“I support John Boehner as speaker,” McCarthy told POLITICO in a statement.

“We should be spending all of our time and energy confronting this administration’s disastrous policies,” he added. “The intrigue and fighting amongst ourselves only makes it harder to get that done. It ought to stop immediately.”

Ryan was similarly dismissive of the threat by conservative hard-liners to oust Boehner. “The best person to lead the conference right now is John Boehner, and any attempt to remove him would be counterproductive,” Ryan said.