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On Monday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) weighed in on the rise of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump coming off of his win in the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday. McCarthy said to co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski the presidential election feels a lot like the 2003 California special election for Arnold Schwarzenegger and he said Trump would be someone he could work with. Partial transcript as follows: SCARBOROUGH: Kevin, what do you think of the state of the Republican race right now? Come on, tell it to us straight. Is the...

Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy met privately with Rep. Jason Chaffetz Wednesday evening to reiterate that he cannot proceed with any investigation that involves Hillary Clinton, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting. The impetus for the gathering was a POLITICO story where Chaffetz, the chairman, of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was quoted as saying that a pending probe into government record keeping practices would not be "specifically trying to target the secretary, but when she creates her own private email system, she's ensnarled herself.” Presented with the quote before publication, House...

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has announced that the U.S. House of Representatives is postponing votes it had expected to hold on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and will not hold votes until Monday, Feb. 1--as a result of the heavy snowstorm that hit Washington, D.C. on Friday and Saturday. ...

A top House leader predicted Monday that Washington will avoid stumbling into a government shutdown next week over a tea party-backed drive to take away Planned Parenthood's funding. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy added, however, that Congress may need additional time to work through a massive, $1.1 trillion catchall spending bill that tops the agenda as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill for a two- or three-week sprint to finish this year's session. McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters that "I do not hear people shutting the government down over it right now," referring to demands by some conservatives to attach language to "defund"...

In a stinging rebuke to President Barack Obama by Republicans and Democrats, the House ignored a veto threat Thursday and overwhelmingly approved GOP legislation erecting fresh hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees trying to enter the United States. Forty-seven Democrats joined all but two Republicans as the House passed the measure by a veto-proof 289-137 margin, a major setback to the lame duck president on an issue —the Islamic State group and the refugees fleeing it — that shows no signs of easing. The vote exceeded the two-thirds majority required to override a veto, and came despite a rushed, early...

It really is stunning how open the republican leadership in both the House and Senate are with their disdain for the base of their own party. Reports now surfacing that the GOPe has entered negotiations with Nancy Pelosi to support Paul Ryan. According to Roll Call the Democrats are willing to elect Ryan if the GOPe promise to give them comprehensive immigration reform and amnesty legislation. Representative Steve King warns of the political bloodbath which would follow such a deal. As Rep. Paul Ryan’s history of working for open borders has come under increasing scrutiny, conservative lawmakers have begun to...

* House Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy said on Face the Nation that he's been telling members of his own party to 'shut up' * Gowdy was responding to two GOP congressmen who claimed the panel had become partisan and an ex-employee who said the same thing * Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said she hoped Hillary Clinton would be held accountable for the murder of four Americans in Benghazi * Gowdy is distancing himself from all these remarks - noting how none of these people actually serve on the committee House Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy has a message for Republicans: shut....

When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) walked into a Capitol Hill conference room to meet with his Republican colleagues last Thursday, he seemed a certain bet to be elected the next speaker of the House of Representatives. Subsequent reports revealed McCarthy already knew he didn't have enough votes to win, or if he did, it was barely enough, but an insufficient majority to rule the contentious GOP caucus. And so he shocked everyone when he emerged and announced his withdrawal as a candidate. The website The Hill reported that Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) confronted Speaker John...

If you needed any more reason not to support Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House, check out the Fox News hacks this past Sunday. Karl Rove and George Will are basically in love with Paul Ryan, claiming he would be a perfect selection to replace the weeping drunk Boehner. George Will must have some sort of connection to Republican RINOs from the state of Wisconsin. His wife worked on Scott Walker’s failed campaign, and now he wants Paul Ryan to be the next speaker. When you add Karl Rove to the mix, it basically tells you what type of...

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will not run for the House Speakership unless conservatives surrender “unconditionally” to him, Politico reports citing sources close to Ryan. “The conservatives who drove out Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) would need to get behind him unconditionally for speaker,” Politico’s Jake Sherman writes of the donor-class-backed Ryan. Ryan does not want to run for Speaker, he and his spokesman Brendan Buck have made “abundantly clear,” Sherman writes—before noting what exactly it would take for Ryan to get in the race. “But there’s one remote scenario, people close to him say, in...

