'Not going to bend to their will': McCarthy allies refuse to back down to hardliners in GOP 'doomsday scenario'
Opponents of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are not backing off their vows to deny him the Speakership, but McCarthy's allies are vowing not to give in.
CNN reports that a potential Republican "doomsday scenario" is emerging in which neither McCarthy's allies or his opponents blinks and more centrist Republican lawmakers team up with centrist Democrats in the House of Representatives to find a candidate both sides can live with.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a McCarthy ally, warned his hardliner colleagues to not think that he and his likeminded Republicans would be pushovers.
"Our initial plan is vote for Kevin and let him fight this out repeatedly," he told CNN. "But if they think they’re going to use this to infinity to drive him out, well, we’re not going to bend to their will."
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Bacon also explicitly threatened to work with Democrats if anti-McCarthy Republicans torpedoed his bid to become House Speaker.
“If a small group refuses to play ball and be part of the team, then we’ll work across the aisle to find an agreeable Republican,” Bacon said. “But I hope we don’t get there.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), however, is ready to call Bacon's bluff.
"Kevin McCarthy won’t have 218 votes," he said. "I think the person who is ultimately going to be the speaker isn’t even the candidate yet.”