“We need 39 seats. Take it, for instance, say we win 34,” McCarthy said in an interview on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program, which is scheduled to air this weekend but was posted online Friday.

He suggested that if that happens some Democrats might not support Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to be speaker, and might instead opt to vote with Republicans to pursue their priorities.

“Why would they want to keep her [Pelosi]? And why wouldn’t they want to go with other people to be able to produce it?” McCarthy asked. “Why do you think that if we don’t win 39, we still couldn’t be able to get speaker?”