MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday said he’d like to get “fresh blood” into the GOP House leadership as the race to replace House Majority leader Eric Cantor heats up.
If Scarborough, a former Florida lawmaker, was still in office, he said his top picks in next week’s leadership election would be Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) over current majority whip, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
“It’s not that I dont like Kevin McCarthy, I’m sort of just a conservative’s, conservative,” Scarborough told radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview.
{mosads}When asked whether he’d vote for Hensarling or McCarthy as the more conservative member, he said: “You’re going to get me in trouble but I’d vote for Jeb, he’s more conservative.”
When asked to pick the better communicator out of the two, Scarborough initally picked McCarthy but switched to Hensarling because he doesn’t like “what House Republicans have been doing over the past several years.”
“We Republicans have got to figure out — I’ve said it time and time again –I’ve been saying it for 20 years, it’s not enough to be conservative, we’ve got to get our message across.”
Scarborough also ripped House Speaker John Boehner during the interview.
“I like John Boehner, I’ve known him for a very long time but John Boehner was never my kind of guy. He wasn’t my kind of Republican,” Scarborough said.
“He liked golfing a lot, he hung out with lobbyists a lot, I know Cantor did too but he wasn’t an idea guy.”