Crane Says He is 'Proud' to Be On Kevin McCarthy's 'Hit List'

Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ) is up for reelection in Arizona's 2nd Congressional District and is talking about his Republican primary opponent, former Yavapai County Commissioner Jack Smith (R).

No, not that Jack Smith.

In a recent interview with Cactus Politics, Rep. Crane alleged Smith is receiving backing from former Speaker of the House Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in retaliation for Rep. Crane voting to remove him from the Speakership in October.

Rep. Crane poked fun at Smith's name, quoting Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL): "What, they could not find Hannibal Lecter?" referring to the infamous villain from the 1991 horror film The Silence of the Lambs. 

Additionally, he said Rep. McCarthy is "100%" behind Smith since the Arizona Congressman was one of the eight Republicans who voted to remove the California Congressman from the Speakership position, and Smith "got in super late" in the primary, "like a couple of weeks before the filing deadline," supposedly being the tenth person McCarthy's people were considering.

Nevertheless, Crane said, "At the end of the day, you make your bed up here [that] you sleep in, and I am proud to be on their hit list. For my voters, it is a badge of honor. Everybody feels that way."

Moreover, Crane suggested his constituents did not initially want him to vote for McCarthy during the initial votes for Speaker in January 2023, yet "we gave him time, we gave him multiple opportunities to kind of honor the commitments that he made in January to become Speaker. Once it was evident to everybody that he would not, that he could not honor those, we were like, 'Okay."

"Once you sell your soul up here to so many people, and you are so conflicted, especially when it comes to donors and whatnot and PACs, it becomes evident and apparent after a certain amount of time that somebody cannot and they won't actually lead us in a direction that actually honors what the Republican platform is supposed to be about," Crane continued.

Regardless, the Arizona Congressman concluded, "I can appreciate the hustle, I can appreciate somebody working their ass off, and [McCarthy] did. I will give him that because to become Speaker of the House, that is not an easy feat. I respect it, but at the same time, if you are not going to do what is necessary to help us save this country, you need to go, and that is why I was like, 'Okay, easy."