somebody to get stability.”
Pushing for House Republicans to stay in conference until a Speaker designate has the 217 votes to take the gavel, Gingrich added, “Bring food in and stay there. Again, very simple test — can you get the 217 votes? They shouldn’t bring anybody out until they have 217. And second, that 217 has to be committed not just to elect a Speaker, but to stick together for the next five or six months.”
The House was thrust into uncharted territory nearly three weeks ago, after eight Republicans joined all House Democrats to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), marking the first time a sitting Speaker has been booted from the position.
Calling the lower chamber a “mess,” Gingrich railed against the eight Republicans who voted for McCarthy’s ouster and claimed they “unleashed furies” in the GOP conference.
“Well, right now [House members] can’t govern. And I think that the eight people who betrayed the conference and joined the Democrats to defeat 96 percent of the conference unleashed furies that I don’t think they’d ever dreamed of, because they gave every person the right to be equally destructive and equally angry,” Gingrich said.
Shortly after McCarthy’s ouster, Gingrich called on House Republicans to expel Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the motion to oust McCarthy, and he called the Florida Republican an “anti-Republican” who engaged in “childish behavior.”
Seven of the eight Republicans said they would accept punishment from the conference if holdouts against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) changed their votes. A letter solidifying the offer appeared to have been signed by each of the eight Republicans, but Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.) said his included name and signature was the result of a miscommunication.
Jordan, who clinched the Speaker nomination after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.) dropped out of the race one day after getting the nomination, failed to shore up the 217 votes needed after three rounds of voting last week.
The House GOP conference voted by a secret ballot to no longer back Jordan after the Ohio Republican’s third failed ballot last Friday, which saw even less GOP support than the first two ballots.
The House is now back at square one, with nine Republicans who have thrown their name into the Speakership race. A candidate forum is expected to take place Monday at 6:30 p.m., and the House will move to an internal nomination election Tuesday at 9 a.m.
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