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      McCarthy suffers eighth defeat in bid for House speaker as stalemate drags on

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      McCarthy suffers eighth defeat in bid for House speaker as stalemate drags onThe impasse over choosing a House speaker continued as McCarthy fell short of votes held up by his detractors The stalemate over choosing a House speaker continued on Thursday, after the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed to win the gavel for an eighth time.McCarthy won 201 votes on the eighth ballot, leaving him 17 votes short of the 218 needed for a victory. The results mirrored previous rounds of voting, reflecting the entrenched opposition that McCarthy is facing within the House Republican conference.House Republicans aim to rein in ethics body preparing to investigate their partyRead moreThe Thursday votes included a couple of surprises. Far-right congressman Matt Gaetz, a Republican of Florida, twice cast a ballot for Donald Trump. As the US constitution does not specify that the House speaker must be a member of the chamber, lawmakers are not required to support one of their colleagues. Trump received no other votes.Another two of McCarthy’s detractors, congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado and congressman Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, threw their support behind congressman Kevin Hern of Oklahoma. Hern, the chair of the Republican study committee, said that the possibility of becoming speaker was “something I’ll have to think and pray about before deciding if it’s a job I’ll run for”.Before Thursday’s proceedings, the House deadlocked over the speakership three times on Wednesday, following the three inconclusive votes held a day earlier. Rather than voting a fourth time that day, members moved to adjourn for a few hours on Wednesday evening, giving McCarthy’s team more time to negotiate with his Republican detractors.The evening, too, failed to produce a solution, so the chamber reconvened only to adjourn again until the following afternoon. This is the first time in a century that the House has not chosen a speaker on the first ballot.In a glimmer of hope for McCarthy’s prospects, most of the holdout Republicans supported his move to adjourn until Thursday at noon. The final vote on the measure was 216-214, as Democrats and a few Republicans tried and failed to keep the chamber in session.Freshman congressman John James, a Republican of Michigan, celebrated the successful motion to adjourn as a “small victory” when he renominated McCarthy on Thursday. But the House Democratic caucus chair, Pete Aguilar, mocked James’s boast as a telling sign of Republican dysfunction.“There is no victory in adjourning without doing the business of the people,” Aguilar said as he renominated the Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries.The third day of voting came amid reports that McCarthy has made significant concessions to his roughly 20 detractors within the Republican conference. According to CNN, McCarthy has agreed to a chamber rule change allowing just one House member to call for a vote to remove the sitting speaker. McCarthy has also reportedly agreed to allow additional members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus to serve on the influential rules committees, and he has promised votes on some of the detractors’ top legislative priorities.In another major win for far-right House members, the McCarthy-aligned Pac Congressional Leadership Fund has reached an agreement with the organization Club for Growth to not invest in open-seat primaries in safe Republican districts. The two groups have previously clashed in primaries where the Club for Growth promoted candidates who were farther to the right than those endorsed by the CLF. The agreement could give hard-right candidates a better chance at a primary victory, clearing the way for them to join the House after winning relatively easy general elections.“This agreement on Super [Pacs] fulfills a major concern we have pressed for,” said David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth. “Assuming these principles are met, Club for Growth will support Kevin McCarthy for speaker.”But the concessions do not yet appear to have swayed McCarthy’s critics within the conference. Congressman Scott Perry, chair of the House Freedom Caucus and a leader of the anti-McCarthy coalition, expressed frustration that details of the concessions had leaked to the press. He voted against McCarthy for the seventh time on Thursday.“A deal is NOT done. When confidences are betrayed and leaks are directed, it’s even more difficult to trust,” Perry said on Thursday afternoon. “I will not yield to the status quo.”A deal is NOT done. When confidences are betrayed and leaks are directed, it’s even more difficult to trust. Totally unsat. I will not yield to the status quo.— RepScottPerry (@RepScottPerry) January 5, 2023
      McCarthy can only afford to lose the support of four Republicans and still become speaker, assuming all 434 current members of the House cast ballots. If some of McCarthy’s detractors instead choose to vote “present”, the threshold for victory could be lower than 218.McCarthy’s allies complained that the impasse is already affecting their constituents, as all House business has come to a halt until a speaker is selected.“My office was informed by an agency today that they cannot communicate with my staff regarding active casework because we are not yet sworn in,” said congressman Don Bacon, a Republican of Nebraska. “The handful holding up the speaker election is not helping Americans but directly hurting them.”In the face of Republican division, Democrats have remained united in backing their newly chosen leader. On each of the first six ballots, Jeffries won the support of all 212 members of the Democratic caucus, making him the top vote-getter in the speakership election so far.Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Jeffries implored Republicans to reach a consensus for the sake of the nation.“It’s my hope that today, the House Republicans will stop the bickering, stop the backbiting and stop the backstabbing of each other so we can have the back of the American people,” Jeffries said. “We as Democrats are ready, willing and able to partner with them to find common ground whenever and wherever possible – not as Democrats, not as Republicans, as Americans. It’s time for Congress to get to work.”TopicsHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressUS politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Groundhog Day, again’: after sixth vote, still no Republican House speaker

