Byron Donalds on House speaker nomination: Leadership is earned, not given
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., discusses his nomination for House speaker and why he changed his vote to go against Rep. Kevin McCarthy.
Rep.-elect Byron Donalds, R-Fla., said Wednesday the role of House speaker is "earned" not "given" after lawmakers failed to elect a leader on a second day of voting that saw 20 votes go to the Florida Republican over Rep.-elect Kevin McCarthy.
Donalds joined "America Reports" to react to his speaker nomination from the House Freedom Caucus and why he shifted his vote away from the minority leader after initially supporting him.
"Republican voters across the country have not been happy with party leadership across the board," Donalds argued after the fourth vote concluded. "You saw what happened in the Senate. Ronna McDaniel is having a challenge from Harmeet Dhillon for who's going to be the next head of the RNC, and there's a leadership challenge here in the House of Representatives. These leadership challenges are a good thing for our party, and they're actually a good thing for America."
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Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., arrives at the Capitol as the House meets for a second day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
McCarthy again failed to secure the necessary 218 votes to be the next House speaker in a fourth and fifth round of voting Wednesday. In new developments, 20 Republicans voted for Donalds and Indiana Republican Victoria Spartz defected from supporting McCarthy to voting "present."
House Democrats have remained united behind incoming House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in all rounds of voting, with all 212 casting a vote for him.
Donalds said he sees a "difficult path" to victory for McCarthy at this point with "a lot of work" to be done, but added: "What I want to make sure is that we elect the speaker of the House, and we go on and accomplish the business that the American people sent us here to do," citing issues including the "porous border" and the economy.
"One of the core issues we have is that Washington is broken," he continued. "The House does not function. And so we want to see a process where power is actually devolved back to the members of Congress so that they can do the job on behalf of the people who sent them here."
"What we want to see is that leadership actually reflects where the American people are. And that leadership is something that is earned here in the nation's capital, not just given. And that's not an anti-Kevin statement. That is an indictment of the political process here in Washington, D.C."
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Donalds assured Americans when the speakership is decided, members of Congress will be "more than ready" to get back to work, emphasizing the importance of the process.
"It's important that we go through this process and get it right so that when we go through the process of actually having the votes and the spending bills out of Washington to better America for the American people, that we are using every tool at our disposal to do that."
"One thing I can tell you is nobody is at 218 votes right now. Nobody. But we're going to get this figured out, and we're going to get this business done because every Republican up here on Capitol Hill is committed to getting to the agenda that we all campaigned for last November."
Fox News' Jessica Chasmar and Kelly Laco contributed to this report
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