Former President Donald Trump said Monday that “Jesus Christ” is the only individual who could be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The House has been without a speaker since Oct. 3 after Kevin McCarthy was removed from the office in a bipartisan vote of eight Republicans and all Democrats. Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has expressed interest in taking on the position, but on Monday suggested that Christ would be the only person who could get the required 217 votes of House Republicans to be elected.
“You have terrific people. That floor threshold is very tough. I said there’s only one person that can do it all the way. You know who that is? Jesus Christ,” Trump said while visiting New Hampshire on Monday. “If he came down and said, ‘I want to be speaker,’ he would do it.”
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Trump was in New Hampshire to file his candidacy for the state’s Republican primary, which is scheduled to occur in January at a date that has not been scheduled. Among voters in the state, he leads the field of candidates by nearly 30 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
“Other than that, I haven’t seen anybody that can guarantee it. But at some point, I think, we’re going to have somebody pretty soon,” Trump added in his remarks. Trump has often used Christ in his speeches and political media, and posted a sketch of him sitting next to Christ in a courtroom, presumably on trial, according to his post on Instagram on Friday.
One Republican member of Congress, Mark Alford of Missouri’s 4th District, previously suggested that Christ could not get 217 votes on the floor, according to NBC News. The House Republican Conference’s last two nominees — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan — have failed to win the job due to opposition from a minority of House Republicans, who have a four-seat majority in the House.
The Apostolic Nuncio to the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arjun Singh on October 23, 2023
