JUST IN: Fox News’ GOP Speaker Candidate Debate Is OFF
(AP Photos / L: J. Scott Applewhite, C: Patrick Semansky R: Sue Ogrocki)
Fox News will no longer air a “joint interview” with the three major Republican candidates to succeed Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker of the House on Monday.
Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Kevin Hern (R-OK) had been scheduled to join Bret Baier on Special Report Monday to make each of their respective cases for serving as the next leader of the GOP conference in the House, but all three candidates have thought better of attending the forum.
The nationally televised event had been scheduled to precede a meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, when they are expected to officially select who to nominate to serve as the next Speaker, but members expressed concern about the wisdom of the event.
“Multiple House Republicans tell me they’re infuriated by the decision for speaker candidates to participate in a televised debate w/ Fox News Host Bret Baier from the Capitol on Monday, & several of them have already communicated those frustrations to the speaker candidates,” reported CNN’s Melanie Zanona on Friday morning.
Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) called the event “a horrible idea” that isn’t “productive.”
Giménez added that if the candidates “thought this was a good idea, then maybe they don’t have a pulse of the conference.”
Jordan initially responded to these concerns by professing to want to meet with the entire conference prior to the forum with the other candidates, raising the possibility that it gets pushed.
“Mr. Jordan is always happy to share his plan for the country, but he believes it is crucial to meet with the GOP conference before the event,” a spokesman told Zanona.
But then Hern came out forcefully against the forum. “I still haven’t made a decision on my candidacy for speaker, but I know one thing for sure. I will not be participating in the televised debate. We need to make this decision as a conference, not on TV. The Republican conference needs a family discussion,” wrote Hern on X. Shortly thereafter, Jordan and Scalise spoke with one another and agreed to call the whole thing off.
Jordan, the fiery chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and ex-head of the House Freedom Caucus has already secured the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, while Scalise boasts an advantage as the longtime No. 2 in the Republican caucus. Hern is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee.
