Some House Republicans have been privately criticizing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for moving forward with the push to oust their conference chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), according to Playbook.
Those GOP lawmakers are reportedly upset that McCarthy, who has scheduled the vote on stripping Cheney of her title for Wednesday, threw a fellow House leader under the bus as part of his efforts to become speaker by doing ex-President Donald Trump’s bidding. One unnamed lawmaker told Playbook that he might vote against McCarthy for the speaker position due to his “weak leadership,” and signaled that other Republicans may do the same.
“Kevin McCarthy has pissed off enough members of his own conference that he’s going to have to go back to his former days as a whip to try to figure out where his votes are,” the Republican said. “I’d be worried if I was him.”
Additionally, Playbook reports that another group of House Republicans are grumbling over the way McCarthy pushed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as Cheney’s replacement over other potential candidates.
However, no House GOP lawmaker has publicly spoken out against the minority leader save for Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who said on Monday that he had privately discussed with colleagues challenging McCarthy’s leadership by holding a “no confidence” vote.
“I don’t consider him to be speaking on behalf of the Republican party anymore because he gave his voting card, he gave his proxy card, to Donald Trump,” Kinzinger said during a National Press Club event.
