House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speculated that some Republicans like Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL) might have a "personal" problem preventing them from supporting him for Speaker of the House.
During an interview on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo noted that McCarthy does not have the necessary votes to become Speaker in the next Congress.
"We need to come together as one, otherwise we will not be successful," the lawmaker said. "If people don't come along, that's going to delay our ability to secure the border; that's going to delay our ability to become energy independent; that's going to delay our ability to repeal 87,000 IRS agents; that's going to delay our ability to hold government accountable. There's no subpoena that can go out until that gets done."
McCarthy said that he couldn't explain why Gaetz and members of the Freedom Caucus are opposing him as Speaker.
"I think everybody is respected in the House regardless of where you are," he remarked. "Any five members can hold us up and I respect all. We came together as one conference. We changed the rules; we made it more bottom-up in the process. So I'm not quite sure why people — maybe it's just personal at this basis but what it is doing is harming."
