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.
California Republicans who voted against the Respect for Marriage Act:
Rep. Connie Conway (22nd District)
Rep. Young Kim (39th District)
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (1st District)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (23rd District)
Rep. Tom McClintock (4th District)
Rep. Michelle Steel (48th District)
Correct............We shall see what happens.................
There will be investigations with all the rigor and dedication of Trey Gowdy. Count on it!
If “moderates” would do what you say, there is no Republican Party.
They need to chuse a different speaker with the same agreements you cite.
We used to have news reporters in the press that actually asked who? What? When? Why? Where? How?
Now we just have producers who set up que cards off camera view from press releases written by the same people who should be answering those questions.
It's shameful.
Wake me after Kevin fails to get a majority after the 57th vote.
What's embarrassing is you constantly looking over your shoulder and being concerned about what made up junk the Democrats are going to gesticulate over.
Do you realize what the best outcome of this Speaker situation
would be?
Two years of no Speaker, so that not one damned thing could
get done.
NO..
Just saying written promises mean nothing. They are only a means to an end.
Nothing more, nothing less..
Is this foreigner lying?
13th time the charm?
Funny how after all the bread and circuses we still have to settle for “a half a loaf” (in reality he will be a backstabber, so we will likely get a shit sandwich crammed down our throats regardless).
Already at 5 ‘others.’
Why would you want to exclude people based on some votes?
Ronald Reagan said “if someone agrees with you on 80% of issues, he is your friend and not a 20% traitor”.
Learn from the Gipper.
GOP is already shrinking. By applying litmus test to issues, GOP will become more and more irrelevant, and democrats will become permanent majority.
In writing is meaningless. What teeth does such an agreement have?
“Two years of no Speaker, so that not one damned thing could
get done.”
So you are in favor of no investigations into Biden, COVID, the border, etc?
They didn’t nominate a second Republican this round. All they have now is an ‘Others’ category...
Always good to get that cleared up.
The ‘anyone but McCarthy or Jeffries’ column...
“Why would you want to exclude people based on some votes?”
I am not sure why you addressed this to me.
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