House Republican calls McCarthy ‘part of the swamp cartel’

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) on Monday called House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) “part of the swamp cartel” and vowed to not support McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker ahead of the vote tomorrow. 

Good told Fox News’s Griff Jenkins on “Fox & Friends” that he plans to follow the will of his constituents, hundreds of whom he said have told him over the years to not support McCarthy. Good is one of the at least five Republicans who have directly said or indicated that they would not support McCarthy for the Speakership. 

Good said he is judging McCarthy by what he has done as House minority leader and that he has done “nothing” to earn his vote. 

“There’s nothing that indicates to me that he’s going to change his patterns since he’s been in leadership, where he’s part of the swamp cartel,” he said. 

Good blamed McCarthy as the reason the House passed a “massive” omnibus bill to fund the government last month, a measure opposed by conservatives who wanted to fund the government only until early this year to give the new House Republican majority more leverage.

“There’s nothing about Kevin McCarthy that indicates that he will bring the change that’s needed to Washington or that’s needed to the Congress or bring the fight against the Biden-Schumer agenda and represent the interest of the voters who sent us to Washington to bring real change,” he said. 

With the GOP holding a narrow majority in the House, McCarthy can afford to lose only four votes to win the Speakership on the first ballot when the next session of Congress starts on Tuesday, presuming all members of the body are voting. 

McCarthy has sought to consolidate GOP support behind him over the past few weeks, but it remains unclear if he will win enough votes to become Speaker. 

He made several concessions in the House Rules package that was released on Sunday, including a rule to allow five GOP members to motion to vacate the chair. That rule would lower the threshold required to force the House to take a vote on ousting the Speaker from half of the Republican conference. 

The rules would also create a select subcommittee on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government,” as many Republicans have called for launching several investigations into the Biden administration. 

Good said he expects 10 to 15 Republicans will not vote for McCarthy on the first ballot, forcing the election to go to a second ballot and allowing a “true” conservative to emerge. Good did not say who that conservative might be.