Things you can take to the bank today: (1) John Boehner still plans to quit his post as House speaker and to leave Congress at the end of the month. (2) Rep. Kevin McCarthy will not replace him as the next speaker.
McCarthy, under fire ever since implying in an interview on Fox News that the House committee investigating Benghazi was motivated by the political goal of derailing Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. McCarthy insisted after the fact that the words simply came out wrong, and that his true intentions had been missed, but it was clear in the ensuing days that he lost the confidence of his party.
From the New York Times:
As shocked members left the room there was a sense of total disarray, with no clear path forward and no set date for a new vote. Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, said that in dropping out of race, Mr. McCarthy told the room, “I’m not the one to unify the party.”
A group of about 40 hard-line House conservatives announced Wednesday night that they would support Representative Daniel Webster of Florida, making it unclear whether Mr. McCarthy could assemble the 218 votes on the floor that he would need to be elected later this month.
Representative David Jolly, Republican of Florida, a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, which opposed Mr. McCarthy, was asked how the party could unify. “It’s going to take a hard family conversation,” he said.
