A prominent House Democrat said Sunday that Republicans may vote for former President Donald Trump to be the next speaker, if the GOP takes control of the House once all the votes are finally counted.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the Jan. 6 committee who challenged the certification of Trump’s 2016 election back in January 2017, was asked on CBS News on Sunday what it would be like to work with at least 155 Republican “election deniers” who were elected on Tuesday.
Raskin said that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has already begun positioning himself as the new speaker in the GOP takes control once the votes are counted, must decide whether he will be with Trump or purge the party of the former president’s “toxic” aura.
The problem for him, Raskin said, is that “pro-Trumpists” in the House “refuse to accept” that “he is really with Trump and want to get rid of McCarthy.”
“They might just vote for Trump when they take the roll call for speaker,” Raskin continued. “They are talking about putting Trump right there.”
The speaker of the House actually does not have to be a member of the House.
Gaskin was referring to the Freedom Caucus, which includes GOP lawmakers like Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Gaetz has already proposed that Trump should be the speaker in a Republican majority — although in 2021 a Trump spokesman said the former president has “zero desire” to be speaker, as The Free Press has reported.
Gaetz last week said that if the GOP claims the majority it should not be “starting the C team” by going with McCarthy and should look for another leader. He has publicly endorsed Jordan for speaker.
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