(RightIsRight.com) – In surprise comments, the just-ousted former Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, has revealed he has changed his mind and is backtracking on his earlier vow never to seek the top legislature job again.
McCarthy made history last week by becoming the first speaker of the House of Representatives to have ever been deposed.
The motion to vacate against him was filed by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and was supported by 208 Democrats and eight conservative Republicans.
In a new interview on Monday, McCarthy maintained he would not seek the speakership again at his initiative.
Yet, he suggested he was prepared to step up and fill the job if the GOP asked him to help unite the party over the unfolding crisis in the Middle East after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel over the weekend.
“Look, whatever the conference wants, I will do. I think we need to be strong. I think we need to be united,” the former speaker told the Hugh Hewitt podcast, as cited by Newsmax.
He said he was ousted because he compromised with the Democrats to prevent a government shutdown but stressed that keeping it functioning had proved vital against the backdrop of the developments in Israel.
“It was a personal thing; it wasn’t about where we were going…We wouldn’t be paying our troops while we’re putting out a carrier strike fighter there, 30,000 American men and women in our armed services in the Middle East wouldn’t be being paid right now. I mean, what weakness would we be at?” McCarthy elaborated.
The former speaker also attacked the Democrats for voting to depose him. He previously suggested that his predecessor, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), had promised him support.
“Don’t just look to the eight; also remember what the Democrats did. The Democrats made the same political decision that Matt Gaetz and Mace did. This is a Gaetz-Mace-Hakeem-Pelosi decision. They thought: Let’s pick politics over what’s best for America, right? They think take Kevin off the playing field so they could try to win a majority,” he declared.
McCarthy added he had no regrets about preventing the government shutdown and losing the speaker’s gavel.
“I will never back away from my decision. I put America first, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do,” he concluded.
