Tag Archives: Daniel Webster

Featured, Politics, US

BREAKING: Kevin McCarthy Drops Out Of Speaker Race

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WASHINGTON, October 8, 2015– In an unexpected move that has Washington DC buzzing, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Cali.), the establishment pick, has dropped out of the race to replace Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Only an hour ago, media was reporting McCarthy as the presumptive nominee and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) took to Twitter saying that consensus was behind McCarthy becoming Speaker. However, it has become clear that McCarthy didn’t have the numbers to pull of a win.

“I’m not the one,” McCarthy reportedly said as House Republicans met to nominate their next Speaker. Audible gasps are reported to have been heard once McCarthy delivered his comments.

McCarthy’s exit comes as the House Freedom Caucus, a group of almost 40 conservative Representatives founded by Rep. Justin Amash, Rep. Scott Garrett, Rep. Jim Jordan, Rep. John Fleming, Rep. Matt Salmon, Rep. Raúl Labrador, Rep. Mick Mulvaney, Rep. Ron DeSantis and Rep. Mark Meadows., endorsed Rep. Daniel Webster (R- Fla.) over McCarthy yesterday.

In addition to the stinging abandonment of House conservatives, McCarthy handed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton what many consider to be a hand-wrapped gift when he told media that the Benghazi committee we set up to hurt Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency. Due to McCarthy’s comments, for the first time, Republicans were put on defense, rather than Clinton, with regards to Benghazi and her email scandal. In a matter of hours, Clinton was running an ad in New Hampshire and Iowa stating that the Benghazi committee was nothing more than a Republican witch-hunt and featured McCarthy’s comments as ‘proof’.

A candidate for Speaker must receive 218 votes in order to be elected. If no consensus emerges, Boehner has said he will remain Speaker until a new one is elected once consensus is reached.

McCarthy said he felt good about the decision and that a new face was needed in order to reach consensus.

Currently, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Rep. Daniel Webster are the only two declared candidates.

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Election, Politics, US

Boehner Secures Third Term as Speaker, Retaliates Against Opposition

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On Tuesday, after a loss of 25 votes on the House floor from fellow Republicans, John Boehner was elected to a third term as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He began by retaliating against a few of the representatives who voted against him.

The New York Times reported that the 25 Republicans who voted against Boehner compiled the “largest number of votes against a speaker from members of his or her own party in at least two decades.”

Once he secured the title for the third time, Boehner removed Florida representatives Daniel Webster and Rich Nugent from the House Rules Committee, as a demonstration that what was “accepted during the last Congress is no longer acceptable, not with the House’s biggest GOP majority in decades,” according to Politico.

Webster was one of the candidates who ran against Boehner. He received 12 votes, which was more than any of the other opposing candidates.

The New York Times reported that while the opposition from Louie Gohmert of Texas and Ted Yoho of Florida were expected, Webster’s last-minute entry “came as somewhat of a surprise,” and did the most damage, due to the fact that Webster is a “more pragmatic Republican who has a cordial relationship” with Boehner.

According to Bloomberg, Representative Randy Weber of Texas claims Boehner “won’t let him sponsor a bill headed for House floor consideration because he voted for Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas for speaker.”

“I’ve already lost the authorship of one bill,” said Weber, “Look, it shouldn’t be that way. It was going to be a bill on regulation of clean nuclear energy.”

Politico reported that upon hearing about the growing opposition, Boehner met with representatives Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Justin Amash of Michigan, and Matt Salmon of Arizona on Monday night, and with Raul Labrador of Idaho on Tuesday, prior to the vote. While Meadows voted for Webster, and Amash voted for Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, both Salmon and Labrador voted in support of Boehner.

According to the New York Times, although Boehner has always faced some opposition from other Republicans, Tea Party conservatives “felt betrayed anew late last month” after Boehner ignored their pleas to deny funding in the federal spending plan to enforce Obama’s new immigration orders.

Politico reported that while members are “already making noises about reversing any punitive action by Boehner and the leadership,” the speaker’s allies “warn that further retaliation could be on the way.”