McCarthy opponent: ‘A little temporary conflict is necessary in this town’

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Sunday dismissed the tensions that simmered as the House voted for its Speaker, saying Capitol Hill needs conflict to bring lawmakers to the debate table.  

“Let’s remember that a little temporary conflict is necessary in this town in order to stop this town from rolling over the American people,” Roy told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”  

“I don’t think anybody, on either side of the aisle, could say with a straight face that they think that Washington is doing good work for the American people on a regular basis and isn’t broken. We have to work to fix this place,” Roy said. 

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) secured the lower chamber’s top leadership slot on the 15th round of votes early Saturday, losing out in the preceding contests to Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) despite the GOP’s new 222-seat hold over the House.  

A group of around 20 Republicans banded together to cast ballots for alternate candidates and force McCarthy into a stalemate until a number ultimately switched their vote or voted “present,” helping him to a 216-vote win, with all 212 Democrats supporting Jeffries.

Roy was a leading McCarthy opponent, nominating Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) for the gavel in his stead, but supported McCarthy in the last couple rounds of voting.

Of the conflict during the votes, Roy said “we need a little of that.”  

“And look, some of the tensions you saw on display … we need a little of that. We need a little of this sort of breaking the glass in order to get us to the table, in order to get us to fight for the American people and to change the way this place is dysfunctional,” Roy said. 

“This isn’t just a shirts-and-skins, red-and-blue, you know, two-team thing. This is history … two-party entrenchment has made it so we don’t have a good back-and-forth to sit at the table and try to accomplish things.”