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Though Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs is flaunting his endorsement from President Donald Trump as he enjoys frontrunner status in the GOP primary race for governor, he once found himself on the wrong end of Trump’s wrath, according to a New York Times report on a forthcoming tell-all book.
As a newly elected Congress voted on leadership in January 2023, Biggs, fellow Arizona Rep. Eli Crane and other members of the House Freedom Caucus were holding out on supporting California Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. Their intransigence led to a series of votes that unsuccessfully managed to determine a new Speaker.
During that saga, per the Times, McCarthy conferenced Trump into a phone call with Biggs, Crane and others. Trump, then two years out of office but still holding sway over the Republican Party, then lit into the pair of them.
Trump “unloaded on Mr. Biggs, screaming expletives and demanding to know what he was doing as the congressman informed him that he and his ultraconservative anti-McCarthy bloc were ‘just not going to change,'” the Times wrote.
“I’ll never support you if you don’t support Kevin!” Trump reportedly told Biggs, but perhaps with a few more curse words.
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Trump then demanded to speak to Crane, claiming that he “saved” Crane’s congressional bid and yelling, “I’ll find a challenger to him so fast his head will spin.” Again, the Times wrote, with more expletives tossed in.
The revelation of the phone call comes from the book “Glory, Grief and the Gavel,” by former McCarthy aide John Leganski. The Times obtained an early copy of the book, which is set to be released next week.
The Speaker saga ended with Biggs, Crane and others cowed into voting “present” on the 15th ballot, allowing McCarthy to prevail. However, McCarthy was deposed less than a year later.
Spokespersons for Biggs and Crane did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but both have remained stalwart Trump supporters over the three years since. Indeed, both spoke alongside Trump at a Turning Point Action-hosted rally in Phoenix earlier this year.
