Republican Rep. Tells CNN McCarthy Speaker Alternative Would Need to Come from Outside the House

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) declared to CNN that if an alternate to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) needs to be chosen, it will most likely be someone from outside the House.

McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker of the House under the fresh, but slim Republican majority in the House is in question as time is getting closer and closer to the Tuesday vote at noon. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) already announced a challenge to McCarthy and Republicans like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) are continuing to deny their support to the GOP leader.

Appearing on CNN This Morning ahead of the vote, Fitzpatrick did not say McCarthy had the votes to actually be elected, but insisted he believes McCarthy will make it into the role of House Speaker.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked whether an alternate candidate would need to be chosen if McCarthy could not get the votes and whether that candidate would be another member of the House or an outsider.

“Outside of the House,” Fitzpatrick said without hesitation.

According to the Republican, replacing McCarthy with someone inside the House would be damaging to the position of House Speaker itself in the future.

“I don’t think there’s enough people that are willing to set the precedent that you can work for four years and bring a party from the minority to the majority and then get jettisoned at the end. Nobody’s ever going to put the work in if that happens,” he said.

Collins pressed Fitzpatrick for some names of alternate candidates, but Fitzpatrick insisted he and others are not thinking that far ahead and believe McCarthy will become the House Speaker in the end, despite the rocky road thus far.

Watch above via CNN