There is never an "ideal" time to have the first ouster of a House speaker, but House Foreign Affairs Chair Mike McCaul, R-Texas, said getting a new speaker in place is an urgent priority amid the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel.
"We're going to have a candidate forum on Tuesday, and my delegation will be making its decision after that candidate forum," McCaul told CNN's "State of the Union" host Dana Bash on Sunday. "But we have to move quickly on this.
"We cannot paralyze democracy, especially when we have these hot spots all over the world."
McCaul expects either House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., or Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will be selected by the House GOP conference by in order to expedite the work in Congress to deal with threats around the world.
"Well, it's not ideal," McCaul told Bash. "It wasn't my idea to oust the speaker. I thought it was dangerous. I look at the world and all the threats that are out there, and what kind of message are we sending to our adversaries when we can't govern, when we're dysfunctional, when we don't even have a speaker of the House?
"I mean, how does Chairman Xi in China look at that when he says democracy doesn't work? How does the ayatollah look at this, knowing that we cannot function properly? And I think it sends a terrible message."
Funding allies around the world in order to maintain U.S. national security is a first priority, according to McCaul, including a resolution to condemn the Hamas terror attacks along with House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Greg Meeks, D-N.Y.
"We have to get a speaker elected this week, so we can get things on the floor, like replenishing the Iron Dome, get a resolution that Ranking Member Meeks and I have been working on, bipartisan resolution, condemning Hamas for what they have done to Israel," McCaul added to Bash.
"We want to get that on the floor by unanimous consent, whether or not we have a speaker in place, because I think we cannot wait.
"We have to get that message out as soon as possible."
A delay in the House GOP conference in picking a speaker could be problematic, McCaul concluded.
"I think the concern is, Can they get to the floor and they get the requisite votes to pass?" McCaul said of Scalise or Jordan. "So, you remember, with Kevin McCarthy, it took 15 ballots. I don't think any of us want to go through that again. I think we're ready to unify as a conference, unify around one speaker, and not have the civil war, as was mentioned, disrupt the legislative process.
"And we're just in too dangerous of a time right now to be playing games with national security, and I think that's what I worry about the most."
McCaul declined to pick between Scalise or Jordan yet.
"I think either one can provide the solidarity that we need to stop these motions to vacate from hitting the floor," he said.
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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.
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