Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne of Texas said Thursday on Newsmax that "it would be very helpful" if House Republican holding out against voting for Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker of the House make it clear what they are asking for.
On "Spicer & Co.," the Republican lawmaker defended McCarthy's proposed rule package, highlighting changes made to bill proposals and comparing them to the current speaker vote.
"We are having a vote right now for speaker ... and we are having names thrown out with like no time to vet, hear a plan, hear a campaign — on the fly," Van Duyne stated. "It would be great if while we're having these campaigns, that we could actually know what the person wanted to be in a speaker."
She also said it was "frustrating" to see her California-based colleague fail to reach a majority vote after vote, emphasizing his campaigning over the last several years to get Republicans elected in the lower chamber.
"Every single day that we sit here, we're not doing the work that we all promised our constituents that we would do during the campaign," the representative continued. "Every single moment we've got more people entering this country illegally, more people dying from fentanyl, more of the countries outside of us, especially our adversaries, laughing at us."
Van Duyne added that she and other McCarthy supporters "feel like we're being held hostage by a handful of individuals" when 90% of the group already supports the minority leader.
Her comments arrived as McCarthy was on-track to lose a 10th-straight speaker bid since Tuesday, with more votes also possible Thursday night as of 7:40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
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