In an attempt to dismiss the Benghazi Select Committee as a partisan witch hunt against Hillary Clinton, an ex-committee staffer has accused the panel of being obsessed with a political agenda. Bradley F. Podliska, an investigator and Air Force Reserves officer, told The New York Times that the Benghazi committee was becoming “primarily focused” on Clinton. His comments come on the heels of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s controversial statement on "Hannity," when he said the Benghazi committee was directly responsible for sinking Clinton’s poll numbers. Chairman Trey Gowdy (S-SC), while accepting McCarthy's apology, insisted his words can't "fix the damage" done to the panel.Gowdy, again...

"Open borders seeps out of every pore of his being."

In an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy offered his honest — and correct — assessment of his party in Congress. Here's the key bit: I think the House is bordering on ungovernable right now. ... Being Speaker is a very difficult job. We need to have a family conversation and sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before that conversation starts. We're getting close ... Now, Gowdy was explaining to Welker why he wouldn't be interested in the soon-to-be vacant job as speaker of the House. But his reasoning is almost certainly why Paul Ryan...

Last week, the House Republicans were plunged into disarray when House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the presumptive favorite, withdrew from the speakership race. It seemed he was already facing a troubled road to succeed out-going Speaker John Boehner, given that the House Freedom Caucus–a 40-member block–was going to vote for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) for the top spot; McCarthy had reportedly refused to give in to their demands. That, coupled with the possibility of relying on Democrats for his victory, along with his comments about the House Select Committee on Benghazi–he said it was sinking Hillary’s poll numbers–crippled...

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Reps. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) and Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) battled over the divide between the moderates and Freedom Caucus conservatives in Congress deciding who will be the next Speaker of the House.

Newt Gingrich issued a warning to Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) Sunday morning, saying that he “should be very cautious” when considering running for speaker of the House.Asked by Fox’s Chris Wallace if he thinks Ryan should take the job, Gingrich was hesitant to push the Wisconsin congressman towards what many describe as a “thankless” position. (RELATED: Freedom Caucus Would ‘Look Favorably’ On Paul Ryan As Speaker)“I think Paul should be very cautious,” Gingrich told Wallace. “He is the most prestigious member of the House on the Republican side. He has the best future, he’s still very young.”“It’s easy to get 218 on the first...

Los Angeles (AFP) - President Barack Obama said the Republican Party has "gone off the deep end" with its messy failure to elect a new speaker of the House of Representatives. The Republican-controlled House was left in shock and disarray this week when Kevin McCarthy, the frontrunner to replace John Boehner, who has announced his resignation, suddenly withdrew from the race because of a revolt by conservatives. The challenge now is to find a consensus candidate who can soothe wounds and unite a fractious caucus. Obama addressed the drama at an expensive fundraiser at a private home in Los Angeles....

John Boehner is out (eventually). Kevin McCarthy is out. Conservatives in the House of Representatives are on a roll. But where is the roll going? I applaud the ouster of these insiders. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the career ambitions of politicians. But what comes next, what follows bold action, is just as important, if not more. On that front, it seems conservatives were wholly unprepared. Nothing against Daniel Webster or Jason Chaffetz, but are they really people who leap to mind when you think “leader?” Or even “articulate and quick-witted conservative”? Have...

The surprise withdrawal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the race for Speaker of the House gave the New York Times an excuse to issue a series of front-page stories larded up with hostile "hard-line" and "hard-right" labels mocking the apparent chaos surrounding congressional Republicans, being held "hostage" by the party's conservative wing. - See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2015/10/10/nyt-bashes-white-rural-clutch-unyielding-hard-line-conservatives#sthash.8A8MH9Mf.dpuf

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump thinks Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is “a very nice guy,” but “far from [his] first choice” to be the next Speaker of the House. Trump weighed in on the race for House Speaker on Twitter Saturday morning: “Paul Ryan is far from my first choice, but a very nice guy. The Republicans should go for tough and (very) smart this time – no games!” His tweet comes after CBS News reported that Trump said he would be “okay” with Ryan as Speaker in an interview set to air Sunday on Face the Nation. Trump said of...