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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke about his tense relationship with incoming speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, and gave a little insight into if they could work together.

Clearly the Republican party has been fractured over the nomination process for the speaker of the house role, needing 15 rounds of votes to secure the concessions needed to allow Kevin Mccarthy to gain his most sought after position. 

Townhall reports, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries  talked about his relationship with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. NBC’s Chuck Todd pointed out in an interview that McCarthy had a bad relationship with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Jeffries assured Todd that he and McCarthy, who was elected Speaker after 15 rounds of voting, would work together and “agree to disagree.”

Watch.

During the voting process for speaker of the house there were a number of concessions given to make sure McCarthy won the votes needed to become speaker. 

The Hill notes,  During the California Republican’s bid for Speaker, Jeffries garnered all 212 votes from Democrats, sometimes surpassing McCarthy. Ultimately, McCarthy flipped enough hardliners his way to win the chamber, with six members voting “present” in a 15th round of voting.

McCarthy made a number of concessions to freedom caucus members that empower the rank-and-file, including some of McCarthy’s own foes, at the expense of his own leadership, raising concerns that it could cripple the government’s function.

Some of the concessions McCarthy made were to cut funding for the 87,000 new IRS agents, investigations into the weaponization of the FBI, stronger border security, line by line budget items, a 72 hour window to read any bill before it can be voted on, and a refusal to increase the debt ceiling on the next federal government budget. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and incoming Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy have had a tense relationship since McCarthy was elected to the position. While Jeffrey’s has been largely respectful towards McCarthy, he acknowledges that their relationship is far from friendly and warm. The tension between them will likely only increase with the Republican Freedom Caucus’s support of Trump in a potential 2024 campaign. As such, many are left wondering if these two leaders would be able to work together, if necessary, on important legislation which could affect millions of Americans.

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