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.
Does anyone really believe that there will be any investigations with a RINO like McCarthy as speaker?
Good points.
Why is it our side, never sees it coming?
McConnell and Ryan didn’t have anything more than temporary
tax relief on their list of to do items in 2017-2018.
Trump would have signed off on anything good they lofted for
him to.
Here again. They had two months to determine who would be
the next Speaker. Nothing!
And you believe that if he wins this evening, then we will have "serious investigation into the bribery payments made to Hunter Biden, the incompetence of Mayorkas or any other conservative topic"?
Really????????
From the Republican Party??????
Give it to Nanzi or the camel jockey. At least they know what the hell they are doing!!!
Why do you think this happened.
My theory is that leadership did this to “expose” those on the fringes. While their cachet with the narrow base might be increased, their national influence has been dashed upon the rocks.
Everything is done for a reason.
Still a long long way from the record.
Of course the record was only about 5-6 years from the Civil War.
Maybe we are closer than we think.
I think he’s losing the 13th too. Maybe the ink isn’t quite dry on the deal. Or maybe they want Kevin to sign in blood. 😆
Who here thinks he wouldn’t?
Yep, he’s lost. And 6 still sticking to their guns...
concessions in writing
./\
Meaningless
We have a constitution, a bill of rights and thousands of laws
In Writing
And d.c. routinely ignore them every damn day.
Including Fox Snooze softshells Hannity and Ingraham
Nope, it’s the only realistic acceptable alternative at this point.
In writing is meaningless. What teeth does such an agreement have?
/\
Exactly
We beg some Soros court/ judge for justice
Feel better ?
Ya, me neither.
This jerk has no self awareness.
Who is McTurd?
Pelosi was the last speaker coming out of California. Now McCarthy is trying to be speaker and he’s out of California as well.
Hmmm...
I think it happened because they’re idiots and didn’t understand the situation and deal with it properly.
Everything might be done for a reason, but never discount “stupid” as a potential reason. Cause this is just embarrassing they look like fools. They haven’t “exposed” the “fringes” they’ve exposed themselves.
Agreed. Did we get anything out of that other than that good
feeling though?
The guy was partially responsible for genocide. Nothing.
He’s still out there shooting his mouth off as if
he was untouchable.
They’re just not as good as politics. Deal making, getting the ducks in a row, presenting a unified front. They just suck at all that.
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