Businessman and Republican congressional candidate Gene Valentino told Newsmax that President-elect Donald Trump was right to back Mike Johnson for speaker.
"It never comes out exactly the way you want, but, in this case, under the guidance of Donald Trump, I think it worked out perfectly," Valentino told "American Agenda" on Friday.
Valentino, a MAGA conservative and host of GrassRoots TruthCast podcast, is running for the seat formerly held by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who resigned from Congress.
Valentino was one of the pioneers in cellphone business, becoming founding CEO of Cellular One. He had a stellar career business but served almost a decade as county commissioner in Escambia County, Florida, where he championed reducing government and taxes.
Recently, Valentino won the endorsement of Tom Homan, Trump's new border czar, for his bid for Congress.
"I think Speaker Johnson is the right guy for the job," Valentino said. "Who gets it 100% of the way 100% of the time? So, concessions were made to accommodate some of the votes necessary."
Vaentino said he believes the GOP needs to have better party discipline if they want to beat the Democrats.
"The extremism of the Democrat Party showed how they, without rhyme or reason, fell into lockstep under the cracked whip of [former Speaker] Nancy Pelosi," he said. "However, we on the Republican side are trying to elicit diversity of opinion and thought and innovation and that's what this sausage-making process is all about."
"We're being handed an unbelievable budget with unbelievable agreements and concessions already in place from the prior administration," Valentino said.
"To Mike Johnson's credit, he has been able to pivot most of that with Elon [Musk] and Vivek's [Ramaswamy] help," Valentino added. "They got rid of what, a 1,500-page bill and got it down to something under 100 pages? This is good news, guys."
The special primary election to fill Gaetz's seat is scheduled for Jan. 28. The special general election is set for April 1.
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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