What it was like for one representative who supported keeping McCarthy as speaker

NPR’s Juana Summers speaks with Republican Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks about the vote to ouster Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the house.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Today in a historic vote, the House voted to oust its speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy. It is the first time in history that a House speaker has been removed in this way. The vote was forced by a contingent of conservative Republicans led by Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, and it has thrown the House into an uncertain future. We’re joined now by Republican Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa. Welcome to the program.

MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS: Well, thank you very much. Good evening.

SUMMERS: Good evening, indeed. I understand that you voted in support of keeping Congressman McCarthy as speaker of the House. What was the deciding factor for you?

MILLER-MEEKS: Well, for me, we have had unprecedented wins, conservative policy victories throughout the nine months that Speaker McCarthy has been our speaker – so whether it is H.R. 1, our energy bill to have energy independence and to bring down food and fuel prices for average Americans, H.R. 2, border security spending cuts done in a very thoughtful manner, you know, parents’ bill of rights. So we had a pay raise for our military, 5.2%. We successfully negotiated through the debt limit with permitting reform, with work requirements and with repayment – ending the pause for the repayment of student loans. All of these were tremendous conservative victories. We have been pushing through appropriations bills, single appropriations bills.

SUMMERS: Yeah.

MILLER-MEEKS: All members have had 72 hours to read the bills. And so McCarthy has navigated this while bringing us to a historic win in the 2020 elections…

SUMMERS: Right.

MILLER-MEEKS: …To get close to the majority and then a win in the 2022 elections to give us a majority.

SUMMERS: So it sounds like it’s about a track record for you. I mean, when you…