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      ‘Groundhog Day, again’: after sixth vote, still no Republican House speakerKevin McCarthy had hoped to grasp the speaker’s gavel, but a deadlock by ultraconservatives placed it beyond his reach02:34“Well, it’s Groundhog Day – again,” said Congresswoman Kat Cammack of Florida, nominating the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy for speaker of the House on the sixth ballot.House of Representatives: why is it taking so long to elect a speaker?Read moreBut as he had five times before, McCarthy suffered yet another humiliating defeat at the hands of 20 hard-right Republican holdouts determined to block his rise.McCarthy vowed to forge ahead. But it was clear Republicans were growing weary of the once-in-a-century spectacle that has already tainted the opening days of their new House majority. Despite three rousing speeches endorsing his candidacy on Wednesday, his prospects seemed dimmer than ever.Congresswoman Victoria Spartz, a Republican from Indiana, changed her vote to “present” after supporting McCarthy on the first three rounds of ballots. She implored her party to “stop wasting everyone’s time” with endless rounds of balloting that were not changing any minds.“Let cooler, more rational heads prevail,” pleaded Congressman Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio and a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, in a speech urging support for McCarthy.Moments later, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, another member of the Freedom Caucus and a conservative rabble-rouser from Colorado, called on her “favorite president” – Donald Trump – to level with McCarthy. Trump, she said, should tell the Republican leader: “Sir, you do not have the votes and it’s time to withdraw.”But McCarthy remained hopeful that a third day of balloting would yield a different result. Deadlocked, Republicans voted to adjourn and return on Thursday for another round.The brinkmanship underscored just how difficult it will be for any Republican to govern the chamber, where divisions have been building for years. Rebellious hardliners thwarted McCarthy’s hopes of becoming speaker once before, in 2015, when he bowed out of the race. And they chased out two of the would-be speaker’s Republican predecessors, John Boehner and Paul Ryan. But after years of coddling his party’s furthest-right flank, and wholeheartedly embracing Trump, McCarthy had hoped he had at last earned their support. Some did rally to his side, the conservative firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene​ of Georgia​ among them. But too many did not.His opponents don’t trust him – they doubt his ideological leanings and his political strength. To win their support, McCarthy has already conceded to several of their demands for rule changes that would weaken the speaker’s influence and give rank-and-file members more leverage over the legislative process.​Yet after going head-to-head for six rounds, it is unclear what McCarthy has left to offer them except his withdrawal.During a roll call on Wednesday, McCarthy, usually quick with a smile, grimaced. A fifth defection had sealed his fate before the clerk reached the last names beginning with D. At one point, his head fell into his hands. His allies worked the room, holding animated conversations with detractors. But the “Never Kevin” crew refused to budge.“These fucking people,” Congressman Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas, lamented to a reporter earlier in the day. “Now they’re just being clowns.”Until a speaker is elected, the House remains completely paralyzed: members cannot be sworn in, committees cannot be formed, bills cannot be passed. Many congressmen and congressmen-elect brought their family members to Washington for the swearing-in ceremony.But instead of posing for a photo with the new speaker, hand pressed to a Bible, wide-eyed spouses and well-dressed children can be spotted instead passing the time in the basement cafeteria, waiting for something to happen. One Democratic lawmaker shared a photo of himself changing his son’s diaper on the floor of the Democratic cloakroom.“We’re representatives-elect waiting to take an oath,” Congressman Pete Aguilar, the third-ranking House Democrat, said on Wednesday. “This is a crisis of the Congress and it’s a crisis at the hands of the Republican’s dysfunction.”McCarthy remained optimistic that he could find his way to 218 votes – or execute a strategy that would allow him to claim the gavel with fewer votes than traditionally needed.The California Republican moved his belongings into the ornate speaker’s office over the weekend, even as it was clear he had not yet secured the votes to stave off a floor fight. Congressman Matt Gaetz, a McCarthy foe, accused the would-be speaker of illegally occupying the suite, which still has no nameplate above the door.Speaking later in the day, Cammack accused Democrats of enjoying the chaos, saying it was evident by “the popcorn and blankets and alcohol that is coming over there”. Democrats in the chamber responded angrily to the accusation that they were drinking during the speakership election, shouting, “Take her words down!” and asking the clerk to correct the record.“If only!” