Patterico's Pontifications

1/4/2023

Speaker Election Open Thread: McCarthy Loses Fourth, Fifth, Sixth Vote… (UPDATE)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 10:56 am



[guest post by Dana]

[Ed. I’m refreshing this open thread this morning. It’s unclear whether another vote will happen today, but at some point, there is going to be at least one more. Talks between McCarthy and his critics took place after several rounds of voting yesterday failed to result in a speaker being elected. New concessions were offered by the beleaguered McCarthy, which included ‘lowering the threshold needed to force a vote ousting a speaker to just one member, giving the House Freedom Caucus two seats on the powerful House Rules Committee, a vote on term limits (proposed amendment of 3 term limit), change appropriations process to include standalone votes on each of the 12 annual appropriations bills…allowing floor amendments to be offered by any lawmaker, and carve out any earmarks included in those packages for separate votes.”..]

Welp:

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy again failed to secure the necessary 218 votes to be the next House speaker in a fourth round of voting Wednesday.

The House Freedom Caucus nominated Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., for House speaker during Wednesday’s votes.

“Now, here we are. And for the first time in history, there have been two black Americans placed into the nomination for speaker of the House,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

Republicans erupted into cheers and rose for a standing ovation after Roy’s remarks. Some Democrats also joined in the standing ovation

McCarthy received 201 votes this round.

More details:

The 20 GOP McCarthy opponents, all of whom voted for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Tuesday, switched their votes to Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.)…Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) voted “present.”…She had voted for McCarthy on the first three ballots on Tuesday…But it also took a vote that McCarthy had on the first three ballots.

Trump’s endorsement of McCarthy posted this morning on TruthSocial, failed to move the needle:

VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY, & WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME TO A VERY BROKEN CALIFORNIA,THE ONLY SPEAKER IN U.S. HISTORY TO HAVE LOST THE “HOUSE” TWICE! REPUBLICANS, DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT. IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE, YOU DESERVE IT. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a GREAT JOB – JUST WATCH!

That Trump was unable to persuade his peeps to vote for McCarthy speaks to a diminished presence and influence in the GOP.

The fifth round of voting is taking place now. You can watch it live here.

–Dana


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