McCarthy dropping out of US House speaker election creates opening for him

House Republicans were gathering to vote on their choice to replace John Boehner when the unexpected news hit the House floor, according to ABC News.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who recently boasted about how effective the Benghazi select committee was at “dropping” Hillary Clinton’s “numbers”, has pulled himself out of the running for Speaker of the House, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Now it is important that we, as a Conference, take time to deliberate and seek new candidates for the speakership”, he said in a statement.

A move by a group of hardline conservatives in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives promises to complicate Thursday’s vote to pick a successor to outgoing Speaker John Boehner.

Boehner’s office had announced Wednesday that he would appear on Thursday’s edition of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, a highly anticipated booking given Boehner’s decision to step-down as speaker at the end of this month.

McCarthy’s decision put the House of Representatives into a state of disarray just days from the first and most serious of a series of fiscal deadlines. Although there was little expectation that the group would back the Californian, there was much speculation that the sometimes disorganized hard-liners would be unable to rally around any of his opponents, either. The House Freedom Caucus consists of about 40 members, so it doesn’t have enough clout to determine the next speaker on its own, but if its members stick together for the final vote, they could force the next speaker to heed their requests. “We feel that conservatives have been greatly marginalized by the current leadership”.

“Today, I would have voted for Jason Chaffetz because he had a voting record that most closely aligned with a majority of Alabama voters in my opinion”, Brooks said.

McCarthy will remain as majority leader, the person close to him said.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., wrote a letter this week asking members to reveal “any misdeeds” before asking Republicans to vote. Maybe additional conservatives will throw their hats into the ring. Both Ryan and Gowdy have said they’re not interested in the position, but that was before McCarthy’s stunning announcement. “There are other congressmen who have a different view who are not pleased that the speaker canceled an election because we still had candidates on the ballot”. A few of the more establishment-aligned lawmakers are voicing fears about such an outcome on October. 29.