Bret Baier and Brit Hume Marvel at Speakership Fiasco: ‘Who Would Want That Job?’
A seemingly flabbergasted Bret Baier wondered aloud who in their right mind would want to be speaker of the House in the 118th Congress.
For the sixth consecutive ballot, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to garner the 218 votes necessary on Wednesday to become the next speaker, as 20 Republicans voted for other members of the House. It is the first time since 1923 the House has been unable to choose a speaker on the first ballot.
McCarthy has little margin for error, as his conference has 222 members. The holdouts show no signs of backing down. Democrats, meanwhile, have been voting unanimously for their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
Fresh off an interview with Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) – one of the GOP holdouts – Baier interviewed Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume on Wednesday’s Special Report.
“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Baier asked.
“No, I never have,” Hume replied. “Look, this does have a similarity to situations – mostly seen them in the Senate – where on a very close vote, a single member or a couple members will have the leverage that their vote is needed and will use it to extract concessions from the majority.”
Nonetheless, Hume said, 10% of House Republicans blocking the will of the GOP majority is a different animal.
“It would be like if you had a football team with 11 members and all but the left guard and the tight end wanted to do one play and those two wanted to do another and thought they should rule the day,” Hume said. “In a democratic system where votes are what are supposed to matter, it doesn’t work that way.”
He then turned to Baier’s interview with Roy.
“Chip Roy said they haven’t moved the goalposts,” he continued. “I’m not sure they’ve even established the goalposts. And everything in your interview suggested to me that the goalposts are unclear.”
“Very vague,” Baier agreed. “I mean, I tried to get specifics and he wouldn’t tell me.”
“You did everything you could,” Hume replied. “You made a yeomen effort. And he said some things he’d like and who knows what other–we don’t know what Matt Gaetz wants or Lauren Boebert and some of the rest of this crew.”
Baier responded by asking who would want to lead the House amid all the drama.
“Well the other thing, Brit – it’s really interesting – is that the people who were actually nominated really don’t want the job. And they come out time and time again and say, ‘Really I don’t want it,'” Baier stated. “And who would want that job with that slim of a majority having to deal with whatever legislation that hits the floor?”
“Exactly right,” Hume said. “This is not a policy job really, as has been suggested. This is a job trying to herd cats and get together on things that you can achieve. And remember this about the 2022 midterms: if it established one thing is that the public in this country is in no mood for extremists in either party. They don’t do well.”
Watch above via Fox News.
