‘This Was His Own Doing’: Former House Republican Says Kevin McCarthy Has Himself to Blame for Fraught Speakership Bid

Former Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) pinned the blame squarely on Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the latter’s bid to become the next speaker of the House teeters on the brink.

The full House of Representatives will vote for its next speaker on Tuesday when Republicans will hold a narrow 222-212 seat in the 435-seat chamber. (There will be one vacancy to start the next Congress.)

McCarthy has reportedly granted the holdouts some key concessions, although it is unclear if that will translate into the necessary support.

Of members who vote yes or no (as opposed to those abstaining or voting “Present”), McCarthy will need to notch a majority to become speaker. That is proving difficult, as a handful of House Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) have said they oppose McCarthy’s bid in no uncertain terms. At this late hour, it is unclear if McCarthy will prevail.

“It shouldn’t be this difficult,” Hurd told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night. “The problem that we’re going to see play out tomorrow at high noon on the House floor is a problem of leadership that goes back years. The fact that Republicans in Congress haven’t been able to define what the GOP stands for, and that we only define ourselves on the things that we don’t want and the things that we hate, that [is] what’s caused this problem.”

Hurd posited this is why Republicans underperformed in the midterms.

“If Kevin McCarthy is not able to pull this out tomorrow, he’s not a martyr,” he continued. “This was his own doing. And thinking he could negotiate and cajole and sweet-talk the far right is just not something that can be done. And that was done many years ago.”

“You say it’s his own doing,” Cooper observed. “How can you say that? What could he have done differently by not sweet-talking them, by not playing along?”

Hurd responded by alleging McCarthy did not put enough resources into GOP primaries to make sure more credible candidates advanced to the general election.

“One of the arguments that his opposition has, is that playing in primaries,” Hurd said. “Well, guess what? They should’ve played a little bit harder. You should be working and trying to find candidates that are going to actually solve problems and do the work of the American people and not just be bomb-throwers.”

Hurd said McCarthy’s apparent inability to “pick a side” has led to a scenario where the House GOP conference has several members who don’t want to govern and instead want to “burn the building down.”

Watch above via CNN.