US lawmakers were locked in crisis talks on Wednesday to choose a speaker for the House of Representatives after Republican Kevin McCarthy’s bid was shot down by conservative hardliners.
The lower house of Congress adjourned Tuesday after the California congressman lost a humiliating series of votes for the job — the first time in a century that no one won the speakership on the first ballot.
A small but growing faction of right-wingers – about a tenth of House Republicans – repeatedly vote against McCarthy, leaving him 16 votes short of winning.
The defeat left the chamber without any committees and unable to swear in members or adopt rules to pass legislation.
President Joe Biden called the Republicans’ struggle “shameful,” telling reporters “the rest of the world” was watching.
As elected lawmakers prepare to return in the afternoon for a fourth vote – or to adjourn again to allow more time for dealmaking – 20 anti-McCarthy Republicans dug in for a drawn-out battle.
The 57-year-old Republican pulled his party back to a narrow House majority in last year’s midterms after four years in the wilderness.
He has long craved the opportunity to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi, an icon in US politics who held the gavel in the previous Congress.
‘make a deal’
Tuesday’s vote results sparked frantic negotiations behind the scenes as McCarthy’s allies tried to cut a deal with his conservative opponents that could win the approval of even moderates.
He told reporters that he planned to stay in the race and spoke with Trump, who was still endorsing his candidacy.
Trump duly endorsed the comments, calling on Wednesday to end the McCarthy blockade and imploring House Republicans to “close the deal and take the victory.”
“Republicans, don’t turn a huge victory into a huge and embarrassing defeat,” he posted on his Truth social platform.
There can be no house business without the speaker, meaning the chamber must continue to vote until someone secures a majority.
But there was little sign that a deal had been reached to end the impasse as members prepared to return to the House.
McCarthy, who has been drifting from support through the end of trading on Tuesday, will be under pressure to quickly reverse that momentum — or get out.
He would have to replace 11 of the 20 Republicans who voted against him in the third round and get the other nine to vote “present” rather than support another candidate.
Should he decide that’s too steep a hill to climb, both parties are likely to start casting around for a “unity” candidate — a consensus Republican committed to being as bipartisan as possible.
‘no ideology’
Republicans will first look to their own ranks, where two McCarthy loyalists — incoming House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, the darling of the right — look like the most viable options.
The process has opened a bitter rift within House Republicans, with centrists referring to the hard-right faction as the “Taliban 20”.
Some of McCarthy’s critics have taken issue with specific political positions, but many others have indicated a widespread distaste for his candidacy.
“Every single Republican in Congress knows that Kevin doesn’t really believe in anything. He has no ideology,” Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida recently wrote about McCarthy.
The former delicatessen owner has already given away store to his conservative opponents, agreeing to their demands to change the way the House does business and lower the threshold for endorsements needed to oust the speaker.
But none of them have shown signs of wavering.
Late Tuesday night, Gaetz sent a letter to the Architect of the Capitol complaining that McCarthy was moving his belongings to the speaker’s office ahead of time.
Getz demanded, under an official letterhead, “How long will he be there before he is considered a squatter?”
read all Breaking News here
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)