McCarthy says GOP in a ‘very bad place’ amid Speaker chaos

Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the Republican conference is in “a very bad place” amid chaos in the House over who should be the next Speaker.

“We’re in a very bad place right now, yes,” McCarthy said in response to a reporter who asked him if the GOP conference is “broken” in a clip posted on Friday.

McCarthy was ousted as speaker a few weeks ago by way of a bipartisan vote, leaving the House without a Speaker amid multiple crises like the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and a looming government shutdown. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) failed three times in attempts to gain the gavel this week. 

Seven of the eight Republicans who joined with House Democrats to vote McCarthy out of office then said they would be willing to accept punishment for their actions if holdouts to Jordan’s attainment of the Speakership came around with the rest of the conference. 

“The holdouts against Jim Jordan have no asks, have no goals, have no objectives other than to see the eight of us suffer some consequence for having removed McCarthy,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said in the wake of the third Speaker vote. “So we’ve made them an offer. The eight of us have said that we are willing to accept censure, sanction, suspension, removal from the Republican Conference.”

“We will of course remain Republicans, we will continue to vote with Republicans on Republican principles,” he continued. “But if what these holdouts need is a pound of our flesh, we’re willing to give it to them in order to see them elect Jim Jordan for Speaker.”

House Republicans dropped Jordan as their nominee in a vote Friday. The Republicans are now looking for a third nominee for Speaker.