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, shot back on Twitter. “If Dems took a shot every time McCarthy lost a Republican, we’d all be unconscious by now.”In an unexpected moment of unity, the chamber stood and applauded when Congressman Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, noted that for the first time in congressional history two Black Americans – Congressman Byron Donalds, a Republican from Florida, and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader – were nominated for the high office.Jeffries, who on Tuesday became the first Black lawmaker to lead either major party, won the most rounds on each of the six ballots, with all Democrats backing his candidacy. But he fell short of the 218 votes needed to claim the gavel.Nevertheless when the House clerk read the vote total for the final time on Wednesday – Jeffries, 212; McCarthy, 201; Donalds, 20; and one “present” – Democrats burst into chants of “Hakeem”.For the sixth time in two days, the clerk declared: “A speaker has not been elected.”The chamber recessed for several hours as McCarthy and his allies tried to chart a path out of this turmoil. One of the chief defectors called the meetings “productive”.When they returned to the floor later that evening McCarthy, encouraged by the direction of the talks, said there would be no more votes that evening.That led to perhaps the most surprising action of the day: not the speaker’s ballots, but a vote to adjourn. Having yet to adopt new rules, the House erupted in a rowdy clamor of yeas and nays. The clerk strained across the dais, attempting to make out whether the Democrats’ nays or the Republicans’ yeas were louder. A recorded vote was called and the measure to adjourn for the evening passed ever so narrowly.Amid a chaotic scene of applause, shouts and objections, the members streamed out of the Capitol building, leaving the House without a speaker for another night.TopicsRepublicansHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      The Life and Lies of George Santos

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      Eric Krupke, Carlos Prieto and Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop and Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon MusicGeorge Santos, the Republican representative-elect from New York, ran for office and won his seat in part on an inspiring personal story.But when Times reporters started looking into his background, they made some astonishing revelations: Almost all of Mr. Santos’s story was fake.On today’s episodeMichael Gold, a reporter covering New York transit and politics for The New York Times. Grace Ashford, a reporter covering New York politics for The Times. Mr. Santos in the House of Representatives this month. He has asked voters to forgive him.Jonathan Ernst/ReutersBackground readingMr. Santos said that he was the “embodiment of the American dream.” But his résumé was largely fiction.On the first day of the 118th Congress, the Santos saga arrived on Capitol Hill.There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.Michael Gold More

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      Kevin McCarthy’s Business Ties Complicate His Rise to Power

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      To land the House speaker position, the California Republican will have to win over opponents who question his ties to Silicon Valley and his commitment to right wing causes.The House, divided.Michael Reynolds/EPA, via ShutterstockKevin McCarthy, Inc.Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, is still working on landing the House speaker gig after six failed attempts. It’s the first such House floor showdown in a century, and business is at the heart of his woes.Mr. McCarthy’s critics say he’s too friendly with Big Tech. The ultraconservatives who have stymied his rise to power list a number of big objections with Mr. McCarthy. They say that he isn’t sufficiently committed to right-wing causes and that he hasn’t pushed back enough against perceived anti-conservative bias on social media. Yet the would-be speaker published a policy proposal over the summer to “Stop the Bias and Check Big Tech” if Republicans took control of the House.Mr. McCarthy’s messaging has not convinced hard-line party members. His hot-and-cold ties to Silicon Valley haven’t helped his standing either. Jeff Miller, a political adviser to Mr. McCarthy, also represents Apple and Amazon, and two former staff members are now Big Tech lobbyists. Meanwhile, Mr. McCarthy has benefited from tens of thousands of dollars in donations from tech companies and executives.The Republican leader has also alienated onetime corporate allies. Lobbyists once bet big on Mr. McCarthy, but relations have soured somewhat after he embraced former President Donald Trump’s antagonistic approach to corporations with perceived ties to the left.The Chamber of Commerce endorsed 23 Democrats for the House in 2020 and 15 won. That put the speakership out of reach for Mr. McCarthy at that time and he’s reportedly been sore since. The Republican pushed for Suzanne Clark, the Chamber’s C.E.O., to be removed but the organization was unmoved, and issued a statement in support of her.Even before Mr. McCarthy’s failure this week, lobbyists were giving up on him and Washington insiders — including Paul Ryan, the former Republican House speaker now at the executive advisory firm Teneo — were telling executives to stay out of the political fray.Meanwhile, the business of the government is stuck. Until Republicans resolve their internal conflicts, the House is at a standstill. Members have not been sworn in, administrative tasks and constituent services have been delayed and legislative work is on the back burner. Mr. McCarthy and his allies held talks with the holdouts last night to find a resolution. Democrats could step in to help (members of both parties have apparently discussed it), but that doesn’t appear to be on the table right now.Mr. McCarthy has vowed to continue for as long as it takes. In 1923, it took nine ballots to elect a speaker. The House is scheduled to meet again at noon.HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING The Justice Department moves to seize Robinhood stock tied to Sam Bankman-Fried. Federal prosecutors argued on Wednesday that the $465 million worth of shares in the online brokerage weren’t part of the FTX bankruptcy estate. Bankman-Fried bought the shares through an investment vehicle with money borrowed from Alameda Research, FTX’s trading affiliate.Walgreens will sell abortion pills. The