Open public debate is healthy, but the ongoing House speaker vote is starting to get "personal" and sets up difficulty to ever get to 218 votes on legislation in this Congress, former Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., said on Newsmax.
"The thing that concerns me now, though, is it seems to me, if you've listened to the nominating speeches here in the last couple of rounds, they've turned more personal on both sides," Collins told Wednesday's "The Chris Salcedo Show." "And I think, at the end of the day, that's not going to help either side — no matter what policies you're trying to change or where you're trying to go.
"Because, at the end of the day, once we do get a speaker, we're going to have to at least pretend that we're in the majority."
There are at least 20 House GOP members standing firm against Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as the next speaker of the House, giving McCarthy just over 200 votes and leaving him shy of the 218 needed.
"They've got to figure out 218 ways to get there," Collins said on any future vote in the House for the next two years. "If they can't get to 218, then they're simply giving YouTube speeches."
This has been more than a decade in the making, Collins said, noting he was a part of it for eight of them.
"I think the problem we've had over the past 12 years is we've actually lied to voters," Collins said.
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.