Kevin McCarthy Dismisses CNN’s Manu Raju for ‘Inappropriate’ Question About Struggling to Get Enough Votes to Become Speaker

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) dismissed CNN Capitol Hill correspondent Manu Raju for what he called an “inappropriate” question about McCarthy’s struggles in trying to be the next House speaker.

Despite the GOP winning back the House, their majority will be 222 seats, only four more than the necessary 218 votes to be the majority. McCarthy has had to deal with a divided House GOP caucus including the Freedom Caucus and moderate Republicans. He will need almost the whole conference’s support in order to get the gavel.

“Why has it been so hard to get 218 votes to become speaker when you have President Trump apparently lobbying on your behalf, meeting with members of the Freedom Caucus? The votes just aren’t there. Why has it been so hard for you?” asked Raju during a press conference on Wednesday.

“Have you spent any time with my conference?” McCarthy shot back. “You know what’s amazing to me? Here we are with the biggest things going on on the spending. I can always count on you for the most inappropriate question.”

During the press conference, McCarthy railed against an omnibus spending bill negotiated behind closed doors between Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, retiring Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Richard Shelby (R-AL), the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Appropriations Committee. A framework was announced on Tuesday.

Watch above via CSPAN.