Boris Epshteyn, a senior advisor to former President Donald Trump, told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday that the 45th president’s “significant leadership” was pivotal in driving House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) historic breakthrough on the 15th speakership ballot early Saturday morning.
As Breitbart News reported, Trump had worked to whip votes for McCarthy since early December, engaging in ongoing correspondence with a host of Republican lawmakers throughout the process and late into Friday night. After winning over 15 of his republican detractors, McCarthy was left with six holdouts Friday afternoon when the House adjourned until the evening. Epshteyn told Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle that the final holdouts decided to vote present “based on significant, significant leadership from President Trump.”
“There was a decision made by Matt Gaetz, and the others who were left… to say, ‘Look, vote present and let Kevin McCarthy become speaker and let us get to work,’” said Epshteyn. “And that’s very important, and I’ve been saying this for days: no matter who the speaker is, we need a speaker because we’ve got to start investigating the hopeless Biden administration.”
Several GOP lawmakers have stated the importance of Trump’s role, including McCarthy, who thanked Trump after winning the top House position.
“I don’t think anybody should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning,” the speaker told reporters.
Moments earlier in the interview, Epshteyn lauded the Conservative holdouts, primarily comprised of House Freedom Caucus members, who won a number of concessions from leadership before enabling McCarthy to win the gavel.
“And if you look at the whole process of the 15 rounds, the historic process, it was actually a great window into American democracy,” said Epshteyn. “And there’s wins all around and wins for the conservatives, you know, like Scott Perry, Chip Roy – who I disagree with plenty on a wide variety of items, but he had a lot of points that he made correctly on this front – Bishop and others, and then Gaetz, Boebert, Biggs… Eli Crane, who is now a star… Rosendale. These members, they stood strong, they stood tough, they received real concessions. “
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Breitbart · Boris Ephsteyn – January 7, 2023
He cited the commitment to a Church-style Commission “to investigate the weaponization of law enforcement,” the one-vote motion to vacate the chair, the rule establishing a 72-hour period for review of bills before votes, as well as spending concessions.
“Let’s make sure that all these promises are kept, and let’s make sure that the House of Representatives is doing what the American people want it to do, which is holding Biden, his family, the hopeless Democrats, the lawless radicals and their feet to the fire,” Epshteyn said.
Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and James Comer (R-KY) are set to chair the Judiciary and Oversight Committee, respectively, and have promised investigations into the Biden Family. With McCarthy now the speaker and Republicans’ having subpoena power in hand, Boyle raised the prospect of subpoenas potentially going out next week.
“There should be subpoenas flying as soon as next week, Matt, no doubt about it,” Epshteyn responded. “There should be a full-on effort to investigate and prosecute all the wrongdoing undertaken by the Biden crime family, the wrongdoing undertaken by the Democrats, wrongdoing undertaken by the deep state, wrongdoing undertaken by all those who set out to hurt President Trump, set out to hurt his supporters and vitally set out to hurt America. There’s got to be a real investigation into how the FBI and DOJ have become weaponized and political and how we have put a full stop to that. And yes, absolutely, there’s a lot of power in having control of the House Representatives because… in their subpoena power, investigative power.
“You better believe you’re going to see fights and a standoff with some either members of the Biden family or other Democrats, who are going to attempt to obfuscate, attempt to prevent information from flowing, but folks like Jim Jordan, Comer, others are not going to stand for that. They’re not going to put up that put up with that,” he added.
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
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