Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) was one of the alternative candidates nominated to be speaker of the House and on Sunday he confirmed the role he was offered to return his support for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
(Video: Fox News)
Though initially voting with the majority of the GOP caucus in the first rounds, after his name had been put forward, Donalds received at most 20 votes, including his own, while negotiations were underway to find a path forward to unite the party. While discussing some of the key agreements made, including aspects of the rules set to be voted on Monday, Donalds revealed to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo what committee he was added to for his support of McCarthy.
After some discussion on “Sunday Morning Futures,” Bartiromo asked the congressman plainly, “Everybody got something, what did you get?”
“One of the things that’s gonna happen is, it’s been put out, I’m actually gonna be a part of the Republican Steering Committee as Kevin McCarthy’s designate,” he explained. “And part of that is gonna be to make sure that the entire conference, you know, the ideological spectrum if you will, is represented through all committees.”
The function of the committee is to determine which caucus members should be appointed to the other House committees to best serve the objectives going forward.
“And I think this is important,” Donalds continued, “because, what I’ve seen in my first two years in Washington, and this is actually not Kevin’s fault, this is the nature and the culture of Washington, D.C., is that the members are actually really separated from each other.”
“They don’t get a chance to talk a lot and engage a lot unless they take specific interest to do. I think having more voices on more committees is actually gonna help the Republican conference, and Congress overall, so we can clear up a lot of the misconceptions about policy ideas and political points so we can actually do the right thing by the American people through a truly deliberative process that is open and there’s a lot of conversations going on,” he said.
As to the 15 rounds of voting it took to come to a consensus on McCarthy and the portrayal of disarray by corporate media, Donalds offered, “I’m frankly just happy that it’s all over with, and we got something transformational and sound for the American people and really to help the House of Representatives really become ‘The People’s House.'”
“Early on I gave Kevin the benefit of the doubt. But it came pretty quickly clear to me that we were getting nowhere. And so, at that point, it was saying, ‘OK, how long is this gonna go? What’s this gonna play out like?” the Florida lawmaker continued. “And so it was really about trying to make sure that we can get people to the table in order to construct a framework that everybody in our conference can get behind.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another alternative who had been nominated, said much the same when he spoke with Fox News anchor Shannon Bream and said “Sometimes democracy’s messy, but I would argue that’s exactly how the Founders intended it.”
Jim Jordan says fiery vote for speaker ‘exactly’ how Founders intended: ‘Sometimes democracy’s messy’ https://t.co/neWZ1LRXhX pic.twitter.com/0qtoLGXuw1
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) January 9, 2023
“They wanted real debate and real input from all people, and then you get a decision. Whether it’s one vote or 15 votes, Kevin McCarthy is still speaker of the House. I have seen all kinds of games go into extra innings and overtime. That’s just how it works,” Jordan added.
Both congressmen touched on the importance of the 72-hour bill review period that would be enforced under McCarthy and the benefit of single-subject bills over pork-filled omnibus packages.
Donalds also spoke to the anticipated investigations and said, “We want the evidence to speak for itself. We want the American people to see that,” specifically as it pertained to President Joe Biden’s alleged involvement with his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. “And if the conclusions become clear that there are high crimes and misdemeanors that have been committed, then we’ll be pushing forward with the next necessary course of action.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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