Posted on 01/06/2023 11:01:16 AM PST by Red Badger
Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., lost yet another speaker of the House vote on Friday, despite broadening his base of support.
McCarthy received 214 votes, short of the amount needed to be elected. He can only afford to lose four votes if every member casts a vote for a nominee.
While a speaker still hasn't been elected, McCarthy did make some progress as 12 Republicans who opposed McCarthy earlier, voted for him on the 12th ballot.
The process to elect a new speaker has entered its fourth day, making it the longest such process in 164 years.
RELATED House adjourns with no speaker elected; McCarthy loses 11th vote McCarthy was nominated for a 12th time after he has fallen short in each round of balloting in his quest to be elected House speaker. Democrats again nominated Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who has received the votes of all 212 of the party's members in each vote.
A coalition of detractors seeking to prevent McCarthy from becoming speaker has nominated various other lawmakers over the course of the four days of voting. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz nominated Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Friday while Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., again nominated Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern.
Jeffries received 211 votes during the first ballot Friday, while Hern received three and Jordan received four.
RELATED U.S. House adjourns, delays seventh House speaker vote Reps. Ken Buck, R-Colo., Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, and David Trone, D-Md., didn't vote.
House Republicans held a conference call starting at 10:15 a.m. EST Friday to discuss strategy ahead of the voting session which is scheduled to begin at noon.
McCarthy, who was first elected to Congress in 2006, insisted Thursday evening that he was making progress on a deal to win back some of his detractors and repeated that message Friday.
RELATED House adjourns after Kevin McCarthy fails in first three ballots for House speaker "We're going to make progress, we're gonna shock you!" McCarthy told reporters Friday morning as he arrived at the U.S. Capitol.
"We're going to get it done."
Coming into Friday representatives had spent 17 hours and 55 minutes in the voting process, preventing the 118th Congress from conducting any business, including the swearing in of new members.
McCarthy and his supporters continue attempts to negotiate a deal with their party's hardliners who have thus far refused to support McCarthy through 11 rounds of balloting.
"If Kevin McCarthy doesn't bow out, then he will have to live the entirety of his speakership in a straightjacket constructed by these rules that we're working on now," Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told Fox News in an interview Thursday evening.
"We have zero trust in Kevin McCarthy."
Gaetz, the leader of the coalition against McCarthy, also delivered a four-minute speech during Thursday's voting session where he nominated former president Donald Trump for the speaker role.
So far, 20 GOP members have continually voted against the 57-year-old. With 435 members in the House of Representatives, McCarthy can only afford to have four of his colleagues withhold their support.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., a McCarthy ally said progress is indeed being made.
"The main things we're talking about are a conservative agenda around spending and the nature of our Republican majority. That's really the crux of the conversation. And that's really the contours of it," he told CNN Friday morning.
"What I've seen over the last 36 hours is immense amount of effort to take the emotion out of this and get into the substance of the challenges."
Earlier in the week, McCarthy's failure to win marked the first time since 1923 that a speaker was not elected during the first round of balloting.
Agreed, when is one of the holdouts going to stand up and say elect me?
—
They are not going to standup because that would mean the lot is willing to do more than grandstanding for personal, assignments, and concessions designed to give them more personal power.
And that’s why they are ‘genius clowns’ costing the nation & the GOP future elections.
“May be I misconstrued your post #41.”
Check the post I was responding to about voting for same-sex marriage.
McCarthy opposed the legislation.
“What’s embarrassing is giving commie Dems more fodder…on top of their gesticulation over Jan 6.”
People have short memories. If Republicans decide to rule like Republicans and stamp out all the corruption (FBI/CIA/Democrats/Bidens, etc...) and grift this will be a distant memory in no time.
Are they having another adjournment vote?
hahaha
Correct because real conservatives are a small minority of American voters.
WTF do you have against Ely NV?
Move them onto an old aircraft carrier and use it for target practice after they are all on it. Sink it in the middle of the ocean.
VERY good question! I would've expected a Dark Horse to emerge by now. There are a number of people whom I think would make a better Speaker than McCarthy, but for various reasons (Coercion?) they have declined.
The media and the left would go into apoplexy if my choice: Donald J. Trump were to show interest and his candidacy gain steam
“With a caucus that only holds a 4 seat majority you literally need to get the votes of 98% of the people voting to vote for you...”
And why is there only a 4 seat majority? Because Republicans let massive cheating take place and this clown McCarthy could care less.
Well, the nominee of your choice was nominated. It did not go well.
Wow! So that's it. That's pretty profound; I'll have to think about it for a while.
I’m not sure but IIRC House rules prevent someone from nominating themselves.
Well one of the gang of now 8 can stand up and say “elect me”, and have one of the other seven nominate them.
“Wow! So that’s it. That’s pretty profound; I’ll have to think about it for a while.”
Good, because you haven’t. Not really. Because McCarthy / Republican Establishment could care less about the suppression and corruption of the DOJ/FBI, COVID Origins, COVID Vaccines, Jan 6th prisoners’, domestic terrorist (parents), Coup Attempts, and dozens of other topics the Government, Big Tech, McCarthy and the Lapdog media goes along with.
Other things McCarthy will do absolutely nothing about, border crossings, sex trafficking, drug deaths, etc.. He wants cheap labor.
Get a speaker with an once of courage and save our country.
Sure. McCarthy doesn’t give one hoot in heck about any of that. But the ONE you want, the one who knew McCarthy was the minority leader and that the Republicans would likely become the majority for over a year, and McCarthy was the presumptive Majority leader, and the November election of two months ago when McCarthy declared his candidacy, the one who remained in the shadows, he would take care of it all when he miraculously took the reigns.
And he’d be so strong that he’s get everything through the Democratic Senate, too, and the Democratic Biden presidency for signing, and the (essentially) Democratic DOJ, and the MSM.
Name him or her.
That’s not how that works. One of the others has to nominate them *first* - you can’t just stand up and demand that others nominate you.
Ely is a speed trap and they deserve some punishment.
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