House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, over the next six weeks, will try to make deals to get the 218 votes he'll need to become the next speaker of the House, but considering the slim majority Republicans are expected to hold in the chamber, he may not be able to get the votes he needs, Rep. Andy Biggs, also in the running for the seat, said on Newsmax on Wednesday.
"McCarthy is going to try to make deals with some people to try to get them to come up and support him," the Arizona Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "He needs 218 and I think that there's probably a pretty good number of people who are going to say, Look, we needed to turn a new page. We need to turn a new leaf, and that's what the American people want."
McCarthy on Tuesday cleared the first step toward becoming speaker by winning majority support with a vote of 188-31 during a secret ballot.
Biggs, former chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, on Monday announced he will challenge McCarthy.
However, Biggs told Newsmax on Wednesday that even though 31 people voted against McCarthy, "it wasn't just 31 people who voted for me. There were another five people or more that voted against Kevin and against me, too."
There are several reasons why McCarthy will have trouble getting the votes, said Biggs, including that other lawmakers may not be able to trust him to find solutions.
"He's been in the leadership for six years now," said Biggs. "I remember when I first came in 2017. We failed to deliver on so many things that we promised. We didn't even put up for over a year a bill that had a clean repeal of Obamacare."
And now, this year is about laying the foundation for 2024 "when we need to win the presidency and both houses," Biggs said.
Biggs said McCarthy is reluctant to use tools like impeachment to hold people such as Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas accountable.
"When he said that, I said, 'Well, if you're starting to walk away already from some of the important tools in the toolbox we have to hold the Biden regime accountable, then I have a problem with what you're going to do in as a leader,'" said Biggs. "To get people on board, he has to convince them that he can be trusted to use every tool in the toolbox to stop the Biden regime and their attack on America."
Meanwhile, Biggs said that if he or McCarthy is not chosen as speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, would be his suggestion.
"I know he doesn't really want to do it but I think Jim Jordan has demonstrated that he can work with the establishment wing as well as the conservative wing to go forward," said Biggs. "You're going to need somebody that, frankly, is a consensus candidate. I think somebody like Jim Jordan could do that."
Biggs acknowledged that there may even be another candidate "that's not even on my mind that might come and convince us all that they can be the consensus candidate that we need to have to lead us forward."
Meanwhile, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., was mentioned in 2017 as a House speaker, but now he's in line to become the next majority leader, said Biggs, adding that he thinks Scalise will fill that job well.
"I think he works with and has the friendship and loyalty of people from all across the spectrum," said Biggs. "I'm not sure that the speaker race is necessarily his cup of tea, but I think as majority leader he's going to be pretty solid."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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