Former President Donald Trump is taking credit for GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy being elected speaker after 4 days of voting and 15 ballots.
“The Fake News Media was, believe it or not, very gracious in their reporting that I greatly helped Kevin McCarthy attain the position of Speaker of the House,”Trump wrote on his social media app, Truth Social. “Thank you, I did our Country a big favor!”
Trump also posted a video of McCarthy thanking him on Truth Social, captioning it: “Thank you Kevin. It was my great honor.”
In the video, McCarthy said, “I don’t think anybody should doubt [Trump’s] influence. He was with me from the beginning.”
Still, Trump’s endorsement did not do much to speed up the process as it took McCarthy four days, fifteen ballots and a near fist fight on the House floor to be elected speaker.
Over those four days McCarthy’s detractors, some of whom are Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress, ignored his request to unite behind the GOP leader.
Boebert rebuked him on the House floor for calling McCarthy’s dissenters to try and get them to flip their votes.
Photos from the House floor show Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene holding up her cellphone to Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), with a caller ID that read “DT.” She later confirmed it was in fact Donald Trump. Rosendale waved off the call.
On the fifteen ballot Boebert, Rosendale and the other McCarthy detractors, Reps. Eli Crane (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), and Andy Biggs (Ariz.) voted ‘present’ to lower the threshold McCarthy needed to win the speakership.
