Most House Republicans were "stunned" by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's decision to drop out of the running for Speaker of the House, Rep. Tim Huelskamp told
Newsmax TV Thursday.
"Most folks were stunned. It was like 10 minutes after 12 and he pulled a John Boehner, he walked in, he sat there until his time to speak, and we got started, he got up, and just announced he was quitting. And he said, I don't have the votes and I am not the one," Huelskamp, a Kansas GOP member who is part of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told "The Steve Malzberg Show" in an interview Thursday. "There was a collective gasp."
"Just two hours before that he was the same old Kevin McCarthy and busy working for votes and all of a sudden the bottom fell out of the market and it was over," Huelskamp said.
Watch
Newsmax TV on
DIRECTV Ch. 349,
DISH Ch. 223 and
Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Get
Newsmax TV on your cable system –
Click Here Now
McCarthy, 50, a Republican who has represented California for five terms, abruptly bowed out of the race for House speaker on Thursday.
Considered the favorite to be nominated to succeed Speaker John Boehner, McCarthy announced his decision Thursday to stunned colleagues at the start of a meeting of the House Republican Conference.
Huelskamp also referenced a letter another North Carolina Republican, Rep. Walter Jones, sent to conference Chairman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers urging that leaders question any candidate for speaker, majority leader or whip to withdraw if any past "misdeeds" might eventually embarrass the conference, the party or the House.
Jones told Fox News that he knew of no specific "skeletons" in McCarthy's closet, but that the letter was to be merely a guideline for all leadership applicants.
Huelskamp told Malzberg that he, too, knew of no specific incidents in McCarthy's past.
"Walter's concern to congressmen was that the Republican Party, right now, nobody trusts us — and that's right. I don't trust these guys in leadership.
"That's why we're getting new ones — and if you have a scandal blow over the top of that, the only ones that benefit from that is Hillary Clinton."
Huelskamp said that McCarthy's Fox News comments last week about how the special House Benghazi committee's investigation has caused Clinton's poll numbers to plummet also caused consternation among some Republicans.
"It was McCarthy's comments that raised concern with a lot of more moderate members of the Republican Congress when he said, well the Benghazi thing was just a political act," he told Malzberg. "It was a dangerous statement."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.