WASHINGTON – The three congressmen vying to replace Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House have canceled plans to participate in a televised Fox News candidate forum shortly after the network announced plans for Monday night’s special.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) all confirmed Friday afternoon they would not participate in the now-cancelled event after protests from their colleagues.
The program, which will be hosted by Fox News political chief Bret Baier, will air the day before the House Republican Conference is scheduled to hold its own speaker candidate forum behind closed doors.
The House plans to begin voting on a new speaker on Wednesday next week after McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted in a floor vote last Tuesday.
Hern, who has not officially entered the race against Jordan and Scalise, but is considering it, said he “will not participate in a televised debate” in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“We need to make this decision as a conference, not on TV,” he said.
“Republican conference needs a family discussion.”
Three congressmen vying to replace Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House have canceled plans to participate in a televised Fox News candidate forum.AP
In a statement, Jordan’s spokeswoman said the House Judiciary Committee chairman “believes it is important to meet with the GOP conference before” participating in the public forum.
Scalise also withdrew from the program — where he only agreed to participate after learning that Jordan and Hern had planned to do so, Axios reported, citing an unnamed source “familiar with the matter.”
The network referred to the program as an “exclusive joint interview” in a press release that has since been retracted.
Baier, who also hosts FNC’s daily evening news program “Special Report,” is to “press members of Congress on who should be the next Speaker of the House and discuss the issues facing Congress and the Republican party going forward,” Fox’s statement teased. .
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) all confirmed Friday afternoon they would not participate in the now-cancelled event after protests from their colleagues.AP
“Right now we have a lot of things to work out that are very delicate, emotional and otherwise, and this is not going to help our conference go through a very difficult time,” Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) told Axios, adding: “We know it’s a debate, we don’t need to play semantic games.”
Another GOP lawmaker, who was not identified, told the outlet that the forum was “a bad idea that will add to the chaotic headlines.”
Baier told his FNC colleague Martha MacCallum on “The Story” that he had secured Jordan and Scalise’s participation in the program and was ready to make it public on Friday evening, after Hern made his official nomination.
However, forum news leaked to Punchbowl News Friday morningsparking what Baier described as “strange stories” and “strange reports that I was going to … moderate a debate behind closed doors for the Republican caucus.”
“The bottom line is, it got leaked and then there was pressure from the other members on the three of them not to do that,” the anchor added, then added: “So they all agreed, the pressure built and that’s what happened. It’s not going to happen on Monday.”
“I think the word ‘debate’ has been scaring people the last few days,” joked Baier, who moderated the first Republican primary debate in August with MacCallum. “We will use different words in the future.”
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
