North Carolina’s Mark Meadows wins chairmanship of Freedom Caucus

by WorldTribune Staff, December 6, 2016

Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina is set to help President-elect Donald Trump drain the swamp.

Meadows, seen as a strong conservative with a history of taking action inside the Beltway, will be the new chairman of the powerful House Freedom Caucus.

Rep. Mark Meadows. /Getty Images
Rep. Mark Meadows. /Getty Images

Meadows may be best known for being the congressman who brought down former House Speaker John Boehner.

As Breitbart reported: “In 2015, on the third such try for conservatives, Meadows employed a tactic right before the August recess known as introducing a motion to vacate the chair. The motion, which could have later been offered as a privileged resolution that would have forced a floor vote determining whether the House still supported Boehner as Speaker, gained support among House Republicans who rallied to Meadows’ side. As Meadows obtained enough support to oust Boehner, before he forced a vote on the resolution, Boehner resigned— shocking the political establishment.”

Meanwhile, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, who conceded to Democratic challenger Roy Cooper this week, is seen as open to the possibility of working in the Trump administration.

John Lassiter, a longtime associate, said he was unaware if McCrory has had any conversations with Trump’s transition team, but he said the governor would be a good candidate for a position, noting that he has “run public operations in a business-like way.”

“That is part of what is underway in Washington: to try to make an efficient and effective federal government,” Lassiter said. “And he’s done that at the state level and local level. I don’t know why you can’t carry those same skills to the national scale.”

Asked over the summer whether McCrory could get a job in his administration, Trump told The (Raleigh) News & Observer, “certainly, it would be something I’d consider.”

Analysts say the House Freedom Caucus, with more than 40 members, has become an important bloc of votes for the GOP that can essentially veto any legislative priorities of the Republican establishment if the caucus sticks together as a minority within the majority.

“Mark Meadows is one of the most principled people I have ever been around in politics,” Wayne King, Meadows’ deputy chief of staff, told Breitbart News.

“Meadows has a record of taking action and actually accomplishing things that further the conservative agenda in a city that is renowned for gridlock,” said King, a former vice chairman of the North Carolina GOP.

Meadows “deeply understands what drove millions upon millions of people to deliver Donald Trump a landslide electoral victory over Hillary Clinton and looks forward to fighting day in and day out to drain the swamp in Washington,” King said.

 

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