Lauren Boebert Defends Voting For Jim Jordan, Who Doesn’t Want to Be Speaker: ‘George Washington Didn’t Want to Be President’

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) joined Fox News’s Bret Baier on Tuesday evening and was asked to explain why she joined the effort to block Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from becoming House speaker — effectively throwing the House GOP conference into chaos.

“Colorado Republican Representative elect Lauren Boebert. One of the 20 Republicans voted for Jim Jordan and against Kevin McCarthy. Each ballot so far, congresswoman elect, I should say. Good to see you. What’s the bottom line here? What are you trying to accomplish?” Baier asked, kicking off the interview.

“The bottom line is unity in the Republican Party,” Boebert replied unironically.

“We have been in negotiations with Kevin McCarthy since the summer. Unfortunately, in the summer when those negotiations began, we were not taken seriously because our our votes didn’t seem to matter as much as they do in this slim majority now,” she continued, adding:

We have had increased conversations and I have been working for months behind the scenes to create unity. Just last night, two colleagues and myself walked into Kevin McCarthy’s office and presented him a very common sense proposal, a deal that got him 218 votes, the gavel on the first ballot, and he smugly rejected that. And it was very common sense, things like putting forward a border security bill, putting forward a term limits bill, having a measure in place to where any member of Congress who offers an amendment to reduce the federal debt.

Well, that’s made an order. And there were so many other things that were common sense and even requests that he had made at us of us that we presented to him. And right now, it is seeming very difficult for Kevin McCarthy to come back around and pick up those votes that I had in hand for him last night.

“Let me push back with what they say and what his allies say, and that is that you all were moving the goalposts that in in addition to the list you just mentioned, you had a no confidence vote for speaker, that he got down to five members who could stand up together and say this is not working for him as speaker, but then it was moved to one member. Would you stand up and say there’s no confidence in the speaker? That’s number one, moving the goalposts. But number two, they say untenable for any leader. How do you respond to that?” Baier asked.

“There was nothing that we proposed that is that is unattainable for him. And with the single member motion to vacate this has worked in the House of Representatives for nearly two centuries. Nancy Pelosi was the very first Speaker of the House to remove this check and balance that members have on the third in line to the presidency of the United States,” Boebert replied.

“And Kevin McCarthy wanted to continue with Nancy Pelosi’s precedent and take accountability away from himself while asking for more responsibility. That is the one thing that I’ve been public on. I said, this is my hard line. We have to have accountability in the House of Representatives in order to have trust and without without trust, it is vital that we have that accountability mechanism and personnel,” she added.

“You’re saying that you’re pushing for unity in your caucus. What’s coming back from the other side? And some colleagues who have been on your side on a number of different issues does not sound like unity. I’m going to play two sound bites, Marjorie Taylor Greene and then Dan Crenshaw. Take a listen,” said Baier, before showing her clips of her colleagues criticizing her strategy.

Boebert replied by denying Greene’s claim she took campaign funds from McCarthy and declaring her stance is based on policy and principal.

“How do you see this ending? Can you see yourself voting for a consensus candidate? Can you vote for Steve Scalise, for example?” Baier then asked.

“I’m voting for anyone who actually brings unity to the Republican Party and helps get our country back on track. And who is to actually govern on the things that we campaigned on? Well, right now our candidate is Jim Jordan. He is a fighter. He is a leader. He may not want it right now, but George Washington did not want to be president. He did what was right for his country,” replied Boebert.

“So, you think Jim Jordan is the consensus candidate?” followed up Baier.

“Right now. He absolutely is. And every time that he speaks up to defend Kevin McCarthy, he actually just reaffirms why he would make a great speaker,” she shot back.

“And if you heard from him that he does not want it in any way, shape or form. What do you say?” asked Baier.

“I have heard that from him. And if we have the numbers, then sorry, Jim Jordan, we’re going to make you do what’s right for the country. We love you,” Boebert insisted, as the interview concluded.

Watch the full clip above via Fox News

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