Former Illinois Representative Joe Walsh left an MSNBC panel in fits of laughter after suggesting that he could see Donald Trump and the Republican Party “getting behind” Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker.
The lower chamber will convene to select its new leader on Friday and, with the GOP holding a slim 219 to 215 majority, embattled Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford one party defection to keep the job.
Joining several Republicans voicing opposition to Johnson after Congress passed a bill cementing the extension of the debt ceiling earlier this month, Walsh threw his weight behind former Speaker McCarthy to return to the role after he was ousted by the hard-right in October last year.
Opening the segment on Sunday’s episode of The Weekend, co-host Symone Sanders claimed that Johnson’s prospects of keeping the role are bleak.
“So he’s got some real issues. But Michael puts the real question on the table. If not Mike Johnson, then who?,” she said.
“Kevin McCarthy,” Walsh chimed in without hesitation leaving the panel of five in silence before co-host Michael Steele placed his head in his hands, unable to contain his laughter.
Walsh suggested that the president-elect may also back McCarthy’s return to lead the House.
“Look, the best thing Johnson has going for him is the calendar. Trump wants to do a bunch of cruel, aggressive stuff in January. A speakers’ mess messes that up,” he continued.
“But Kevin McCarthy. I could see Donald Trump getting behind Kevin McCarthy. What a wonderful turn that would be. I’m just saying!”
Political contributor April Ryan shared her disdain, retorting: “How many votes were there to oust Kevin McCarthy? Do we want to go through that again?”
Walsh’s comments come amidst Republican infighting after Trump and Johnson failed to secure a spending bill in Congress earlier this month.
The Senate voted to pass a stopgap funding bill on December 21 that didn’t include a debt ceiling increase – a key demand from the president-elect and of his key MAGA allies.
On Sunday, Trump said that the debt ceiling extension agreed by McCarthy and President Joe Biden in 2023 will “go down as one of the dumbest political decisions made in years”.
“The extension of the Debt Ceiling by a previous Speaker of the House, a good man and a friend of mine ... will go down as one of the dumbest political decisions made in years,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“The Democrats must be forced to take a vote on this treacherous issue NOW, during the Biden Administration, and not in June. They should be blamed for this potential disaster, not the Republicans!”
Despite the controversy, New York Representative Mike Lawler argued that Johnson should be reelected after inheriting a “disaster”.
“The fact is that Mike Johnson inherited a disaster when Matt Gaetz and several of my colleagues teamed up with 208 Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy, which will go down as the single stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in politics,” he said on Sunday on ABC News’s This Week.
