The ongoing search to find a new House speaker has not put the U.S. at risk, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., told Newsmax on Wednesday.
A Wednesday morning floor vote was scheduled after GOP conference nominee Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, failed to garner the needed 217 votes Tuesday.
"Keep in mind, though, the country is not at risk because of what's taking place on the House floor today," Rosendale said on "Wake Up America" after seeing a video clip of President Joe Biden in Israel. "As a matter of fact, what you're seeing is our republic in action right now. What puts us in a much more dangerous position is what you just saw play out, that 90-second clip from Israel.
"And we saw the compromised president from the day he was sworn in and sort of passing executive orders to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, to removing the sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, reengaging with Iran, which is actually funded this attack on Israel that we see right now. These are the kinds of actions that are causing some danger towards out country."
Rosendale, one of eight Republican lawmakers who voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker on Oct. 3, said he supports Jordan. However, Rosendale said he wouldn't be surprised if Jordan again falls short due to K Street, Washington's thoroughfare known as a center for lobbying.
"We very well may see a few more people bleed away from speaker nominee Jordan this morning at the 11 o'clock vote," Rosendale said. "Look, K Street's out there working very hard. They do not want to see change in Washington, D.C. They want to see business as usual. They want to see us kicking the can down the road. They want to be able to continue to come to the trough and slop up the chow that is there, and so they are working extremely hard to keep a change agent from securing the speaker's gavel.
"So, everybody has to vote as per their own conscience. We've got a lot of members that have different districts than I do, so I'm not going to judge them on why or how they're casting their vote."
Rosendale said Jordan must persuade his opponents to change their votes.
"These are going to be personal conversations that I think Jim is going to have to have with a lot of these individuals to try and soothe their concerns, their opposition, and whether it's better to do it now or not," he said. "You know that that's a Jim Jordan call.
"What I can tell you is Jim Jordan received 200 votes yesterday. That was a really, really good signal for the American people, but it was also a very strong signal for K Street that that change is about to come, and they are not going to go away quietly when you're talking about billions of dollars, and these people are not going to relinquish the power very easily. We're going to have to take it away from them."
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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