Speaker McCarthy’s tidy 1st week disguises trouble ahead
Associated PressIn the House of Representatives? And when House Republicans met for the first time behind closed doors after the rowdy public spectacle that broke history records and almost came to fistfights to elect McCarthy as speaker, it was a “lovefest,” as one Republican lawmaker put it. It was Trump’s 11th hour push for McCarthy as voting was underway late last week that both men, who are on-again-off-again allies, said was responsible for making the California Republican the new House speaker. “And now we’re back to business.” Said Rep. Scott Perry, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, “I feel pretty positive — Republicans are in charge and we’re whupping up on the left and it’s awesome.” Republican Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., one of the chief holdouts in speaker’s fight, said the public display put McCarthy in a stronger negotiating position moving forward by showing what the speaker is up against. “Our speaker is empowered to be in a stronger position in negotiations with the Senate in the White House, because he can say, ‘When my folks say no, they mean no.’” Standing in gilded Statuary Hall rather than the Capitol’s usual press briefing studio in the basement, McCarthy compared his new Republican majority to the early American lawmakers.