Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said Friday the caucus would continue to support Rep. Daniel Webster in the speaker race.
The South Carolina Republican also said current House Speaker John Boehner is not the right choice to lead upcoming debt ceiling negotiations during an appearance on “Morning Joe”.
“It was a very top-down management style that John put in place,” Mulvaney said of the current speaker. “That’s not the way the system should work.”
While Mulvaney said the exit of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy from the speaker race would not change the Freedom Caucus’ support of Webster, he noted the race is “very much up in the air.”
He said Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, “has credibility that a lot of people might not have” and said he could be a viable candidate for speaker.
But Ryan has insisted he does not plan to enter the speaker race despite the encouragement from his fellow Republicans.
The speaker race was thrown into chaos Thursday when McCarthy, the presumed front-runner, withdrew his name from consideration.
