Chris Christie rebukes ‘political assassination’ of McCarthy

Former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed the “political assassination” of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) following his ouster as House speaker.

McCarthy was removed from the speakership in a 216-210 vote, with eight Republicans and all present Democrats choosing to remove the sitting speaker for the first time in history on Tuesday. Christie, speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, decried the removal of McCarthy but called Tuesday’s events in the House of Representatives “unfortunately incredibly predictable.”

THE RACE IS ON: WHO COULD REPLACE MCCARTHY AS SPEAKER?

“What I saw yesterday was unfortunately incredibly predictable. When, you know, Kevin made the decisions he made upon entry to the speakership, he weakened himself by capitulating on a number of issues. And this was predictable,” Christie said.

“As with most things in politics, Joe, as you know, it wasn’t policy, it was personal. Matt Gaetz doesn’t like Kevin McCarthy and was intent upon executing this type of assassination. And that’s what he did. It was a political assassination yesterday of Kevin McCarthy,” he continued.

The 2024 Republican presidential candidate said that it is unclear who Republicans will go with to replace McCarthy, adding there is no “obvious choice” and how difficult the narrow Republican House majority is to manage.

“You have to look at all your different options. I would tell you, if I were somebody who were being — considering being speaker right now, I would be playing hard to get with these folks. There’s not an obvious choice here. I think, you know, Steve Scalise, Tom Emmer are some of the names, Jim Jordan, but there’s no obvious choice here, the same way that even though McCarthy was the obvious choice because of his history, everyone knew the problems going in,” Christie said

“I think you’ve got to play hard to get. And I think there’s a lot of moderate Republicans who are in seats where Biden won their district who may be sitting here this morning thinking to themselves, you know, what kind of deal can we make to try to be counterweights to the, you know, eight who have voted to kick McCarthy out yesterday,” he added

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

McCarthy announced on Tuesday night that he would not seek the speakership again, setting up a battle in the House Republican Conference for his successor.

The House Republicans considering taking up the speaker’s gavel include House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Reps. Kevin Hern (R-OK) and Jim Jordan (R-OH). A candidate forum is scheduled to be held on Oct. 10 for the House GOP, with a House floor vote on the new speaker planned for Oct. 11.