House Republican Says Slew of Recent CNN Appearances Will Hurt Him With Constituents: ‘It Will’

CNN’s Jake Tapper has been on top of the (latest) battle over the House speakership, and he’s offering up some praise for one House Republican whether he wants it or not.

One of the more media-friendly members of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), has been offering up his insider commentary to CNN while the House tries to choose a new speaker of the House. Tapper wanted him to know his wisdom was appreciated, even though it was coming from a network that Buck’s conservative constituency might not enjoy:

Tapper: Congressman, good to see you. Thanks so much for being here. One thing, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’ve actually been praising you on the show. And I hope that doesn’t hurt you at home.

Buck: It will.

Laughs aside, Buck made it very clear that despite his undoubtedly conservative record, to say nothing of his affiliation with the Freedom Caucus, he will not support a Speaker of the House who is also an election denier:

I want the next speaker to acknowledge that [President Joe Biden won the 2020 election]. I also want to make sure that we don’t have somebody who was involved in the activities surrounding January 6th. And I think that if we have a presidential candidate who, right now, is leading, who denies that he lost the election and was obviously behind what happened on January 6th, and we have a speaker in a similar situation…

We have 20 Republicans sitting in Joe Biden districts right now, districts that Joe Biden won in 2020, and those 20 Republicans are going to be at risk. There’s no way we win the majority if the message we send to the American people is that we believe that the election was stolen and we believe that January 6th was okay. It was a “tour of the Capitol.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is up for the speakership and lost his first floor vote, has denied the results of the 2020 election and played a role in the January 6 insurrection.

Watch the video above via CNN.