pharmacy giant said it would dispense mifepristone, becoming the first national chain to do so after the F.D.A. announced new rules for dispensing the drug. CVS and Rite Aid said they were still reviewing the agency’s new policy.China defends its handling of the Covid outbreak. Facing criticism from the World Health Organization and President Biden over the accuracy of its coronavirus tally, Beijing fired back on Thursday, saying the situation was “controllable.” It also plans to reopen its border with Hong Kong on Sunday after a three-year closure.The man behind the college admissions scandal is sentenced. Rick Singer, whom prosecutors accused of orchestrating a $25 million cheating scheme that involved actors, business executives, doctors and more, must serve three and a half years in prison. Singer, who had become an informant, received the longest sentence of anyone tied to the scandal.CES kicks off today. Enormous crowds are expected to return to the tech trade show in Las Vegas this year, after the pandemic clamped down on in-person attendance. Expect plenty of announcements about new televisions, smart-home gadgets, electric cars and more.The bleeding continues at Big Tech Amazon said on Wednesday that it would drastically expand its planned layoffs to a staggering 18,000 jobs as it seeks to rein in costs. Coupled with Salesforce’s plans to lay off about 8,000 employees, it’s the latest sign that tech giants are still grappling with the consequences of overhiring during the pandemic boom.Amazon’s cuts amount to around 6 percent of its corporate work force and will be focused on human resources and what the e-commerce giant calls its Stores division: its main online site, its field operations and warehouses, its physical stores and other consumer teams. (Hourly warehouse workers aren’t part of the tally.) That’s up from the roughly 10,000 the company had been weighing earlier.Salesforce is also laying off 10 percent of its employees and cutting back on office space. The move comes after a series of shake-ups at the business software giant, including the announced departures of Bret Taylor, its co-C.E.O. (reportedly after strains in his relationship with Marc Benioff, the company’s co-founder) and Stewart Butterfield, the C.E.O. of Slack, the messaging app Salesforce bought for nearly $28 billion.It’s a notable retrenchment for Salesforce, whose reputation over the past decade has become one of ever-growing ambition: The company is the largest private employer in San Francisco, and its flagship office tower is the city’s tallest.Both rounds of layoffs arose out of overexpansion. Amazon more than doubled its work force during the pandemic, to 1.5 million, as it became an indispensable seller to locked-down households. Salesforce nearly doubled its head count over the past three years, to 80,000 in October.Those hiring sprees have since run into a slowing global economy, with Amazon having warned in the fall that it could see its worst growth rate since 2001. “We hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that,” Benioff wrote in a letter to employees.Amazon and Salesforce aren’t alone: Meta recently laid off 13 percent of its work force, while Snap and Twitter have also resorted to huge job cuts. Overall, the tech industry laid off over 153,000 workers last year, according to Layoffs.fyi. Things may not get better this year, with analysts cautioning that tech companies’ customers may further clamp down on spending, potentially leading to yet more cost cuts.“The parallels with Russia and Ukraine are hard to ignore. We must not make the same mistakes with Xi Jinping that we did with Vladimir Putin.” — Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former secretary general of NATO, urged a robust and unified response to deter China from attacking Taiwan. His comments, made during a visit to Taipei, highlighted worries in Europe over China’s growing assertiveness in Asia.The Fed’s big challenge: exuberant marketsInvestors got the post-Christmas “Santa Claus rally” they were hoping for, a buying spree that was fueled in part by slumping energy prices. But the big cloud hanging over markets remains: the prospect that central banks will be emboldened to tame inflation with more interest rate increases.Fed officials gave investors an unambiguous warning on Wednesday: Don’t start pricing in a dovish pivot anytime soon. Many on Wall Street are banking on the U.S. central bank to end its policy of jumbo rate increases in the first half of 2023, and to begin cutting by year-end.But the Fed sees any pivot prediction as misguided, warning that such thinking could complicate its efforts to bring prices under control. Minutes from a December Fed meeting released on Wednesday, did not mince its words. “No participants anticipated that it would be appropriate” to cut rates.As the Times’s Jeanna Smialek reported, policymakers are concerned that markets might misinterpret any decision to slow the pace of rate moves in the near term as a sign that the Fed believed it was making enough progress in bringing inflation closer to its 2 percent target. (The I.M.F. has also weighed in, saying that it doesn’t believe the U.S. has “turned the corner on inflation yet” and that the Fed should “stay the course.”)The markets still don’t seem to be getting the message. “Right now data signals are mixed — like an ink blot, investors can see what they want,” Elsa Lignos, RBC Capital Market’s global head of FX Strategy, said in a note to clients this morning. She pointed out that manufacturing prices were in decline, but that job vacancies remained elevated, suggesting wages could continue creeping higher.A late-afternoon surge on Wednesday helped the S&P 500 and Nasdaq close higher. Between the Dec. 27 open and Wednesday’s close, the S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent, capping off the seventh consecutive annual Santa rally, measured by the stock market’s performance over the seven trading days that follow Christmas. The most bullish on Wall Street see such rallies as a sign that investors will keep buying well into the new year.Investors and Fed officials will be closely watching Friday’s jobs report. The