(JustPatriots.com)- During last week’s ongoing Speaker fight in the House, Maggie Haberman reported that former President Donald Trump was damning Kevin McCarthy with faint praise during his calls to whip up support for McCarthy among the Republican holdouts.
In her report “In House Speaker Fight, Trump Struggles to Play Kingmaker” in the New York Times last Thursday, Haberman described the former president’s phone calls to the handful of Republican holdouts as “dispassionate,” saying Trump was complaining to some lawmakers about McCarthy pushing to have him censured after the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
According to Haberman, Trump “privately told lawmakers” that McCarthy “is not perfect.” But the former president maintained that McCarthy was the only Republican who could win the majority of votes needed to become Speaker of the House which was why Trump endorsed him in the first place.
When some lawmakers questioned whether they could trust Kevin McCarthy to keep his word, the former president reminded them that under the rules McCarthy agreed to, they can vote him out if he doesn’t, according to Haberman.
Last Tuesday, after the first day of voting failed to secure McCarthy the speaker’s gavel, NBC News Senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake reported that Trump “declined to say if he’s sticking by his endorsement.” Haake said the former president said, “We’ll see what happens. We’ll see how it all works out.”
When Haake asked Trump directly if he planned to stick with McCarthy, Trump only said “we’ll see what happens” and ended the conversation.
The former president had previously warned Republicans against playing a “very dangerous game” by challenging McCarthy.
But ultimately, the game paid off.
The House Freedom Caucus used last week’s battle to secure huge wins for both conservatives and the country, gaining concessions from McCarthy that will, as constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley described it, “redefine legislative rights” that will “have tangible improvements for the House.”
Thanks to the Freedom Caucus, McCarthy agreed to include several key items in the House rules which were passed on Monday.
