Lou Dobbs says he would be excited for Jim Jordan as House speaker, calls McCarthy a ‘RINO’

Former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs said he would be excited for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to become the House Speaker in the event that Republicans take back the lower chamber following the 2022 midterm elections. 

In an episode of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) podcast released on Thursday, Dobbs called House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) a “RINO,” or “Republican In Name Only.”

“…It’s a shame in my opinion that Kevin McCarthy wants to be Speaker when the Republicans win in November. It’s outrageous. He is too much of a — I’ll be kind, if not RINO, a middle-of-the-roader. I personally believe him to be outright, a RINO,” Dobbs told Gaetz on his “Firebrand with Matt Gaetz” podcast.  

“And the party needs strength. It needs vision. It needs energy, vibrancy and new blood in leadership. It’s that simple.”

Gaetz asked Dobbs if he could be excited about Jordan taking the gavel. 

“You bet I could be excited about Jim Jordan as you well know,” Dobbs said. “I, you know, I think highly of him. I think highly of you. I think you should be in there as well. I really believe that the brightest, hardest working conservative leaders we have in the House should be leading the House, and I believe most of the members would agree with me on that.”

In an episode of Gaetz’s podcast that aired in November, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she did not believe that McCarthy had the votes to become House Speaker.

“We know that Kevin McCarthy has a problem in our conference. He doesn’t have the full support to be Speaker,” Greene said in an episode of the “Firebrand with Matt Gaetz” podcast.

“He doesn’t have the votes that are there, because there’s many of us that are very unhappy about the failure to hold Republicans accountable, while conservatives like me, Paul Gosar, and many others just constantly take the abuse by the Democrats. The American people aren’t going to have it,” she continued. 

However, it is not clear if Jordan is even considering a challenge against McCarthy should the GOP retake the House majority. 

The Ohio Republican told The Hill in January 2020 — a year before the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol — that he would support McCarthy for the position should the House flip in 2022.

“Yeah, when you lead the team back, I think you deserve — you earned it so that’s understood by just about everyone,” Jordan said when asked if he planned to support McCarthy.

The California Republican has found himself in a politically dicey situation following the Jan. 6 attack.

Days after the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol took place, McCarthy said that he was not in favor of impeaching the former president but said that Trump still “bears responsibility” for what took place.

More recently he has sought to shift the conversation to why Democratic leaders were not better prepared for the attack, also accusing Democrats of using Jan. 6 as a “partisan political weapon.” 

A Republican aide noted to The Hill last month the fragile relationship between McCarthy and Trump have, saying “the last thing he wants is a statement or Donald Trump out on the stump out telling Republicans, ‘Don’t support your member if they support Kevin McCarthy because he didn’t fight for me, etc.’” 

The Hill has reached out to McCarthy’s and Jordan’s offices for comment.