HOUSE ON FIRE: MCCARTHY DROPS OUT

Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R‑Calif.) pulled out of the run­ning for House speak­er on Thursday,accord­ing to mul­ti­ple reports.

McCarthy was con­sid­ered the top con­tender to replace House Speaker John Boehner (R‑Ohio), who will retire from Congress at the end of this month.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R‑Calif.) pulled out of the run­ning for House speak­er on Thursday.

McCarthy announced his with­draw­al dur­ing a meet­ing in which the House Republican Conference was sched­uled to pick its can­di­date for speak­er. The elec­tion for the Republican can­di­date for the next speak­er has also been postponed.

If we are going to unite to be strong, we need a new face to help do that,” McCarthy said at a press con­fer­ence Thursday after­noon. McCarthy added that he felt good about the deci­sion and would stay on as major­i­ty leader.

In a state­ment, McCarthy said it had become clear that House Republicans are divided.

Over the last week it has become clear to me that our Conference is deeply divid­ed and needs to unite behind one leader,” McCarthy said in a state­ment. “I have always put this Conference ahead of myself. Therefore I am with­draw­ing my can­di­da­cy for Speaker of the House. I look for­ward to work­ing along­side my col­leagues to help move our Conference’s agen­da and our coun­try forward.”

McCarthy with­drew his name from con­tention in a two-minute speech, accord­ing to one Republican who was in the room. McCarthy was con­sid­ered the top con­tender to replace House Speaker John Boehner (R‑Ohio), who had said he would retire from Congress at the end of this month.

He asked for the floor, and it was a two-minute speech,” Rep. Robert Pittenger (R‑N.C.) said. “He said the coun­try is ask­ing for a new face, new lead­er­ship, and he said I’m going to pull out. I’m not the right per­son for this job. I think we’re all in shock.”

Boehner was among those who were sur­prised at the announce­ment, accord­ing to Rep. Trent Franks (R‑Ariz.).

Rep. Charlie Dent (R‑Pa.) said he was­n’t sure whether McCarthy could muster enough votes to become speaker.

I sus­pect had this gone to the House floor, it might have been uncer­tain as to whether Kevin could get 218 Republican votes,” he said.

McCarthy has been haunt­ed by recent com­ments in which he praised the House Select Committee on Benghazi for hurt­ing Hillary Clinton polit­i­cal­ly.

That was­n’t help­ful. I could’ve said it much bet­ter,” McCarthy said Thursday, adding that the com­ments had become a “dis­trac­tion from the com­mit­tee” and fac­tored into his deci­sion not to run for speaker.

Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R‑Utah) and Daniel Webster (R‑Fla.) were also run­ning for speak­er. On Wednesday, the con­ser­v­a­tive House Freedom Caucus endorsed Webster.

GOP Reps. Paul Ryan (Wis.), Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Trey Gowdy (S.C.) all quick­ly said Thursday that they were not inter­est­ed in run­ning for speaker.

I think the Freedom Caucus just want­ed to move the coun­try in the best direc­tion pos­si­ble for America, and I believe that coin­cid­ed, iron­i­cal­ly, direct­ly, with Kevin McCarthy’s own agen­da,” said Franks, who is a mem­ber of the Freedom Caucus.

Jennifer Bendery and Michael McAuliff con­tributed reporting.

HOUSE ON FIRE: MCCARTHY DROPS OUT