Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Thursday that, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is "a force to be reckoned with," he thinks she "didn't have any options but to step down" from her position.
"Obviously her age has got to be a factor," the Georgia Republican said during an appearance on Newsmax's "American Agenda." "What happened to her husband's got to be a factor, because you know, I would hope she'd put her family first."
"And then the fact that they had to wheel in an individual that had COVID, in a bubble, to vote for her last time to become speaker," he continued. "So I think it was time for a change."
When asked how House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's leadership would differ from Pelosi's, Allen said, "It'll be completely different."
"Kevin McCarthy's leadership is going to be bottom up," he said. "We're going to work through the committees. We're going to have open committee meetings. All legislation is going to come through the committees. It'll be open amendments. We will go through the appropriations process the way Congress is designed to go through the appropriations process."
CBS News reports that McCarthy was tapped as the nominee in an internal meeting of the Republican conference by a secret-ballot vote of 188 to 31. The vote means the California Republican is the favorite to become speaker of a GOP-controlled House but faces a rough road to the required 218 votes – and the gavel – as Republicans are poised to hold a slim majority after a disappointing performance in last week's midterm elections.
"We couldn't even make amendments under Pelosi because their members were instructed not to vote for one of our amendments, and we had some good amendments," Allen said. "And then it would come to the floor and the rules committee and she wouldn't allow us to amend in the rules committee and so it was totally a top down process."
Pivoting to the GOP's stated goals of investigating Hunter Biden and probing the origins of COVID-19, the Peach State congressman said there needs to be "accountability in government."
"I think the people demand accountability," he said. "This administration has not been held accountable. We have whistleblowers coming out of the woodwork with information about the disastrous policies that they're having to work under and things going on in the Justice Department."
"We're going to stick to the law and these people are going to have to abide by the law," he added. "And I think the American people expect that."
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