Rep. Rosendale Responds to Levin, Continues to Oppose McCarthy
Montana Congressman Matt Rosendale (R-MT) fired right back at national conservative radio host Mark Levin, and vowed to continue the fight against Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.
On Tuesday, Levin tore into Rep. Rosendale and four other Freedom Caucus Republicans for refusing to move forward in support of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for Speaker of the House. (Click here for my story from earlier Wednesday morning featuring Levin's remarks.)
If not Kevin McCarthy, then who?
Aaron Flint: So what's plan B? I think that's a good question that Mark Levin raised.
Rep. Rosendale: And we have Plan B and there are alternatives that will step up to challenge Kevin McCarthy. And what we have done over the last 24 hours is go through the process with which the speaker will be elected on January the 3rd- because they haven't gone through multiple rounds since I think it was like 1923 or something- to make sure how we can control that process as it comes down to the floor. But you will see a challenge to Kevin McCarthy and he does not have the votes. So the only way that they're going to be able to force him into the speaker seat is by some more wrangling of the rules and people not voting as per the direction of their constituents. The most important thing is everything that we are trying to achieve is to give us equal representation for our constituents, it's not to make sure that somebody gets a committee chair, those people have already all been bought off. Okay? It's not to make sure somebody gets a certain seat in a special committee. Everything that we're doing is so that we have equal representation for our constituents that sent us up there.
What if it comes down to it on January 3rd and McCarthy is the only option?
Rep. Rosendale: He's not the only option. There's other people that are going to be stepping up to help us form a coalition government and to help us restore order to Congress so that each member has the ability to represent their constituents equally, instead of turning all that power over to a super legislative body called the Rules Committee with nine members and the Speaker.
Rosendale added that there a whole lot more people than 5 that will be voting against Kevin McCarthy on January 3rd.
Full audio of our chat with Congressman Rosendale: