Senators Prefer Nancy Pelosi Over Kevin McCarthy as Speaker: Steve Bannon
Former White House adviser Steve Bannon suggested on Thursday that Senators prefer Democrat Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker over House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as some Republicans expressed their opposition towards McCarthy's speakership bid.
"The Senate 'Weighed and Measured' Kevin McCarthy as Speaker over the past few weeks and today they rendered their verdict —would rather let Nancy Pelosi govern for 1 more year....pathetic," he wrote Thursday on Gettr.
Bannon, who served under the Trump administration, made his remark on the same day that the Senate passed the $1.66 trillion omnibus bill, with the votes of 18 Republican senators, in an effort to avert a government shutdown.
The House on Friday passed the bill with a vote of 225-201-1. Nine Republicans voted "yes" to the bill, while New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the only Democrat to vote against it.
On Friday, Bannon blasted Republicans who supported the spending package, which would provide funding for federal agencies through September 30, 2023.
"It's deeper and more insidious than simply the votes of 18 Traitors —this Omnibus could have been stopped and the fact that no real, concentrated, meaningful effort emerged to stop it shows you the rot and dysfunction @ the core of the System...," he wrote on Gettr.
McCarthy, who is generally backed by former President Donald Trump, also opposed the bill and said last week that Senate Republicans shouldn't vote for it. McCarthy's tensions grew with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted for the bill on Thursday, as he criticized the Kentucky Republican for wanting to pass the bill before Christmas.
The House minority leader argued at the time that Senate Republicans could instead vote for a stopgap measure that would pause federal funding levels until January when the GOP takes control of the House majority, which they narrowly won during the 2022 midterms in November.
Despite the tensions between McConnell and McCarthy, the Senate Minority Leader recently told reporters that he would support the California Republican's bid for speakership, The Hill reported on Tuesday. "Absolutely, I'm pulling for Kevin."
For McCarthy to win House speaker, he has to get support from more moderate Republicans representing districts that President Joe Biden won in 2020. But, he has been lately facing backlash from some conservative Republicans, including Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who doesn't want him to become the next House speaker for not entirely fulfilling the GOP's agenda.
McCarthy on Wednesday urged Senate Republicans to believe in his capability to lead the Republican party in the House next year, The Hill reported. His plea reportedly came during a Senate GOP lunch in the hope that Republicans in the House and Senate would work together in Congress next year.
"It was a unifying message, he talked about how we need to work better together than we have in the past," Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, told reporters after the meeting, according to The Hill.
Earlier this month, Democratic Representative Ro Khanna suggested having a "unity" candidate for House speakership.
"I am open to the historic possibility of a unity candidate for speaker who puts the needs of the nation first with an agenda of making us a manufacturing superpower again, a technology leader, and more self-reliant," the California Representative who was recently reelected told Fox News at the time. "The American people are desperate for us to come together to solve big issues and ensure that we, not China, lead the 21st century."
Newsweek reached out to Steve Bannon for comment.
