Rubio: House GOP don’t ‘care what senators think about their affairs’ 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a Sunday interview he did not think House Republicans cared what Senators thought about their ongoing struggle to select a Speaker of the House.

“I don’t vote in the House. I’m not a House member. I don’t think they listen or care what senators think about their affairs,” Rubio said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when asked what his message would be to House Republicans.

“I can’t control what happens there, so they need to obviously work through that process and figure it out. And I hope that they do, obviously,” he continued. 

While Rubio acknowledged the importance of having a Speaker in place in the House to conduct legislative business, he pointed to his bipartisan bill with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) that codified a $3.3 billion minimum amount of annual aid to Israel. 

“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to have to come back at some point and put additional funding, but, luckily, the reason why we codified that support is because I always suspected and feared that a crisis involving Israel would move much faster than the ability of Congress to respond,” Rubio said.

Rubio noted the looming government shutdown deadline of Nov. 17, which Congress would only be able to meet — or extend — if there’s a Speaker elected. Still, Rubio said, he said he has no intention of intervening in the process on the other side of the Capitol.

“At some point here soon, we will need a Speaker. We will need a functioning House, and there are things we’re going to have to do to help Israel, including fund the government in less than 35 days or keep it open,” he said.  

“So that’s all going to have to happen. And I will watch and hope, like everybody else, that the House will be able to work through that process. I’m not going to try to steer it or influence it. I don’t think I have any influence over what the House does. And, hopefully, we will be in a situation here soon where that won’t be a factor.”

Rubio’s comments come as the House has been without a Speaker for nearly two weeks, after eight Republicans joined Democrats to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the position.

McCarthy’s No. 2, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), managed to clinch the GOP nomination to replace McCarthy this past week, but he withdrew from the race after it became clear he couldn’t get enough support on the House floor. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was then elected the party’s nominee and now must work to unite the party behind him, to ensure he can get the support from the majority of the full House.