Speaker of the House votes and news

In a change of face, GOP representatives Matt Gaetz and Lauren Poebert expressed optimism that Kevin McCarthy will become speaker in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity less than an hour before members return to vote for him as speaker for the 14th time.

While Gaetz and Boppert, who have voted against McCarthy in the previous 13 polls and are even McCarthy’s opponents, expressed vague optimism Friday night, Hannity pressed neither of them on exactly how to vote on the ground.

Gates compared the negotiations between the holdouts and McCarthy to a prenuptial agreement: “There may be sometimes awkward moments in the preparation, but it may be necessary.”

Two days earlier, Gaetz had told CNN that McCarthy was “a desperate man whose voting share is going down with every subsequent vote and I’m ready to vote all night and all week and all month and never for that person.”

Boebert told Hannity on Friday:

But when asked if McCarthy would specifically speak by Monday, and if she would have the reassurances she needed, Boeppert said, “I hope we’ll see something by Monday, something he promises to deliver to the American people and I really think after months of negotiations that we’ve seen , and a few more days of rallying on the floor of the House of Representatives, Republicans will be more ready to lead and more ready to govern than ever before.

“Kevin McCarthy, you don’t have the votes and it’s time to go,” Popper said during the hearing earlier this week.