Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele warned on Tuesday that MAGA Republicans — who he likened to “blood-sucking ticks” — could undermine House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy if he becomes speaker of the House.
Steele joined MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” to discuss the upcoming midterm elections with host Nicolle Wallace. During the segment, Steele predicted that McCarthy’s “total capitulation” to former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 riots will have “devastating consequences” for the U.S., should Republicans take back the House.
Wallace then cited a passage from journalist Robert Draper’s book “Weapons of Mass Delusion,” in which Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green reportedly told Draper that, if McCarthy becomes speaker, he would need to go after President Joe Biden and give her “a lot of power” in order to “please the base.”
Steele then said that if McCarthy becomes speaker, he risks being “thrown out” if he doesn’t stay in lockstep with the MAGA crowd. (RELATED: Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele Says Gas Prices Don’t Matter Because Republicans Will Destroy Democracy)
“Kevin McCarthy has not learned from the history of three prior Republican Speakers of the House, who’ve all been thrown out by their Republican caucus. Stop and think about that — what Republicans have done to themselves going back to New Gingrich, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, right?” Steele said.
“So McCarthy is now next in line with a base that is prepared to throw him out should they allow him to be Speaker,” Steele continued, noting that it is “still not 100% [certain] that that’s going to happen.”
“Kevin has decided to make his bed and is prepared to lie down with the lice, the fleas and the blood-sucking ticks,” he added. “Whatever befalls him is going to come from that relationship – and unfortunately for the country, we’re going to have to bear the brunt of it.”