Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram spoke to several GOP House members, including Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), about their votes for House speaker Wednesday during FNC’s special Israel war coverage.
Pergram said, “Right now they are going to vote by a secret ballot for the Republican conference selection for speaker of the House. I just spoke with one senior Republican who doesn’t think that anyone has the votes to win and they may sit in this meeting all day. Listen.”
Representative Mike Garcia (R-CA) said, “I don’t know that there’s going to be a speaker tomorrow morning. We’re going to find out. I think it’s 50/50 odds right now. We’ll have to see where this goes. Obviously, it’s a very thin majorities.”
Pergram said, “The internal vote is expected to be razor close, but many members promise to support whoever wins behind closed doors on the floor, even if that was not their preferred candidate. Centrist Republicans who represent battleground districts could be the key to this race. Jim Jordan faced an uphill climb with that group because of his ties to the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus.”
Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) said, “Because of his past. I think we expect to hear the Freedom Caucus message. It was not that tonight, I thought was very pragmatic, and I thought convincing that he would do his best to represent everybody. And I thought something like they could work with the Democrats in the Senate. So, I worked with the Democrat president. So I thought he did a great job.”
Pergram said, “That said, some members are skeptical the House can resolve this quickly. It’s about the math. And even though someone may have the support of most Republicans, that does not mean they have the votes to win on the House floor.”
Buck said, “Oh, Chad, I have a sense that it will not be a clean vote.”
Pergram said, “What’s the signal that this is a mess, as you alluded to? Is there something we should look for, something that happened in that?”
Buck said, “Yes. I think at three or four in the afternoon, if you don’t see white smoke. We’ve got a mess.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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