This is not good.
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has issued a very stern warning to the House Republican Conference to not play games when it comes to nominating the next House Speaker because they could inadvertently give Democrats the decision of who becomes the next Speaker.
According to The Hill, McCarthy warned, “We have to speak as one voice. We will only be successful if we work together, or we’ll lose individually. This is very fragile — that we are the only stopgap for this Biden administration.”
McCarthy added, “And if we don’t do this right, the Democrats can take the majority. If we play games on the floor, the Democrats can end up picking who the Speaker is.”
As you likely already know, McCarthy himself is the most likely candidate to become the next House Speaker under a newly Republican-controlled House.
McCarthy already successfully fended off Republican Rep. Andy Biggs who was looking to earn the House GOP’s nomination but that still does not clear a pathway for him to take the House without the votes needed to do so.
To become the next House Speaker, McCarthy needs to win majority support on the House floor on the very first day of Congress on January 3rd.
While Republicans do have the majority in the House it is by a very small margin. There cannot be any divide among the Republican Party on January 3rd or else Democrats can steal the Speakership role away from the Republicans.