Fed is concerned that the labor market is still too tight, belying the recent headline-grabbing layoffs at tech giants. A jobs report showing big gains in wages and hiring could force the Fed to remain locked in to its “higher for longer” rates policy, adding to additional market volatility.THE SPEED READ DealsShares in GE HealthCare Technologies rose 8 percent in their debut on Wednesday, after being spun off from General Electric. (Bloomberg)Western Digital has reportedly resumed talks to buy Kioxia, a Japanese memory chip maker. (Bloomberg)A unit of Tokyo Gas is said to be in advanced talks to buy the U.S. natural gas producer Rockcliff Energy for about $4.6 billion. (Reuters)Fanatics reportedly plans to divest its 60 percent stake in Candy Digital, a sports N.F.T. company. (CNBC)PolicyEuropean regulators fined Meta 390 million euros after finding it had illegally forced users to effectively accept personalized ads. (NYT)The S.E.C. has objected to Binance.US’s $1 billion bid to purchase the bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital. (Reuters)Silvergate, a bank, was forced to sell assets at a steep loss to cover $8.1 billion in customer withdrawals after the collapse in November of FTX. (WSJ)Best of the restA self-described Tesla fan filed a Tesla trademark for a boat and jet without the company’s knowledge. (Bloomberg)Amazon, SiriusXM and Spotify are cutting back on their spending on new podcasts. (Bloomberg)The stars of the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet” sued the movie’s distributor, Paramount, for $500 million over being made to film a nude scene while they were teens. (NYT)A Princeton student said he had created a program to detect whether an essay was written by the A.I. chatbot ChatGPT. Meanwhile, New York City’s education department banned the use of ChatGPT on some city devices and internet networks. (Insider, Chalkbeat New York)We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. More

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      House without a speaker as McCarthy fails to secure majority in six rounds of voting – live

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      This will give members about three and a half hours to hash things out. McCarthy could try to make deals with Republican holdouts – or bow out. In three rounds of voting today, the results have been exactly the same: Hakeem Jeffries 212, Kevin McCarthy 201, Byron Donalds 20, present 1.Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh, reporting from the West Coast.After Kevin McCarthy failed to get support after a sixth round of voting, CNN’s Manu Raju reports that Republicans are looking to regroup:What’s happening now: McCarthy foes and emissaries are in discussions about setting up talks for tonight to break the speaker standoff, per source.They are trying to nail down exactly which members will negotiate tonight. The expectation is there could be one more vote today— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 4, 2023
      The roll call continues with 13 votes for Donalds. Here’s a quote from Republican representative Steve Womack on what the House speaker election is like: What. A. Quote.“This is like OJ and the white Bronco. Everybody’s watching…waiting for something to happen at 40 mph,” GOP Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) tells me.— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) January 4, 2023
      It is expected that House members will be adjourning after the sixth round of voting if they are unable to elect a House speaker. From CNN’s Manu Raju:McCarthy now going to lose his sixth ballot for speaker. The expectation is after this vote, the House will try to adjourn to allow Republicans to negotiate. Eight votes for Donalds and counting. McCarthy can only lose four Rs— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 4, 2023
      Once again, it appears that McCarthy has lost the sixth round of votes for House speaker. 7 representatives have voted for Donalds as roll count continues. Perry has called for Republicans to nominate “the first Black Republican speaker of the House,” receiving some applause from McCarthy opposers.Perry: “we are making history today and we are showing the American people this process works. … we are showing that we are not going to take any more of Washington being broken. We can also make history by electing the first Black Republican speaker of the House”— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) January 4, 2023
      Frustration was growing in the chamber given Perry’s longer speech, with California representative Anna Eshoo shouting at one point, “Who are you nominating?” during Perry’s remarks.Anna Eshoo just yelled out “WHO ARE YOU NOMINATING” Perry’s next line was about nominating Donalds to be the first Black speaker of the House (groans) — only the rebels applauded. Then Perry got to Frederick Douglass and there was an “oh lord” from below on the Dem side.— Tal Kopan (@TalKopan) January 4, 2023
      Jeffries received another nomination in a short speech from California representative Pete Aguilar. Aguilar noted that Jeffries has received the most votes in the five rounds of voting that have happened so far, with other Democrats applauding him. Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania has nominated Donalds, giving a speech about Washington being “broken”. “I think the person that has done the most to make this fabulous…Republican majority is Speaker Pelosi,” said Perry during his speech. The House broke into jeers and cross talk after Cammack claimed that Democrats have been enjoying the dysfunction amid Republicans, accusing Democrats of having “popcorn, blankets, and alcohol” during the proceedings. The clerk had to gavel several times to reestablish decorum. From Daily Beast reporter Ursula Perano:Cammack getting some BIG negative reactions after suggesting Dems have been enjoying “popcorn and blankets and alcohol over there” during the speaker votes.I’ve spotted popcorn and coats as blankets. But clearly, Dems offended by the alcohol remark— Ursula Perano (@UrsulaPerano) January 4, 2023
      The official roll call is in: Kevin McCarthy has officially lost his fifth round of voting.Another nomination has come through to nominate McCarthy for the position from Florida representative Kat Cammack.Fifth round of voting for speaker: Hakeem Jeffries 212, Kevin McCarthy 201, Byron Donalds 20, present 1. Kat Cammack of Florida nominates McCarthy in sixth round and says: “Well, it’s Groundhog Day, again.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) January 4, 2023
      We’re still waiting on the official count of votes for House Speaker, but it appears that McCarthy has lost a fifth round of voting. There’s mixed messaging from Republicans on if McCarthy should withdraw from the House speaker process and allow someone else to be the nominee.While McCarthy opponents like Boebert have called for McCarthy to step down, Donalds told reporters that Republicans aren’t “at that point”, adding that GOP members want to have a serious discussion about the next House speaker. From ABC News’ Rachel Scott:I asked @ByronDonalds if he believes Kevin McCarthy should step aside?“I don’t think we’re there at this point. I think there’s a lot of members in the chamber who want to have serious conversations about how we can bring this all you know, to a to a close and elect a speaker”— Rachel Scott (@rachelvscott) January 4, 2023
      Vote tally for House speaker appears to be unchanged as official votes are being recounted now. Spartz voted present again. More

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      House paralyzed as Kevin McCarthy fails to win speakership on fifth vote

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      House paralyzed as Kevin McCarthy fails to win speakership on fifth vote Republican leader’s prospects dim as he continues to fall short on the second day of voting The House was paralyzed further on Wednesday, as Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed again to win the speakership on a fifth ballot that saw his opposition deepen and left no clear path forward to end the stalemate.“It looks messy”, said Congressman Mike Gallagher, a Republican of Wisconsin, in a speech nominating McCarthy for speaker on Wednesday, “but democracy is messy.”On the second day of the 118th Congress, the Republican leader again fell far short of the 218 votes typically needed to win the gavel, marking the first time in a century that the House failed to choose a speaker on the first ballot. McCarthy earned just 201 votes, and all 212 Democrats voting for the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Twenty conservatives opposed to McCarthy’s bid rallied behind Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida, while Congresswoman Victoria Spartz of Indiana, who had supported the Republican leader in previous rounds of balloting, voted “present”.Explaining her vote, Spartz said Republicans should “stop wasting everyone’s time” and reconvene only when they have enough votes to elect a speaker.House of Representatives: why is it taking so long to elect a speaker?Read moreDespite rounds of negotiations and a plea for unity from Donald Trump, McCarthy’s prospects appeared dimmer as he again braced for another defeat on the sixth ballot. In remarks nominating Donalds for speaker on the fifth vote, far-right conservative congresswoman Lauren Boebert suggested that Trump reverse course and tell McCarthy: “It’s time to withdraw.”With no resolution in sight, Republicans held animated discussions on the chamber floor as Democrats looked on. All House business, including the swearing-in of new members, has come to a halt until the speakership is determined. Joe Biden expressed dismay over the Republican standoff, telling reporters that the gridlock could damage America’s international reputation.“I just think it’s a little embarrassing it’s taking so long,” Biden said before leaving for a trip to Kentucky the same day. “It’s not a good look, it’s not a good thing. This is the United States of America, and I hope they get their act together.”Despite the significant hurdles he faces, McCarthy has voiced confidence that he will ultimately win the 218 votes needed to capture the gavel.“I think we’ll find our way to get there,” McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday night. “This is a healthy debate. It might not happen on the day we want it, but it’s going to happen.”In his floor speech, Gallagher acknowledged the chaos that has consumed the election so far and lamented the party’s narrow majority. Trying to put a positive spin on the situation, he celebrated the intraparty tension as the result of vigorous debate.“The American people gave us an opportunity,” he said. “They’re asking us to do a job, and nobody has laid out a plan – a proactive policy agenda for the direction we want to take this country – in more detail than Kevin McCarthy.”Before the chamber convened on Wednesday, Trump offered McCarthy his full-throated endorsement..“VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY,” Trump said in a post on the social media platform Truth Social, warning that a failure to do so would result in a “GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT”. But his declaration did little to change the minds of the conservatives dug in against McCarthy, some of whom are the former president’s staunchest allies on Capitol Hill.Other prominent Trump loyalists, including the Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ohio congressman Jim Jordan among them, have joined the former president and rallied around McCarthy and called on their conservative colleagues to join them. The continued chaos came after the first three votes held on Tuesday failed to produce a winner. Across those three ballots, the ranks of McCarthy’s Republican detractors only grew, reaching a total of 20 by the time the chamber adjourned on Tuesday evening. After demanding a number of changes to chamber rules, one anti-McCarthy lawmaker suggested the leader’s handling of policy was to blame for his poor standing among certain conference members. Scott Perry, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, specifically cited the passage of the omnibus government funding bill last month, even though McCarthy fiercely opposed the legislation.McCarthy “is falsely selling the media he’s conceded to us in the Rules – not ONE bit will do ANYTHING to stop what just happened in the massive $1.7tn, 4,000-page Taxpayer theft bill from 12 days ago”, Perry said on Twitter. “We’ll continue to seek a candidate who’ll put an end to this horrible practice.”Underscoring the acrimony between the rival Republican camps, Gaetz sent a letter to the building caretakers on Tuesday night suggesting that McCarthy was improperly occupying the speaker’s lobby.“What is the basis in law, House rule, or precedent to allow someone who has placed second in three successive speaker elections to occupy the Speaker of the House Office?” Gaetz wrote. “How long will he remain there before he is 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 present, thereby lowering the threshold to win a majority.“You get 213 votes, and the others don’t say another name. That’s how you can win,” McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday night.As the Republican conference devolved into chaos, House Democrats rallied around their new leader. Jeffries, who on Tuesday became the first Black American to helm either major party’s House caucus, said Republicans’ failure to elect a speaker was a “sad day” for the institution and democracy.“This is a crisis of the Congress and it’s a crisis at the hands of the Republican dysfunction,” California congressman Pete Aguilar, the House Democratic Caucus chair, said at a Wednesday morning press conference. Aguilar said Democrats were united behind Jeffries, whom party members emphatically nominated as their choice for speaker.Due to the conservative defections, Jeffries won the most votes overall on each of the first five ballots, but he fell short of the 218 needed to be elected speaker.Yet many House Democrats reveled in the dysfunction. Several Democratic members tweeted out photos of themselves enjoying popcorn as the floor fight unfolded on Tuesday. Congressman Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat from California who brought his four-month-old to the Capitol for a swearing-in ceremony that has still not happened, tweeted a photo of his son: “Two bottle feeds and multiple diaper changes on the Democratic cloakroom floor. This speaker vote is taking forever!”TopicsHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansUS politicsUS CongressDonald TrumpDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

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      House of Representatives: why is it taking so long to elect a speaker?

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      ExplainerHouse of Representatives: why is it taking so long to elect a speaker?Three rounds of voting failed to elect a speaker as Kevin McCarthy faces opposition from hardline Republicans What was supposed to be a day of triumph for Republicans coming into the US House majority turned into chaos on Tuesday as fighting over who should lead them ended with no speaker elected.McCarthy faces long battle for House speaker after he falls short on third vote Read moreKevin McCarthy has led House Republicans since 2019 but he could not overcome opposition from the right following an hours-long series of votes. The opposition from 20 lawmakers stopped the House starting work and delayed the swearing-in of returning members and freshmen.On Wednesday, Republicans will try again – despite uncertainty over how McCarthy can rebound after becoming the first nominee in 100 years to fail to win the gavel with his party in the majority.Why is there no speaker?Needing 218 votes in the full House, McCarthy received 203 in the first two votes, less than the Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries. McCarthy dropped to 202 in round three.Detractors had warned for months that McCarthy did not have the votes to be speaker, second in line to the presidency. McCarthy negotiated with members prominently including Andy Biggs, Scott Perry and Matt Gaetz until Monday night, when the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus presented its final offer, including demands for committee assignments. McCarthy refused.“For the last two months, we worked together as a whole conference to develop rules that empower all members but we’re not empowering certain members over others,” McCarthy told reporters.As a result, those members and others opposed him.What does this mean for the chamber?Without a speaker, the House cannot fully form since that person is the presiding officer and administrative head. Swearing in members, naming committee chairs, engaging in floor proceedings and launching oversight investigations will all be delayed until a speaker is elected.“The spotlight needs to be put on these 19 – now 20 – that are stopping the business of Congress that we got elected to do,” said Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican. “It’s on them.”Bacon was also heard to refer to McCarthy’s opponents as the “Taliban 20”, a reference to the Islamic extremists who for 20 years fought – and outlasted – US troops in Afghanistan. Gaetz tweeted: “As hurtful and false as that is, I too am prepared for an extended battle that I will ultimately win.”How will this be resolved?It remains unclear if McCarthy can pass the threshold to become the next speaker, or when. The number of Republicans who have pledged support to other candidates is at 20, with some suspecting that list will grow.The House is scheduled to begin voting again at noon on Wednesday. Once the House is in a quorum, meaning the minimum number of members are present to proceed, nominees will be read aloud before a roll-call vote.Could someone else be speaker?On Tuesday, Republicans nominated candidates including Biggs, Jim Jordan of Ohio and even Lee Zeldin of New York, who left the House last year to run for governor in his state. The speaker does not have to be a House member. Some Republicans have toyed with the outlandish idea of nominating Donald Trump. McCarthy says the former president still backs him – and Trump says he backs McCarthy.Early on Wednesday, Trump urged Republicans to vote for McCarthy, writing on his Truth Social platform: “Close the deal, take the victory. Republicans, do not turn a great triumph into a giant and embarrassing defeat.”Many of the rightwingers opposing McCarthy are close Trump allies. Nonetheless, on Tuesday, Gaetz nominated Jordan, a rightwinger currently loyal to McCarthy.