Shortly before another round of contentious floor votes for the House speaker position on Wednesday, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., encouraged former President Donald Trump to change his public stance on the blocked candidacy of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
While addressing the House floor, Boebert — one of the 19 or 20 Republican holdouts to McCarthy's speaker campaign, depending on the voting round — said, "Even having my favorite president call us and tell us, We need to knock this off, I actually think it needs to be reversed. The president [Trump] needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, Sir, you do not have the votes, and it's time to withdraw."
After five fruitless rounds of speaker voting on Tuesday and Wednesday, it's becoming more apparent that congressional Democrats are all-in on nominating Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the designated House minority leader for the new Congress.
The same holds true among the two factions of Republicans supporting and thwarting McCarthy's bid to collect 218 votes.
On Wednesday morning, Trump posted the following message (in mostly all-caps) on his Truth Social platform:
"Some really good conversations took place last night, and it's now time for all of our great Republican House Members to vote for Kevin, close the deal, take the victory, & watch crazy Nancy Pelosi fly back home to a very broken California, the only speaker in U.S history to have lost the 'House' twice! Republicans, do not turn a great triumph into a giant & embarrassing defeat. It’s time to celebrate, you deserve it. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a great job - just watch!!"
A few hours later, Trump followed up with a blunt assessment of former Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., one of the rumored "compromise" speaker choices among House Republicans, if McCarthy — the outgoing House minority leader — withdraws his speaker bid.
Trump wrote: "The single worst person the Republicans could have as Speaker would be Fred Upton, almost worse than a Democrat. Remember, he QUIT when I wouldn't endorse him. Stone cold loser!"
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