McCarthy shifts blame to Scalise for GOP revolt
Reese Gorman
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s (R-LA) conversation with another member started the rebellion within the Republican conference.
Talking with the Washington Examiner, McCarthy said he thinks the members who voted “no” on the rule for the bill to block the ban on gas stoves are upset about “a lot of different things,” but he blamed Scalise for starting it through his conversation with Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA).
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“I just think, sometimes, it’s personalities, too. Everybody has different things they’re upset with. With the Clyde thing, that was about Scalise. That’s what started it,” McCarthy said.
Clyde has claimed that a member of leadership told him that if he didn’t vote to advance the rule on the debt ceiling bill, it would be hard to bring his pistol brace bill to the floor. Although Clyde voted yes on the gas stove rule, some of the members who voted no said they did so in part because of how Clyde was treated. The Georgia Republican has not named which member of leadership it was, but McCarthy said he was referring to Scalise.
Scalise has not answered questions about whether or not he was the one to threaten Clyde but told reporters on Tuesday he hopes to bring Clyde’s bill to the floor sometime next week.
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McCarthy further tried to shift the blame to Scalise for the standoff on the House floor, telling reporters, “The majority leader runs the floor,” and that Scalise’s conversation with Clyde was a “miscalculation” or “misinterpretation.”
“Yesterday was started on a conversation on something else,” he said. “It was a conversation the majority leader had with Congressman Clyde.”