NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise told WWL-TV at an election event in Metairie Saturday night, House Republicans are having a lot of internal issues.
Those internal issues doomed his chances of becoming House Speaker after winning the nomination last week.
“You do have a small core of people who only want their person and if it’s again, if it’s not my guy, I’m not going to vote for anybody else,” Scalise said. “That is where the wall was hit. That wall still is there, right now by the way. We’ve got to break through it.”
Scalise, the current House Majority Leader took a harder line in a guest column published in the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate.
He said, “Frankly, some folks need to look in the mirror and decide: Are we going to get it back on track? Or, are we going to continue pursuing personal agendas? You can't do both.”
It’s unclear if Scalise had fellow Louisiana Congressman Garret Graves in mind when he wrote that line.
The Baton Rouge Republican told reporters after Congressman Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker, "I think this whole narrative about every member of the existing leadership taking one step up is bullsh*t."
Graves still has not revealed whether he supported Scalise for speaker.
“For whatever reasons, whatever petty grudges he might have or harbor he would not come out and say I’m for Steve Scalise,” WWL-TV Political Analyst Clancy DuBos said. “That is really surprising. It was very damaging to Scalise and Graves has to know that.”
Saturday Graves told WWL-TV, Scalise ran into some challenges.
“It would be fantastic having a speaker from Louisiana,” Graves said. “I think what’s most important is people have got to stop being agents of chaos and they’ve got to focus on what we need to be doing as the United States Congress.”
Far right conservative Jim Jordan from Ohio was nominated for speaker after Scalise pulled out of the race.
Congressman Mike Johnson from north Louisiana has also expressed interest in the job.
Scalise says reaching a consensus on speaker is going to take more work.
“We still only have a three-seat majority. So, clearly every thread of the needle can collapse any coalition.”
In the meantime, DuBos says Graves may have to explain to his constituents why he didn’t publicly endorse Scalise.
“They need flood protection. They need levees. They need hurricane protection. They need relief from flood insurance rates and Graves was up there not helping the guy who as speaker could have delivered on a lot of that. That’s kind of a betrayal of his own constituents.”
According to his office, Congressman Graves took the exact same position as other Louisiana delegation members to support Scalise on the floor.
Scalise pulled out before the full house could vote on whether to elect him as speaker.
House members are expected to make another attempt to pick their new top officer on Tuesday.
Any candidate needs a majority of the House to become speaker, which in this case is 217 votes.
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