WATCH: Kevin McCarthy Slowly Concedes to Reporter His Speakership is Likely Doomed
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Tuesday offered a mixed message on his future prospects when talking to reporters. McCarthy was pressed on whether or not he will actually survive a vote to vacate, which he promised to hold later today.
After initially voicing absolute confidence that he will remain speaker, McCarthy was pressed by ABC’s Rachel Scott on the actual vote count and conceded that he “probably” doesn’t have to votes to remain speaker, unless the Democrats help him, which he had ruled out as an option.
“We just had a really good conference in there. We talked about what we’re going to take on the floor. We got our appropriation bills up. I’m going to bring up the motion to vacate today. We’ll do it in the first series and move through this,” McCarthy began.
“Will you still be speaker of the House by the end of tonight?” asked a reporter.
“You know, if I counted how many times someone wanted to knock me out, I would have been gone a long time ago,” McCarthy replied.
“Can you explain a little bit about why do it today?” asked another reporter as McCarthy has two days to schedule the vote.
“You want to rip the Band-Aid off here or what?” added the reporter.
“Why not? You know, okay, I think Matt has planned this all along. It didn’t matter what transpired. You know, he would have done it if we were in shutdown or not. I firmly believe it’s the right decision to keep the government open, to make sure our military is still paid, our border agents are still paid. And if that makes a challenge based upon whether I should be speaker, I’ll take that fight,” McCarthy replied.
After a quick back and forth about McCarthy’s conversations with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), an off-camera reporter asked, “Are you expecting Democrats to back you?”
“No, I personally, I’m not,” McCarthy replied.
Scott then asked, “Do you need their help to remain in leadership?”
“No. If five, if five Republicans go with Democrats, then I’m out. So it’s whether,” McCarthy replied, as Scott interjected, “It looks likely.”
“Probably so,” McCarthy conceded.
The conversation then turned back to why McCarthy is confident he will survive as speaker if he admittedly doesn’t have the votes.
“This a bit of a complex piece of algebra because you don’t know the attendance. You don’t know what’s present votes. I mean, tell me why you’re so confident, based on what mathematical equation?” a reporter asked.
“Because I live in America,” McCarthy shot back.
“No, I know. But I mean, this is serious,” the reporter pressed.
“It is a serious question. Have you ever. Okay. Take the current situation out. Have you ever come to me on no matter what you thought I couldn’t solve that I wasn’t confident,” McCarthy replied before recounting past obstacles he has overcome.
Watch the full clip above via C-SPAN.
