House adjourns as deeply divided Republicans fail to elect U.S. House Speaker for 2nd day
U.S. House plunged into further disarray as all House business stalled with lack of Speaker
U.S. House Republicans flailed through a long second day of fruitless balloting Wednesday before adjourning for the night, unable to either elect their leader Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker or come up with a new strategy to end the political chaos that has tarnished the start of their new majority.
Yet McCarthy not only wasn't giving up, even after the fourth, fifth and sixth ballots produced no better outcome and he was left trying to call off a night-time session. Even that was controversial, as the House voted — amid shouting — to adjourn for the night.
"No deal yet," he said as he left a lengthy closed-door meeting with key holdouts. "But a lot of progress."
No progress at all was evident though the day of vote after vote. For a fourth, fifth and sixth time, Republicans tried to elevate McCarthy into the top job as the House plunged deeper into disarray. But the votes were producing almost the same outcome, 20 conservative holdouts still refusing to support him, and leaving him far short of the 218 typically needed to win the gavel.
In fact, McCarthy saw his support slip to 201, as one fellow Republican switched to vote simply present.
Progress, but not enough
Seeing no quick way out of the political standoff, Republicans voted abruptly late in the afternoon to adjourn for several hours as they desperately searched for an endgame to the chaos of their own making. But when they returned at 8 p.m., it was clear not enough progress had been made.
"I think people need to work a little more," McCarthy said. "I don't think a vote tonight would make any difference. But a vote in the future could."
But even the simple motion to adjourn erupted into a floor fight, with Democrats and some Republicans insisting on a lengthy vote.
Eventually, the House voted 216-214 to adjourn until noon Thursday.
McCarthy, the California Republican vowed to keep fighting despite the gruelling spectacle, unlike any in a century, that threw the new majority into tumult a day earlier. Animated private discussions broke out on the chamber floor between McCarthy supporters and detractors searching for an endgame.
"Well, it's Groundhog Day," said Republican Rep. Kat Cammack, in nominating McCarthy on the sixth ballot.
"To all Americans watching right now, We hear you. And we will get through this — no matter how messy," she said.
But the right-flank conservatives, led by the Freedom Caucus and aligned with Donald Trump, appeared emboldened by the standoff — even though Trump publicly backed McCarthy.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, a firm Colorado conservative who nominated Rep. Byron Donalds — the chosen protest candidate of the day — called on Trump to tell McCarthy, "Sir, you do not have the votes and it's time to withdraw."
'It looks messy'
The House gavelled in at noon, and a McCarthy ally quickly renominated him for the job with a rousing speech designed to peel off detractors.
"Sure, it looks messy," Rep. Mike Gallagher said. But democracy is messy, he said. "The American people are in charge."
McCarthy himself entered the chamber saying, "We'll have another vote."
But the dynamic proved no different from the first day of voting on Tuesday. Democrats re-upped their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, for Speaker, and a right-flank leader from the Freedom Caucus offered another challenge to McCarthy — Donalds — in another history-making moment. Both Jeffries and Donalds are Black.
"This country needs leadership," said Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, noting the first time in history two Black Americans were nominated for the high office, and lawmakers from both parties rose to applaud. The final tally on both the fourth and fifth ballots was 212 votes for Jeffries, 201 for McCarthy and 20 for Donalds.
With Jeffries and McCarthy on the fifth ballot, Donalds was nominated again on the sixth ballot, and again McCarthy fell short of the 218 required votes.
'Really embarrassing,' says Biden
President Joe Biden, departing the White House for a bipartisan event in Kentucky with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, said "the rest of the world is looking" at the scene on the House floor.
"I just think it's really embarrassing it's taking so long," Biden said. "I have no idea" who will prevail.
The stalemate the day before was the first time in 100 years that a nominee for House Speaker could not take the gavel on the first vote.
Early Wednesday, former president Donald Trump urged Republicans to vote for McCarthy: "CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY," he wrote on his social media site, Truth Social. He added: "REPUBLICANS, DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT."
Trump, who while president once referred to McCarthy as "My Kevin," still holds sway with large numbers of party members despite the spectre of legal challenges he faces — as well as his mixed record of endorsements in the recent midterms, which saw Republicans regain control of the House but fail to wrest the Senate majority from the Democrats.
The current president said House Republicans' inability to unify behind a Speaker candidate, which has prevented the chamber from beginning its legislative business, was "embarrassing" and "not a good look" for the country.
The tumultuous start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans now in control of the House, with tensions flaring. Without a Speaker, the House cannot fully form — which includes swearing in its members, naming its committee chairs, engaging in floor proceedings and launching oversight into the Biden administration.
As the spectacle of voting dragged on, McCarthy's backers implored the holdouts to fall in line for the California Republican.
"I do think members on both sides of this are getting a lot of pressure now," said Rep. Tom Cole. "So I think the message from home is, 'Hey, sort this stuff out, we don't have time for the small stuff and the egos."'
Standoff built for weeks
The standoff over McCarthy has been building since Republicans won the House majority in the midterm elections. While the Senate remains in Democratic hands, barely, House Republicans are eager to confront Biden after two years of the Democrats controlling both houses of Congress. The conservative Freedom Caucus led the opposition to McCarthy, believing he's neither conservative enough nor tough enough to battle Democrats.
To win support, McCarthy has already agreed to many of the demands of the Freedom Caucus, who have been agitating for rules changes and other concessions that give rank-and-file members more influence in the legislative process. He has been here before, having bowed out of the speakers race in 2015 when he failed to win over conservatives.
Not since 1923 has a Speaker's election gone to multiple ballots, and the longest and most gruelling fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged out for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.
"Kevin McCarthy is not going to be a Speaker," said Virginia Republican Bob Good.
"Everything's on the table," said McCarthy ally Rep. Patrick McHenry — except, he said, having McCarthy step aside. "Not at all. That is not on the table."
With files from CBC News