House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Pulls Out of Race for Speaker; Election Postponed

UPDATED with video.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has pulled out of the race for Speaker, the NYT reports, “apparently undone by the same forces that drove Mr. Boehner to resign.”

NBC News adds:

It was not clear why McCarthy, who was viewed as the likely successor to outgoing speaker John Boehner, unexpectedly exited the contest.

He faced opposition in Thursday’s nomination race from House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida, but he was widely expected to defeat both rivals.

McCarthy got up in front of the room, said he's not right person to lead the conference & quit. Boehner then said the election is postponed

— Daniel Newhauser (@dnewhauser) October 8, 2015

McCarthy had come under fire from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for admitting that the Benghazi committee was a political attack committee set up to destroy her.