Kevin McCarthy has now lost ten rounds of voting for House Speaker due to a small right-wing Republican rebellion. Democrats are having a blast watching the mess unfold. Here are live updates on the chaotic voting process.
Kevin McCarthy is trapped in congressional purgatory. Thanks to an underwhelming midterm for his party, the longtime GOP leader must unite a cantankerous bunch of House members to get enough votes to become Speaker. But in the first round of voting on Monday, he lost the votes of 19 Republicans, when he could afford to lose just four defectors. Then he lost the second and third rounds of voting as well. The drama continued on Wednesday and Thursday when McCarthy lost the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth rounds of voting. How far will it go? Read on for live updates (with the most recent appearing first) on the chaos in the Capitol.
Myriad stories describing Trump as weak after his McCarthy endorsement didn’t move votes. So the counter is Gaetz is now doing a long celebration of Trump as he formally nominates him for Speaker, something some Trump allies discussed for days.— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 5, 2023
Matt Gaetz says Trump didn’t start a new war while in office. Steve Cohen shouts back that Trump started a war here, in Congress and tried to overthrow our government— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 5, 2023
The 11th ballot has begun. McCarthy vs. Jeffries vs. Trump vs. Hern.— Nathaniel Rakich (@baseballot) January 5, 2023
Ten votes would get McCarthy to 210, which is not even as many as Jeffries, let alone close to 218.
Even if Spartz stops voting present and Buck makes it back that’s only 212-212. https://t.co/sQD9LDsloY— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) January 5, 2023
NEW: Sources tell us to think about the emerging deal as “phase 1” of a plan to shake votes loose for McCarthy. The deal doesn’t give him the speakership, but it allows Team McCarthy to peel off some votes, show they have momentum, and then deal with the stragglers.— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) January 5, 2023
ED KILGORE: As the deal we’ve been hearing about gets locked down (with an indeterminate number of rebels on board), the 10th ballot ends with no movement other than a few more anti-McCarthy votes drifting from Donalds to Herns, and one McCarthy voter (Ken Buck) being absent for a medical appointment.
There will be an 11th ballot, moving the 2023 Speaker election into a tie with 1839 for the 6th longest ever https://t.co/jYhrZcIWdO— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) January 5, 2023
ED KILGORE: There are new reports of a deal between McCarthy and Chip Roy being close, but it’s unclear how many of the rebels would or would not come along. You’d guess the deal-makers would want a short adjournment to wrap up any deal, but Democrats plus the hard-core anti-McCarthy Republicans might be able to block it, and in the end five Republican votes can still stop the Californian from victory.
ED KILGORE: The ninth ballot ends with no movement towards or away from McCarthy. Only vote change was Matt Gaetz abandoning his two-ballot support for Donald Trump in favor of a vote for Kevin Hern. If we go to a 10th ballot (which we will either immediately or later), it will be the longest deadlock over a Speaker’s election since before the Civil War, eclipsing the nine-ballot battle in 1924.
House Clerk confirms no speaker after 9th ballot
Jeffries 212
McCarthy 200
Donalds 17
Hern 3
Present 1
On to the 1st 10+ ballot House speaker’s election since 1859-60, when William Pennington (R-NJ) won on the 44th ballot in February 1860:https://t.co/lTuX066LOk— Greg Giroux (@greggiroux) January 5, 2023
ED KILGORE: As a ninth ballot begins with no sign of any movement, Matt Rosendale of Montana, speaking for the rebels on behalf of Byron Donalds, just said something that is surely very wrong, suggesting that “our constituents,” watching the wild spectacle under way this week, are surely “thinking this is the way Congress should always operate.” He meant they crave more debate, but it is very doubtful casual C-SPAN watchers are anything other than puzzled and appalled.
The National Review’s Philip Klein sees some writing on the wall:
It is a good time for McCarthy to consider dropping out. I say this not as somebody who believes that knocking out McCarthy will somehow cleanse Washington, but as somebody who can recognize reality. It would be one thing if McCarthy were gaining support with each successive vote or there were reason to believe that further concessions would win over skeptics, but there is little reason to believe that is the case.
