CNN’s Chris Wallace Says GOP Has ‘Questions About Health’ of Speaker Candidate: ‘Does He Have The Vigor?’
CNN anchor Chris Wallace said Republicans have “questions about health” concerning one of the candidates to replace ousted Speaker of the House Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
The political world was stunned Tuesday night when McCarthy was voted out as speaker of the House and then announced he would not run for the position again.
On Thursday night’s edition of CNN Primetime, anchor Abby Phillip asked Wallace to analyze the race for a new speaker that’s shaping up as a contest between Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH):
PHILLIP: Yes, I think you’re right about that. So, now, we have two candidates who have officially announced that they are running for speaker. One of them is House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. The other is Congressman Jim Jordan, who heads up some of these Hunter Biden probes, is known as a flamethrower into the House. Kevin Hern, who is a congressman, is keeping his options open.
Where do you think that this lands? Who do you think has the momentum at their backs at this point?
WALLACE: Well, I think, first of all, it’s going to be really hard to get to 218, because I would think between Scalise and Jordan, they’re going to really split the conference. Remember, there are just a couple of more, what, four or five votes beyond that. So, if you get a sizeable number for both of them, no one is going to be anywhere near.
And that, of course, was one of the reasons that McCarthy was elected back last January in the first place, was because he was the only one out there who could get 218 votes. I mean, unless one of them gives way, I think it’s going to be a long, difficult process and we may look back at last January when there were 15 rounds and say that was easy. That was a Tea Party compared to what we’re going to face this time around.
I mean, on a logical basis, you would say Steve Scalise is the next in line, he’s the majority leader, he has a lot of support within the conference. One of the problems I think that he faces is real questions about his health. Because of the fact he survived that shooting back if 2017, now he’s fighting multiple myeloma. So, that would be one of the questions. Does he have the vigor to run the House and also to go out and raise a lot of money for 2024?
PHILLIP: Yes, it’s a very important question and one that I know is being asked over on Capitol Hill as well as this process goes through. But you’re also right, everybody needs to hold on because this could take some time even if it just gets started next week.
Watch above via CNN Primetime.
