With the House Speaker role still left vacant following the ousting of Kevin McCarthy, many are wondering who will fill the position. Well, one Democratic representative is floating the name of a former president…and it’s not Donald Trump.
In a recent suggestion, US Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA) proposed that former President George W. Bush could “come back” to Washington in order to replace Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as House Speaker. This has raised some interesting questions about the future of the Republican Party and it’s majority in the House.
#BREAKING: House Democratic Lawmaker Floats George W. Bush For Speaker Of The House https://t.co/x8Eo27CHoh pic.twitter.com/6dpAmzsbu8
— Forbes (@Forbes) October 16, 2023
Jim Jordan has secured endorsements from dozens of elected officials and conservative leaders, including former President Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy himself who has urged his supporters in the House to rally around Jordan’s candidacy.
Despite this show of support, upwards of 11 holdouts remain including Rep Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), who has stated that he will be voting for Kevin McCarthy in protest instead. It remains unclear if these remaining votes will swing in favor or against Jordan’s candidacy, making it necessary for an alternative option should his bid ultimately fail.
Sherman’s suggestion provides a possible solution, “I could see President George W Bush serving as Speaker of the House,” Sherman told Forbes. He could come back and, you know, and obviously I’m not a real fan of how the Iraq war went, but I would think that any reasonable Republican would be somebody that Democrats could work with work with if it was part of a system where you didn’t have where you didn’t have five of the most extreme Republicans blocking important legislation and saying, ‘If you bring that to the floor for a vote, we’ll knock you out of your Speakership.’”
This point was echoed by current speaker McCarthy who stated when speaking on Fox News, “My focus is to get Jim Jordan elected Speaker, get this Congress back moving again.”
Although many democrats are likely skeptical about such an idea given past differences between themselves and Bush during his time as president – most notably regarding foreign policy – some have remained open minded about bringing him back into Washington based on their personal interactions with him over recent years.
