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Donald Trump enthusiastically endorsed Kevin McCarthy’s candidacy for Speaker of the House of Representatives and called on Republicans to vote for him after he failed to win enough support in the new Republican majority on Tuesday.
The former president urged Republicans not to turn their House victory in the 2022 midterms into an “embarrassing defeat.”
Some have raised the unlikely events that could result in another Democratic president if Republican lawmakers in the House refuse to unite behind McCarthy, or any other alternative.
A senior Republican source in the House told DailyMail.com that Trump’s post was “definitely helpful” but it’s still unclear if it has done anything to move the needle on “Never Kevin” lawmakers.
Republicans will meet at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to try to reach a deal between McCarthy and the 20 dissidents, and the House will reconvene at noon to continue efforts to elect a new House speaker.
Trump did not say Tuesday whether he would support McCarthy after the Republican leader failed three times in a single day to win the 218 votes needed to unseat outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It seems that some overnight conversations changed Trump’s mind.
Former President Donald Trump strongly endorsed Kevin McCarthy’s run for president on Wednesday morning. He advocated in a Truth Social post that Republicans not “turn a big win into a big, embarrassing loss.”
It comes after McCarthy failed three times on Tuesday to get the votes his caucus needed to become the next House speaker.
“Some really good conversations took place last night, and now it’s time for all of our GREAT Republican members of the House to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE VICTORY,” Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday morning.
‘REPUBLICANS, DON’T TURN A BIG WIN INTO A GIANT SHAME DEFEAT,’ he continued in all caps. ‘IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE, YOU DESERVE IT.’
“Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a GREAT JOB – JUST WATCH!”
The endorsement of McCarthy came after Trump refused to say whether he would endorse McCarthy as president of the 118th Congress, which began in chaos Tuesday.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump told NBC News during a brief phone conversation.
Donald Trump met with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy at Mar-a-Lago in late January 2021, just days after the former president vacated the White House.
The former president, who announced a 2024 White House run in mid-November, also boasted that he was receiving a flurry of calls from lawmakers hoping to win his endorsement.
“Everyone called me asking for my support,” Trump said. ‘But let’s see what happens and we’ll leave. I have everyone calling, wanting my support. This is all I can say. But we’ll see what happens. We’ll see how it all works.
Trump pleaded with Republicans to take their “fight” to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, who was the former president’s transportation secretary.
He also apologized for endorsing McConnell and helping him win another term in the 2020 election cycle.
“If the Republicans are going to fight, we should be fighting Mitch McConnell and his domineering, China-loving BOSS, I mean wife, Coco Chow,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that included a racist nickname for his former cabinet official.
“The damage they have done to the Republican Party is incalculable,” added the former president. “Today, he failed to be elected ‘Dog Picker’ in Kentucky (sadly, he only won thanks to my endorsement, he was up 21 points, SORRY!).”
The first day of Republicans in the House majority did not go as planned.
McCarthy lost three ballots for president due to opposition from a growing group of conservative rebels, despite House Freedom Caucus vice chair Jim Jordan expressing strong support for the California Republican.
Instead, 20 House Republicans scuttled McCarthy’s bid by endorsing Rep. Jordan, who has repeatedly said he doesn’t want the sledgehammer.
The House adjourned after the third vote and will reconvene at noon on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s failed bid marked the first time in 100 years that a Speaker had not been elected on the opening ballot.
On the first and second speaker’s ballots, 19 Republicans voted against McCarthy for other candidates. In the third round of voting, McCarthy’s hopes of taking the top spot in the House were further dimmed, with at least one more Republican voting against him.
When his name was called for a vote, Florida Republican Party representative Byron Donalds left McCarthy in favor of joining Jordan-backing conservatives.
He then said that McCarthy simply doesn’t have the votes to be president.
Trump told Republicans to “take victory and watch crazy Nancy Pelosi fly home to a very broken California.” Entering Day 2 of the 118th Congress, it is still unclear who will take the gavel from outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi.