Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, entered the second day of voting in the speakership election in a weakened position, as his hard-right critics doubled down on their opposition.
After the 118th Congress convened Tuesday, McCarthy failed to win the gavel on three separate votes, marking the first time in a century that the House failed to elect a speaker on the first ballot. Until the speaker is decided, all the functions of the House, including the swearing-in of new members, are halted.
Joe Biden expressed frustration at the speakership standoff on Wednesday, telling reporters that gridlock could damage America’s international reputation.
“I think it’s a little awkward that it took this long,” Biden said before departing for a trip to Kentucky. “It doesn’t look good, it’s not a good thing. This is the United States, and I hope they get their act together.
The House chamber will reconvene on Wednesday afternoon to take up the matter again, and McCarthy expressed confidence that he will eventually win the 218 votes needed to seize the gavel.
“I think we’ll find our way to get there,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday night. “It’s a healthy debate. It may not be the day we want it to be, but it’s going to happen.”
In a promising sign for his prospects, McCarthy received Donald Trump’s full-throated endorsement Wednesday morning, which could help swing some votes among the former president’s most loyal allies in the House.
“Some really good conversations happened last night, and now it’s time for all of our great Republican House members to vote for Kevin, to close the deal, to win,” Trump said in a post on the social media platform Truth Social. “Republicans, don’t turn a huge victory into a huge and embarrassing defeat.”
But so far, the speakership showdown has divided Trump loyalists in the House. Some of the former president’s defenders, including Georgia Congressman Marjorie Taylor Green and Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, have rallied around McCarthy and urged their conservative colleagues to join them. Other key Trump allies, such as Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz and Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, have been strongly opposed to McCarthy’s candidacy.
The chaotic debate was expected to continue on Wednesday, as McCarthy’s critics showed no signs of backing down. In Tuesday’s three votes, the number of McCarthy’s Republican opponents only grew, bringing the total to 20 when the chamber adjourned Tuesday evening. Holdout members have rallied around Jordan, though he himself has backed McCarthy.
After demanding several changes to chamber rules, one anti-McCarthy lawmaker suggested that the leader’s handling of the policy was really to blame for his poor standing among certain caucus members. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry specifically noted the passage of the omnibus government funding bill last month, even though McCarthy strongly opposed the legislation.
McCarthy is “selling the media a lie about what we’ve accepted on the rules — that won’t do one bit to stop what happened in the massive $1.7 trillion, 4,000-page taxpayer theft bill 12 days ago,” said Scott Perry, the chairman. The House Freedom Caucus said on Twitter. “We will continue to seek a candidate who will put an end to this terrible practice.”
Underscoring the furor between the rival Republican camps, Gaetz sent a letter to the building’s caretakers Tuesday night saying McCarthy was improperly occupying the speaker’s lobby.
“What is the basis for allowing the law, the House rules, or the second-place finisher in three consecutive Speaker elections to hold the Speaker’s office?” Gaetz wrote. “How long does he live there before he’s considered a squatter?”
One strategy under consideration is an attempt to win the Speaker’s gavel with fewer than 218 votes, by persuading some holdout Republicans to vote absentee, which lowers the threshold for winning a majority.
“You got 213 votes, and the others won’t say another name. That’s how you win,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday night.
As the Republican caucus descended into chaos, House Democrats rallied around their new leader, Mayor Jeffries of New York. Jeffries, who on Tuesday became the first black American to lead a House caucus of a major party, called Republicans’ failure to elect a speaker a “sad day” for the institution and democracy.
“This is a crisis in Congress and it’s a crisis at the hands of Republican dysfunction,” California Congressman Pete Aguilar, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said at a news conference Wednesday morning. Aguilar said Democrats were united behind Jeffrey, whom the party had apparently nominated as its choice for speaker.
Due to conservative bias, Jeffrey won the most votes overall on each of the first three ballots, but fell short of the 218 needed to be elected Speaker.
Yet many House Democrats bristled at the dysfunction. Several Democratic members tweeted photos of themselves enjoying popcorn as the floor fight unfolded. Congressman Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat from California who brought his four-month-old son to the Capitol for a swearing-in ceremony that hasn’t happened yet, tweeted a photo of his son: “Two bottle feeds and multiple diaper changes in the Democratic cloakroom. The floor. This speaker’s vote is taking forever!”