Only Kevin? The Right Wing Media Guide to McCarthy’s Shaky Speaker Bid

By Kevin Howley, Dec. 28, 2022

It’s been a tough slough for would be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) this holiday season. The embattled Minority Leader put on a brave face as lawmakers left Washington late last week, telling reporters, “Go home. Have a really nice Christmas.” McCarthy’s farewell expressed a seasonally appropriate sentiment. But this headline from Red State tells a different story: “So Much For Christmas Truce in GOP’s Internal War Over the Next Speaker of the House.”

Almost makes me feel sorry for Mr. McCarthy. Not quite, but almost.

McCarthy may yet realize his longtime ambition to wield the speaker’s gavel. But if reporting in right wing media is any indication, come January 3 there could be an epic floor fight between “Only Kevin” and “Never Kevin” Republicans that’ll make C-SPAN look like a WWE pay-per-view spectacular.

We Need To Talk About Kevin

McCarthy’s troubles have been brewing for some time. In an interactive essay published shortly after the 2022 midterms, the Washington Post reported that Republicans, confident in a resounding triumph, “were preemptively taking a victory lap, touting McCarthy’s political instincts and recruitment success as key to a ‘red tsunami’ in the House.”

When the tsunami turned to a trickle, the GOP began looking for scapegoats. A handful of MAGA Republicans – led by Andy Biggs (R-AZ) – openly challenged McCarthy’s leadership bid. By late November, PJ Mediaobserved, “What all this amounts to is the real possibility that Republicans will have a bloody floor fight trying to get McCarthy or some other more conservative member elected speaker.”

By early December, ominous divisions in the Republican House caucus were palpable. Things got hella ugly when Fox News reported “Several Republican lawmakers received significant financial help from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his allies before turning against the Californian’s bid to become House speaker.”

Never Say Never

Virginia representative and resident ingrate, Bob Good, declared his opposition to McCarthy’s speakership this way: “I’ve seen nothing from Kevin McCarthy in my first few years in Congress that would give me any sense of confidence that he’s the right person to lead us in the fight that we must wage to save the country.”

Thus the “Never Kevin” wing of the party of Trump emerged as a force to be reckoned with. Regardless of the fact that the extremists can’t possibly put forward one of their own to get the 218 votes needed to ascend to the speakership, they can sure make things uncomfortable for what was once quaintly known as “moderate” Republicans.

Accordingly, the “Only Kevin” camp took a pragmatic approach to the upcoming House leadership vote. “They have no alternative,” declared Don Bacon (R-NE).

“The Donald Has Spoken”

Fresh from 2024 campaign trail – what regulars refer to as the back nine at Mar-a-Lago – the twice-impeached former president weighed in on the House Speaker race. Gateway Pundit put it this way: “The Donald has spoken – and surprisingly, some might say, he’s sticking with the establishment this time.”

Sort of. Trump appears to be hedging his bets, telling Breitbart: “I think he deserves the shot. Hopefully he’s going to be very strong and going to be very good and he’s going to do what everybody wants.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Then again, in light of the pitiful record of Trump-supported candidates in the midterms, McCarthy might be breathing a sigh of relief.

For his part, Florida Republican and man who likes to have things both ways, Matt Gaetz, spoke candidly to Trump supporters. “I can’t wait to vote for Donald Trump in the 2024 election, but if Donald Trump believes that Kevin McCarthy should be Speaker of the House, then Donald Trump is wrong.”

Calling out both McCarthy and Trump, Gaetz firmly planted his flag in the “Never Kevin” camp: “President Trump is the leader of our movement, he sets the vision, but Donald Trump has not moved a single vote … in the speaker’s race.”

Disorder in the House

There’s trouble in paradise when Matt Gaetz and his congressional colleague and fellow conservative conspiracist, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), have opposing views. Writing in the Daily Caller, Ms. Greene voiced her support for McCarthy’s leadership bid – and laid down a marker of her own against the “Never Kevin” caucus. “The last thing I want is everything blown up on day one simply because a few dislike Kevin McCarthy, who is promoting the very agenda they believe in.”

Greene’s endorsement may be out of character, but as the Washington Examiner intimated, there’s method to her madness, noting that she “has gone from pariah to kingmaker, poised to play a major role in the narrowly GOP-controlled House come January, less than two years after being stripped of all her committee assignments.” In turn, Andy Biggs put Greene on notice: “She’s kind of crossed the Rubicon. She’s calling us liars and saying we’re misleading.”

As if that’s not enough, McCarthy and his one-time allies –Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and the aforementioned Mr. Biggs – aren’t off the hook for their part in the Capitol Insurrection. No matter who finally emerges as Speaker, a Republican-led House certainly won’t take up the ethics complaints laid out by the January 6 Select Committee. All the same, it’s not a good look at the start of the 118th Congress.

Nor is seating George Santos, the fraudulent freshman congressman from Long Island, NY, who none other than the New York Post called “Liar Rep.-elect.” Indeed, there’s a post-Christmas chorus calling for Santos to “step aside.” Meanwhile, there’s no word from the wannabe House Speaker as to Santos’ fate. With his speakership hanging in the balance, McCarthy’s got enough to worry about.

Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture. His most recent book is Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.

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