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.
ROFL!!!
He won't bother to put it in writing when he ignores them.
Sad truth is “true conservatives” do not get elected in majority numbers. Sooner this reality is accepted, the better off GOP will be. A fractured GOP is a gift to the democRats.
You can't fight city hall.
He needs 4 more(7 holdouts). Gotta tell you I’m lovin’ this. All his (McCarthy)concessions have to be written down. The holdouts know we need new leadership. Profile in courage stuff.
As it got closer I was expecting him to get the extra 4 because they might want to go home for the weekend.
The entire congressional sessions should be moved to Ely, Nevada. Not enough hotel rooms for the lobbyists.
What’s embarrassing is you.
So what other choice you have to replace McCarthy who can get 218 votes?
The Republican party will soon be the obsolete Whig party....
Agreed. Gaetz is sounding like a punk.
Well, you can, but eventually city hall either buys off or kills the opposition. It’d be hard to kill congresscritters, so the alternative is to buy them off, which, is apparently working..
Trump is so close to another win right now!
McCarthy is experiencing the consequences of being a less than honest dirtbag at times.
❌⬆️
You make a rational argument. That is never embarrassing. Only embarrassment is people who live in Neverland.
Listening to garbage from the democrats…..the party of Hakeem, Escobar, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Talib, Aguilar. Incidentally, Escobar who just nominated Hakeem again, finished in Spanish
What gets me is nominating Donalds in 2nd term. Come on. They could have at least taunted Maxine with a “Diversity is Strength” claim while doing it. Better yet how about Black Lives Matter?” Turn their cliche’s around.
The Dem's already have that, and it's McCarthy......he's a simple Deep State Tool, as are all the lock-step Dems. Hakeem is their token lawn jockey prototype, who'll do the bidding of the Deep State and rake in millions from Taxpayers and the Global Elite who fund/control/and cash in on the Government handouts they get from controlling it.
Now we’re invoking Hitler?
Good grief.
Do you seriously believe McCarthy will do anything serious about these things? Oh there will be investigations but they won't be serious in any way, shape, or form. They will be clown acts and in the end, amount to precisely nothing.
These speaker votes are utterly meaningless outside of McCarthy's ego. Peewee Herman or Goofy the animated dog might as well be speaker.
Are you delusional enough to contradict my point?
These articles leave out actual news.
What was the actual vote count?
Which Representatives voted for other than Hakeem or McCarthy?
Which ones switched to McCarthy after voting against him earlier?
These articles write as if Congress is a black box.
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