ED KILGORE: The eighth ballot ends with again no movement towards or away from Kevin McCarthy. Matt Gaetz again voted for Trump (clarifying he meant “Donald John Trump”). And two of the other rebels voted for Oklahoma congressman Kevin Hern, for no apparent reason other than variety. There’s still a lot of huddling going on between rebels and Team McCarthy folks on and off the floor. But nothing tangible, and it’s unclear whether McCarthy has the votes to adjourn the House until tomorrow or even next week to avoid further embarrassment.
As of now, lots of uncertainty about what’s next.
Could be 9th ballot
House rs would like to adjourn but don’t think they have the votes.
The leadership operation is trying to turn some votes on adjournment now.
Remember: they have to keep voting if they can’t adjourn— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 5, 2023
Notes Jonathan Chait:
The right-wing rebels contesting the vote for Speaker of the House have floated a wide array of complaints against the Republican Party’s leadership — ranging from the budget deals to “cultural Marxism.” But there is one point of action in particular looming ominously on the horizon of their fevered imaginations: the federal debt ceiling. Representative Ralph Norman, one of the holdouts, told reporters that his demands of the new Speaker include a willingness to hold the full faith and credit of the government hostage to as-yet-unspecified demands. “Is he willing to shut the government down rather than raise the debt ceiling?” Norman warned. “That’s a non-negotiable item.”
Read more of Jon’s take here.
ED KILGORE: In renominating Hakeem Jeffries for an eighth ballot, House Minority Whip Kathleen Clark of MA reminds listeners of the 212 votes he’s received on every ballot, in contrast to Republican disunity. The “Democrats in Disarray” meme beloved of Beltway journalists is dying a slow but noisy death.
Ben Jacobs reports:
Once people would come to Congress for entertainment. The visitors gallery on Capitol Hill was a hot ticket for those looking to watch human drama and political chaos. To be fair, entertainment options were more limited in the era before Netflix or Xbox or even C-SPAN. In recent decades, such trips have become the civic education equivalent of eating broccoli — a staple of tour groups visiting Washington, but not something people do for fun. Over the past two days though, that has changed. Congress is amusing again as the nation’s attention is focused on the floor of the House of Representatives. C-SPAN’s presumably sky-high ratings haven’t been released yet, but are the subject of much speculation on Twitter (and CNN). Who needs sports or sitcoms when you can watch Kevin McCarthy step on the same rake time and time again? Seven times so far and counting, in fact.
Read the rest of Ben’s dispatch here.
NEW — Current plan is to move directly into the 8th round of voting for speaker.— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 5, 2023
Vote done, so what happens now?
Just overheard a R member saying «Kevin wants to adjourn now»
Dems would likely block— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) January 5, 2023
ED KILGORE: So once again, McCarthy lost the fifth vote thwarting his bid for the speakership before the roll call was out of the Cs. His goal is likely to avoid any further attrition beyond the 21 votes he lost during the previous two ballots.
So in the end, the seventh ballot shows no movement towards or away from Kevin McCarthy. Byron Donalds lost one of his previous 20 votes to “Trump.” Victoria Spartz still voting “present.”
ED KILGORE: Hard-core rebel leader and all-around bad boy Matt Gaetz just created a buzz in the House by switching his vote from Byron Donalds to “Trump.”
.@RepMattGaetz votes for former President Donald Trump for Speaker of the House. #118thCongress pic.twitter.com/VCQgi0bgLA— CSPAN (@cspan) January 5, 2023
ED KILGORE: The speeches being made on each ballot nominating Kevin McCarthy and his serial rivals have one thing in common: the speakers frequently allude to the total dependence “the American people” have on the conduct of the House Republican conference. It’s as though the Democratic president, the Democratic Senate and the 212 House Democrats don’t represent actual voters, but “the swamp,” or “the left” or some other abstraction. it’s a telling spinoff of the recent Republican habit of treating GOP constituencies as the only “real Americans.”
ED KILGORE: Probably as a response to the GOP rebels making Black congressman Byron Donalds their vehicle in the last few Speaker’s votes, the latest McCarthy loyalist chosen to renominate him is Michigan freshman John James.
