Steve Scalise Also Running for Speaker of the House

The majority leader consults with the speaker on policy and manages the flow of legislation on the House floor. We will miss John, and I am confident our conference will elect leaders who are capable of meeting the challenges our nation faces.

“His humility, patriotism and commitment to our values will be deeply missed”. Rep. Cedric Richmond, the lone Democrat in the Louisiana delegation, also defended Scalise and said he’d never known Scalise to express racist views. That has led the Freedom Caucus, which includes about 40 members, into repeated conflict with leadership, including Scalise.

Shortly after, Gowdy’s office said his focus would remain on chairing the select Benghazi Committee through its investigation into the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Current House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said Monday he would seek the speaker’s job.

The back-to-back endorsements were bad news for Rodgers and Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana who both had been in the running for the position. Since announcing my intention to run for Majority Whip, I have spent the past few days reaching out to the Members of our Conference to listen and share my vision to unify our Party. The Eastern Washington Republican is considering a bid to become House majority leader.

The GOP Caucus was slated to meet behind closed doors Tuesday evening to “discuss” its leadership. Scalise issued an apology and held onto that post with the backing of Boehner and McCarthy.

In brief comments to Orlando’s News 96.5 radio station, 10th District Republican Congressman Daniel Webster said the House’s agenda should be driven by rank-and-file, not just the leadership. He played a key role in the House earlier this month in engineering an alternative approach to the Iran deal than what Boehner originally intended. “Has he been majority whip long enough to merit promotion to the next job up the ladder and will he be hurt by his admission of speaking to that questionable group?”

[Steve Scalise: “We’re strongest when we’re united”].

Late previous year, it was learned the Scalise gave a speech in 2002 to a white-rights group founded by David Duke.

Scalise speculated that the pope “didn’t want to get into specific policy, but I do think he wanted to address the topics – a conversation that this country deeply needs to have”.

“You go from Thursday being with the Pope and being on the escort committee and going around with him to then John Boehner stepping down the next day and literally being in the middle of a race for Majority Leader 24 hours later, so it was definitely unexpected”, Scalise said.

But the spotlight shines brighter on the majority leader than on the whip.

Scalise’s team hand-delivered this letter to every House Republican on Monday night.