“I rise to nominate the most talented, hardest-working member of the Republican conference, who just gave a speech with more vision than we have ever heard from the alternative,” Gaetz said.McCarthy told reporters he would not drop out. But Bob Good of Virginia, one of the rebels, said: “Kevin McCarthy is not going to be a speaker.” Many observers think McCarthy’s righthand man in Republican leadership, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, could emerge as an alternative candidate acceptable to the far right. Staying loyal, Scalise formally nominated McCarthy on Tuesday.A speaker needs a majority of the votes from House members present and voting. Every lawmaker voting “present” lowers the overall tally needed to reach a majority. But with the chamber split 222-213 between Republicans and Democrats, McCarthy cannot afford to lose more than a handful of votes.Should he come up short again on Wednesday, the clerk will repeat the roll call vote until McCarthy is able to garner a majority or a motion to adjourn is approved.Has this happened before?The last time the House did not elect a speaker on the first ballot was 1923, when the election stretched for nine votes.Republicans had the majority despite losing a staggering 77 seats, shrinking their margin over Democrats from 171 to 18. The majority party named Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts to the position but several other candidates, including a Democrat, received votes during the roll call.This resulted in a series of ballots over three days before the majority leader, Nicholas Longworth of Ohio, held an emergency meeting with those opposing. Their concern, similarly to those issued against McCarthy, was over rules changes they believed deserved a fair hearing. Longworth obliged. The next day, Gillett got the 215 votes he needed.There is also the example of 1855-56, in the years of division over slavery that preceded the civil war. Then, with the Republican party newly emerged as an anti-slavery force, it took 133 ballots over nearly two months to elect a speaker.TopicsHouse of RepresentativesUS politicsRepublicansexplainersReuse this content More

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      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reveals why she was talking to far-right Republicans

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      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reveals why she was talking to far-right RepublicansNew York Democrat was seen speaking with rightwingers, one of whom once tweeted an anime-style video depicting him killing her During a succession of votes for House speaker on Tuesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was seen talking on the House floor with the far-right Republicans Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar, the latter who once tweeted video depicting him slashing her in the neck with a sword.McCarthy faces long battle for House speaker after he falls short on third vote Read moreThe New York Democrat, a progressive star, told MSNBC: “In chaos, anything is possible, especially in this era.”The chaos in Congress on Tuesday concerned the California representative Kevin McCarthy’s attempt to become House speaker, against opposition from the right of his party.Gosar, from Arizona, was censured in November 2021 for tweeting an anime-style video of violence done to Ocasio-Cortez and Joe Biden.On Tuesday, he was among 20 Republicans opposing McCarthy by the third ballot. So was Gaetz of Florida, a ringleader who nominated Jim Jordan of Ohio, a rightwinger loyal to McCarthy, to give the rebels someone to vote for.Ocasio-Cortez, popularly known as AOC, was seen talking to Gosar and Gaetz. She told the Intercept her conversation with Gaetz was a “factcheck”.“McCarthy was suggesting he could get Dems to walk away to lower his threshold,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And I factchecked and said absolutely not.”00:28To be speaker, any candidate must reach a majority of representatives present. At one point on Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez was absent when her name was called. She voted, for Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House, when those absent were called on again.Votes for speaker go on until they are resolved. The last multi-ballot process, in 1923, lasted three days. In 1855-56, it took months to resolve the issue.Ocasio-Cortez said she discussed adjournment strategy with Gosar.“Some of us in the House of Representatives are independent in certain ways from our party,” she told MSNBC. “And … these machinations are happening on the floor.“And sometimes the leadership of your party, in this case, the Republican party, will be making claims in order to try to twist arms and get people in line. And a lot of times, information and truth is currency.“So sometimes to be able to factcheck some of the claims that McCarthy is making, whether Democrats are going to defect or not, etc, is important in order to keep him honest and to keep people honest in general.”On Tuesday, the House adjourned after three ballots. It was scheduled to reconvene at noon on Wednesday.“I was honestly surprised,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I did not think that Kevin McCarthy was going to have the votes in the first round, but I didn’t think that it was going to be as catastrophic for him as it actually was …“For him to have several months since the November elections and still not be able to clinch it, I think, is very much a testament to a lack of leadership.”McCarthy, she said, “failed as a coalition-builder, not once, not twice, but three times … And I’m not quite sure what he could or would do that would change the calculus between today and tomorrow.”TopicsAlexandria Ocasio-CortezHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressDemocratsRepublicansThe far rightUS politicsnewsReuse this content More