House Republicans embarrassingly floundered through another day of multiple balloting on Wednesday, with Kevin McCarthy unable to be elected as House speaker. Republicans were unable to unite and end the political chaos, that is becoming an embarrassing clown show for the Republican majority in the house.
Republicans attempted to vote McCarthy into the top job for the fourth, fifth, and sixth time as the House fell further into disarray. But the votes were almost identical, with 20 conservative holdouts still refusing to support him, leaving him far short of the 218 required to win the gavel. In fact, McCarthy’s vote total dropped to 201 after one Republican switched to voting simply present.
“Well, it’s Groundhog Day,” Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., said of McCarthy’s nomination on the sixth ballot.
“To all Americans watching right now, we hear you,” she said. And no matter how messy it gets, we’ll get through it.”
However, right-wing conservatives led by the Freedom Caucus and aligned with Donald Trump appeared emboldened by the standoff — despite Trump’s public support for McCarthy.
“This is actually an energizing day for America,” said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who was nominated three times as an alternative by his conservative colleagues. “There are a lot of members in the chamber who want to have serious discussions about how we can wrap this up and elect a speaker.”
A Grueling spectacle
Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, vowed to fight on despite the grueling spectacle that threw the new majority into disarray a day earlier. On the chamber floor, heated private debates erupted between McCarthy supporters and detractors looking for a way out.
The House convened at noon, but no other business could be done until the speaker was elected, including swearing in new members, forming committees, tackling legislation, and investigating the Biden administration.
“I still have the most votes,” McCarthy declared at the beginning of the session. “We’ll be able to get there at the end of the day.”
But the dynamic remained unchanged from Day One, as Democrats re-nominated their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, for speaker, and Donalds issued another historic challenge to McCarthy. Jeffries and Donalds are both black.
“This country needs leadership,” said Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, noting that it was the first time in history that two Black Americans were nominated for high office, and lawmakers from both parties rose to applaud.
Republicans embarrassing themselves
It was the first time in 100 years that a House speaker nominee did not take the gavel on the first vote, but McCarthy seemed unfazed. Instead, he vowed to fight until the end. With Republicans now in control of the House, the disorganized start to the new Congress portended difficulties ahead.
As he left the White House for a bipartisan event in Kentucky with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, President Joe Biden said, “the rest of the world is looking” at the scene on the House floor.
“I just think it’s really embarrassing how long it’s taking,” Biden said. “I’m not sure” who will win.
Tensions rose among the new House majority as their campaign promises failed to materialize. A speaker’s election has not gone to multiple ballots since 1923, and the longest and most grueling battle for the gavel began in late 1855 and lasted two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.
A new generation of conservative Republicans, many of whom support Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda, want to upend Washington’s status quo and are determined to derail McCarthy’s rise without making concessions to their priorities.
McCarthy opposed by Freedom Caucus
Even Trump’s staunchest supporters, however, disagreed on this point. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a staunch Colorado conservative who nominated Donald Trump for the second time, urged the former president to tell McCarthy, “Sir, you do not have the votes, and it is time to withdraw.”
Trump had done the opposite earlier in the day, urging Republicans to vote for McCarthy. “Close the deal, take the victory,” he wrote in all capital letters on his social media site. “Do not turn a great victory into a massive and humiliating defeat.”
As the election dragged on, McCarthy’s supporters begged the remaining holdouts to vote for the California Republican.
“I think members on both sides are feeling a lot of pressure right now,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma. “So I think the message from home is, ‘Hey, sort this out; we don’t have time for the small stuff and egos.'”
Since Republicans won control of the House in the midterm elections, there has been a standoff over McCarthy. While the Senate is still in Democratic hands, House Republicans are eager to confront Biden after Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for two years.
McCarthy was opposed by the conservative Freedom Caucus, which believes he is neither conservative nor tough enough to face Democrats.
McCarthy has already agreed to many of the Freedom Caucus’ demands for rule changes and other concessions that give rank-and-file members more influence in the legislative process in order to gain support. He’s been here before, having dropped out of the race for Speaker of the House in 2015 after failing to win over conservatives.
“Everything is on the table,” said ally Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-North Carolina, except having McCarthy step down. “Certainly not. That is not an option.”
Democrats enthusiastically nominated Jeffries, the party’s new leader, as their candidate for speaker. He received the most votes overall (212).
McCarthy could lower the threshold required by the rules to have a majority if he could win 213 votes and then persuade the remaining dissenters to simply vote present.
Former House speakers, including outgoing Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Speaker John Boehner, have used this strategy in the past when confronted with opposition, winning the gavel with fewer than 218 votes.
Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, a Republican, voted present in the fourth and fifth rounds, but it made no difference in the immediate outcome.
Source: AP, VOR News
