The fractured US House of Representatives failed to elect a speaker on the second day as Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s fifth attempt fell through.
Conservative hardliners are blocking the establishment’s choice of McCarthy in a humiliating string of ballots that have paralyzed the lower house of Congress as it fell into narrow Republican control after the new year.
The former California entrepreneur failed to get the gavel for the fifth time on Wednesday as his path was barred by an emboldened faction of about 20 right-wingers who made history by pushing through the first-vote speaker race for the first time in a century. .
In a fiasco that President Joe Biden called “embarrassing,” the House is unable to sworn in members, fill committees, pass rules for passing laws, or negotiate a way out of paralysis.
McCarthy, who raised millions of dollars to elect right-wing lawmakers, returned his party to a 222-212 majority in the House of Representatives in last year’s midterm elections after four years of deadlock.
The 57-year-old has long yearned to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the sort of American political icon who held the gavel in the last Congress.
But McCarthy’s candidacy for speaker has sparked a bitter split among Republicans in the House of Representatives, with centrists calling the far-right faction leading the charge against him “Taliban 20.”
“Shameful Defeat”
The speaker’s standoff sparked hectic backroom negotiations as McCarthy’s allies sought to strike a deal with his conservative detractors that might also win the favor of moderates.
He told reporters in Congress that he plans to stay in the race and spoke to his biggest VIP backer, Donald Trump, who still supported his candidacy.
The former president duly called on Wednesday for an end to McCarthy’s blockade, warning renegade Republicans not to “turn a great triumph into a gigantic and ignominious defeat.”
The comments didn’t budge the House at all and were vehemently dismissed by usually staunch Trump ally Lauren Bobert, who said her “beloved president” had it all backwards.
“The president should tell Kevin McCarthy that, sir, you have no votes and it’s time to withdraw,” she said.
No House business can proceed without a Speaker, meaning that the House must continue to vote until someone wins a majority.
But there was little sign that any agreement could be struck to break the stalemate as members prepared to crouch down for a long, repeated series of votes.
McCarthy, who had a loss of support and lost every round to Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffreys, will be forced to turn things around quickly if he stays in the race.
If he decides it’s too steep a hill to climb, both parties are likely to start looking for a “unity” candidate, a consensus Republican who pledges to be as bipartisan as possible.
However, Republicans will first turn to their own ranks, where two McCarthy supporters – new House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and right-wing darling Jim Jordan – look like the most viable alternatives.
Some of McCarthy’s detractors disagreed with specific policy positions, but many others simply expressed general opposition to his candidacy.
“Every Republican in Congress knows that Kevin doesn’t really believe in anything. He has no ideology,” Florida Congressman Matt Goetz recently wrote about McCarthy.
The former deli owner has already given the store away to his conservative opponents, agreeing to their demands for a change in the way the House of Representatives conducts business and lowering the support threshold needed to oust the speaker.
But none of them showed signs of hesitation.
Late Tuesday evening, Gaetz sent a letter to the architect of the Capitol, complaining that McCarthy had prematurely moved his belongings to the Speaker’s office.
“How long will he stay there before he’s considered a squatter?” Goetz demanded on official letterhead.
