Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL), who is challenging House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) for the Speakership, said he fears no man and does not expect retribution for trying to oust Boehner.
On Breitbart News Sunday, Yoho said voters in his district, including a seasoned farmer in his seventies this weekend, have urged him to vote against Boehner because he is a “weak leader” and not a good voice for the GOP.
“My base wants me to vote this way,” Yoho said.
When asked if he expected retribution for challenging Boehner, Yoho indicated that he did not anticipate that, saying, “I don’t worry about that.”
“I fear no man,” he told host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon. “I’m pretty well grounded in Christian principles… if you step out and do what you feel is right… and you’re not attacking a person, and you’re attacking a process, and you’re attacking the status quo… and if somebody wants to hold a grudge against me, that’s on them. It’s not on me, and I’m going to do what I think is right.”
He said House Members have told him, “thank you for offering an alternative so we don’t have to vote for the status quo'” and emphasized that the “momentum is building” to oust Boehner.
Yoho, who noted that his first vote in Congress was against Boehner for Speaker in January of 2013, voted against Boehner for Speaker again last year. He and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) are challenging Boehner, and there needs to be 29 votes against Boehner and for an alternative this week for the voting to go to a second round.
Yoho said that he ran for Congress in 2012 “on the need for a change in leadership,” and he has become “more convinced” that there needs to be a change during his time in Congress.
He said that there is a lot of “discontent” with Boehner and mentioned that there are “a lot of people who are dissatisfied” with the direction of the country and the direction of Congress,” especially how bills are brought up. Yoho emphasized that bills should be “brought up on principle and not politics.”
Frustrated that Congress has not done much to hold Attorney General Eric Holder to account after he perjured himself with Congress and was held in contempt, Yoho vowed to hold the country’s elected leaders more accountable if he becomes the new Speaker. For instance, he emphasized that if Congress does nothing after Obama “oversteps the boundaries of the constitution with executive amnesty,” then that sets a terrible precedent for the rest of the country.
Yoho noted that “you get a breakdown of a society” if America is not a nation of laws.
“You are seeing a little bit more chaos than you did 20 years ago,” he said.
Yoho said the electorate “handed us the baton in November to lead the country,” and “it is going to take new leadership willing to stand up” to Obama. He added that if Republicans give Americans new leadership and take the country in a new direction, then more Americans will “rally behind us and rally behind rebuilding America.”
“I ran for Congress in 2012 because I had had enough,” Yoho said when he announced he would challenge Boehner. “Enough of career politicians, enough of political gamesmanship, and enough of the lack of leadership in Washington. As we enter 2015, we are faced with overwhelming challenges. However, the dawn of 2015 also promises unlimited potential and the opportunity to begin rebuilding America.”
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