Revenge of the RINOs: Paul Singer and Kevin McCarthy Behind Trump 2024 Ballot Ban
By Roger Stone
It seems apparent that Kevin McCarthy, and his establishment GOP mega-donor Paul Singer, are orchestrating this collapse of Republican control in the House.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy departed Congress on December 31st, 2023, ending his 17 year term in Congress. In October of 2023, a vote to remove McCarthy that was spearheaded by Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz ended in McCarthy losing the Speakership that he had sought his entire career.
McCarthy had long been seen as the heir apparent of the GOP establishment political class to become the next Speaker of the House. McCarthy was a protege of former Speaker Paul Ryan, and Ryan’s political career was born of the Speaker before him, John Boehner.
Gaetz and several other Republican Representatives had previously scuffled with McCarthy upon his initial vote to become House Speaker after Republicans gained a majority in the House after the 2022 Election. Those Republican Representatives included Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Dan Bishop (N.C.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Josh Brecheen (Okla.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Andy Harris (Md.), Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.), Mary E. Miller (Ill.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Andy Ogles (Tenn.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Matthew Rosendale (Mont.), Chip Roy (Texas), and Keith Self (Texas).
These Representatives held their own in the fight against McCarthy, gaining additional leverage for member(s) of the Trump-wing of the House Republican caucus during McCarthy’s term as Speaker.
The strength mustered by Gaetz and others during their initial struggle against McCarthy ultimately led to McCarthy’s removal, as one of the stipulations fought for by the group of 19 Republicans was that any member could bring a vote to remove the Speaker. Gaetz brought forward a motion to vacate the Speaker’s chair on October 2nd, 2023.
After an extremely short and controversial stint as House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy was eventually removed from his position on October 3rd, 2023. McCarthy, who had promised that he ‘was not going anywhere’ and would ‘fight’ for his position, was humiliated.
The position that he had fought for, and worked for his entire career had been taken away in an instant. In shame, McCarthy announced that he would be leaving the House of Representatives before his term expired.
Slingshot News published a bombshell exclusive report this morning detailing the mass retirement currently plaguing the Republican Party in the House. 6 of 14 Republican members retiring after their current term are funded by Never-Trump GOP megadonor Paul Singer.
Singer has a documented history of undermining the political ambitions of former President Donald Trump. Singer funded Marco Rubio’s failed 2016 Presidential bid against Trump via $2.5 Million in donations to the ‘Our Principles’ PAC, and is also attributed with funding the creation of the research used in the Steele Dossier by Fusion GPS. That information is all documented in our report from this earlier today on Paul Singer’s efforts to ban Trump from the Presidential ballot in 2024.
Within that article, we also highlight Singer’s donations to Reps. Mike Gallagher, Ken Buck, and of course… Kevin McCarthy.
We disclosed several donations made by Singer to McCarthy within our last article, but truthfully, we barely scratched the surface of money flowing from the anti-Trump billionaire hedge fund manager to the former House Speaker.
Through the National Republican Congressional Committee, or NRCC, Take Back The House 2022 PAC, the McCarthy Victory Fund, the Kevin McCarthy for Congress campaign account, and the Majority Committee PAC, Singer has donated over $1.8 Million to McCarthy since 2020 alone. See evidence of some of those donations via FEC.gov below:
In 2019, Singer gave $1,000,000 to McCarthy’s Congressional Leadership Fund PAC, a donation that was covered by OpenSecrets in an article at the time. McCarthy and Singer have a long relationship, dating back to Singer’s first donation to the California Republican in 2014.
Singer also donated to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, McCarthy’s protege, back in 2016. Singer gave nearly $250,000 to ‘Team Ryan’ on June 23rd, 2016. The billionaire hedge fund manager has been hedging his bets on McCarthy, and those who created him, for years now.
In a recent interview with Jesse Watters of Fox News, McCarthy claimed that Republicans ‘lost the majority’ in the House of Representatives when they removed his as Speaker, highlighting McCarthy’s disdain for the current state of the House.
McCarthy told Watters:
“I don’t know what they’re doing spending now, but when I became Speaker, I instituted a 72-hour rule that got not just the members the opportunity to read the bill, but America as well. You’d never waive it unless it’s a Continuing Resolution, something you’re already doing so people would know. I think it’s always helpful to allow people to read the bill, allow America to read the bill. And really, this comes down to what’s happening in Congress today. It goes back to when those eight Republicans led by Gaetz partnered with every single Democrat to decide who could be Speaker. That’s when Republicans lost the majority.”
As we highlighted in our last piece, McCarthy’s retirement, along with the three other Republicans who have left office before the end of their term, may pave the way for the Democratic Party to regain control of the chamber before the November election.
Is Kevin McCarthy working to undermine the Republican Majority in the House ahead of the 2024 Election?
Due to the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding former President Donald Trump‘s access to the 2024 Presidential ballot, in which the Court stated that Congress, not the States, has the right to remove a candidate from a Presidential ballot, a Democrat takeover of the House would almost assuredly guarantee a move to take Trump off of the ballot nationwide in November.
Democrat Representative Jamie Raskin has in fact already filed a motion to remove Trump from the ballot. The only thing stopping that measure from advancing, at this point, is Republican control of the House.
It appears that the latest effort to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot involves establishment Republicans simply quitting their positions, ceding the House to the Democrats, and allowing them to remove Trump from the ballot prior to the 2024 Election.
It seems apparent that Kevin McCarthy, and his establishment GOP mega-donor Paul Singer, are orchestrating this collapse of Republican control in the House. Some would call it the revenge of the RINO.