Before leaving town for the holiday, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told CNN he was going to spend some of the break talking to his family about whether he should continue on with his career in the House. A month and a half removed from the spotlight and all the right flank-induced humiliation that came with it, McCarthy lamented he missed having a seat “at the table” and said he was “going to look at all options” politically for himself.
“I got the holidays. I will talk to my family about the ideas of what is going forward, and then I will make a decision,” he told CNN.
But clarity hasn’t yet materialized for the California congressman. When asked at The New York Times DealBook Summit in New York today whether he was running for reelection, he waffled quite a bit before unpacking his nine stages of grief on the matter.
“It’s a serious decision to make, and I have another week or so decide because if I decide to run again, I have to know in my heart I’m giving 110 percent. I have to know that I want to do that,” he said. “I also have to know if I’m going to walk away, that I’m going to be fine with walking away.”
McCarthy has until Dec. 8, the filing deadline in California, to decide whether to run for a tenth term in a solidly Republican district. McCarthy appeared torn as he candidly discussed the questions he’s grappling with — to stay and be a “jerk” to those responsible for his toppling? To step aside with dignity? Stick around for the story?
“I think it’s a gut call. … Could I be as effective as I need to be? Look, if you just got thrown out as speaker you’d go through it — different stages, would you not? And then you gotta turn around and make a decision. I don’t want to be a jerk back in, I wanna be productive. I want to know that it’s the right thing to do. And then if I’m walking away from something that I spent two decades at, I don’t want to look back and say, I made an emotional decision. So I’m gonna take the time to make the right decision for my district and myself.”
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