According to a report from CNN's Lauren Fox, congressional allies of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy are afraid he is losing the support of some fellow House members who were previously backing his bid to become the new House speaker.
Republicans will hold a slim majority margin when they take control of the House in January after the midterm elections, and as has been previously reported, five members of McCarthy's GOP caucus have already made it clear that they will vote against him.
Speaking with "CNN This Morning" hosts Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow, Fox said McCarthy may have suffered more defections over the holiday break.
According to Harlow, "This morning, time is running short, not out yet, but short, for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to secure votes he needs to be elected House speaker. One week from today the newly-elected Congress will be sworn in, but several incoming Republicans have already said they will not vote for McCarthy's bid to be speaker — but then the question is: who?"
"That is the question," Fox replied. "Pressure is mounting on Kevin McCarthy to lock up those remaining votes. The state of play right now is there are five conservatives who have said that they will not support Kevin McCarthy for speaker without some kind of concession."
"There could be more," she added. "Some conservatives are arguing behind the scenes that there are more concerns growing — but the concern right now among moderates is the fact that ... they could go into next week and there could be multiple ballots on the floor of the House of Representatives. ... They could be in a position where this could take, not just a day, but multiple days to sort out."
"The concern is that, when they were elected in November, voters gave them the power to come to Washington, to do oversight of the Biden administration," Fox concluded. "They could be in a position where that just can't really get underway because they do not have the speaker," she stated.
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