Sean Hannity attacks the “pro tempore” solution for Republicans’ speaker of the House fiasco

Hannity: “Do they not realize how bad this is looking now to the American people?”

Sean Hannity attacks Republicans for potentially giving the speaker pro tempore increased power amid crisis

sean hannity in front of audio waves
Audio file

Citation From the October 18, 2023, edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Well, well, let me ask you this. You talked to your colleagues. Do they not realize how bad this is looking now to the American people?

REP. CHIP ROY (GUEST): I think some do. I think some less so. I think -- and look, at the end of the day --

HANNITY: Maybe some of them don't care. Some of them are retiring. They don't care.

...

Alright, Chip Roy, congressman. Great state of Texas. I'm glad some people there share my work ethic. And, you know, these are very interesting times. They were elected to lead.

One thing that would not -- two things that would not be acceptable to me is a Band-Aid short term. "Oh, let's empower the speaker pro tem." Or to, you know, go into business with Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats.

Will either of those things happen?

ROY: Sean, we cannot do that. I want to be very clear in closing this out. That is a slap in the face to the constitutional requirement. We choose the speaker.

It would be a bad precedent to set. We are only in the past -- we've only done that when we had a duly elected speaker. We had a president -- a speaker pro temp for emergencies. We should not empower somebody in a temporary basis.

We should do our job and not leave town until we choose the speaker of the House.

HANNITY: I second that motion.