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Breaking: McCarthy Quit House Speaker's Race Over Alleged Affair With Fellow Congresswoman

Breaking: McCarthy Quit House Speaker's Race Over Alleged Affair With Fellow Congresswoman

After a day of tumultuous uncertainty, bombshell allegations are emerging regarding California Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s abrupt withdrawal from the race for the newest king of the rabble Speaker of the House. New details indicate that the staunch anti-LGBT and “sanctity of marriage” advocate may be having an extramarital affair with North Carolina Republican Representative Renee Ellmers.

The Republican House was thrown into disarray following his unprompted retreat, leaving no clear successor to John Boehner (R-OH). Question marks abounded until certain people started putting the pieces together. First there were cryptic tweets from Mark Halperin, a senior political analyst at TIME magazine:

gotchabitch

Then, the Hill reported that House GOP members “confronted” McCarthy over some concerning rumors that could besmirch his speakership. Denials were made and accepted by his accusers, who said they were “satisfied with his answers.” However, the Huffington Post reported that at 8 AM today, McCarthy received an email from GOP donor Steve Baer, which “linked to a Washington Examiner story published earlier Thursday with the headline: ‘Specter of sex scandal injected into GOP leadership race.’ The article referenced Jones’ letter in the context of Speaker-elect Bob Livingston abruptly resigning in 1998 following a sex scandal.”

On top of that, Rep. Walter Jones, from the same state as Rep. Ellmers, sent a mysterious letter on Wednesday to the Chairwoman of the House Republican Congress, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, which demanded that “any candidate for speaker of the House, majority leader, and majority whip withdraw himself from the leadership election if there are any misdeeds he has committed since joining Congress that will embarrass himself, the Republican conference, and the House of Representatives if they become public.”

While one should not impulsively judge the decisions that adults make in their personal lives, these high-placed whispers do suggest that something improper is afoot, and may have prompted his surprising withdrawal from accepting the speakership. House Republicans are currently struggling to find someone, anyone, to deal with the legislative terrorists in the so-called Tea Party “Freedom Caucus”. With their first choice recusing himself and their second choice, Paul Ryan (R-WI) already having refused the job, we could be in for further chaos in the House.

Colin Taylor
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.

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