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      The House speaker fiasco shows that Republicans are unable to govern | Andrew Gawthorpe

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      The House speaker fiasco shows that Republicans are unable to governAndrew GawthorpeThese games will not end well for the country. The stakes are huge After a new session begins, the first order of business for the House of Representatives is to pick a speaker. For a century this has been a mere formality, with the party in power having enough organization and respect for the country to move swiftly on to other matters. But on Tuesday the Republican party broke this streak of basic competence, failing in three separate ballots to come up with the votes to install Kevin McCarthy, the presumed frontrunner, as speaker.With the group of hard-right irreconcilables opposing McCarthy getting larger rather than smaller as the day went on, it quickly became clear that the wannabe speaker had no plan for breaking the deadlock. If he hoped that his opponents would eventually tire of symbolism and bow down to practical reality, he was mistaken – for a large group of Republican lawmakers, particularly those in the far-right Freedom Caucus, symbolism is the entire purpose of holding office. They came to Washington not to construct but to destruct, and taking down McCarthy is just the beginning.The spectacle of a party unable to even decide who should lead it is illuminating to voters, and Democrats should certainly celebrate these Republican misfortunes. It was the Democrats’ surprisingly strong performance in the fall’s midterms which put Republicans in this position to begin with. Having only a thin majority in the House means that McCarthy can easily be held hostage by his party’s most far-right members – not a good look for a party already suffering from the perception that it is extreme and out of touch.But Republican irresponsibility doesn’t just endanger the party’s own electoral prospects – it also endangers the country. America needs a functioning House of Representatives with a responsible speaker in order to discharge basic functions like funding the government and increasing the debt limit. The stakes are huge, and gridlock is not an option. The last shutdown cost the economy $11bn, and a failure to increase the debt limit could be even worse, leading to the US defaulting on its debt and shattering the global economy.Yet it’s precisely these basic functions that Republicans want to either sabotage or weaponize, a process which could ultimately lead to the same result. Even the “moderate” Republican position represented by McCarthy is to refuse to raise the debt limit without spending cuts, and in any negotiation over the issue he would quickly become hostage to the Freedom Caucus. Some of its members have pledged to oppose any debt ceiling increase at all, while others demand unpopular cuts to programs like social security and Medicare in return. A government funding vote would come with similar demands. In both cases, the result is likely to be paralysis as the party struggles to achieve unity.Another hazardous moment will be passage of the Farm Bill, which is due to be renegotiated in 2023. This bill, passed every five years, provides both subsidies to farmers and welfare programs for hungry families, and Republicans are looking to enact deep cuts in the latter. Nearly 40 million Americans use food stamps every year, and Republicans want to dramatically cut that number by scaling back the program or imposing work requirements. Once again, the result will be a game of legislative chicken.These games will not end well for the country. In all of these cases there is a huge risk that a party that can’t even agree on who should be speaker will struggle to pass anything at all. The Republican majority is so thin, and their extremist members so nihilistic, that they are likely to prove incapable of fulfilling the country’s most basic needs. Whoever eventually becomes speaker will be on borrowed time, subject to being booted from office unless they go along with the Freedom Caucus’s demands. Because more moderate Republicans are unlikely to agree to what the right wants, the result will be paralysis – and economic chaos.In lieu of governing, House Republicans will have other priorities – namely pursuing a series of ludicrous investigations into Hunter Biden, the treatment of insurrectionists after the January 6 riot, and “the weaponization of the federal government”, a catch-all phrase for what the right alleges is the politicization of the justice department and FBI. McCarthy has already agreed to give committee spots back to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, both of whom were previously stripped of their assignments for engaging in violent rhetoric.All of this goes to show that the Republican party’s problems with extremism extend far beyond the person of Donald Trump. Even if Trump were to step down from politics tomorrow, House Republicans would still spend the next two years mired in intractable ideological battles and shrill partisan investigations, with the most hardline and ludicrous members soaking up the media spotlight.The Republican party will head into 2024 with its reputation for extremism and incompetence magnified. Americans can only hope that it doesn’t do too much damage to the country in the meantime.
      Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and the host of the podcast America Explained
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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

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      The right thrives on bullying ‘snowflakes’. But who will vote for it when they grow old? | Owen Jones

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      The right thrives on bullying ‘snowflakes’. But who will vote for it when they grow old? Owen JonesYoung people deprived of prosperity may represent the first generation that doesn’t grow more conservative with age Spite. When you dig down to the essence of modern rightwing politics, you’re left with little else. This wasn’t always the case. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan offered clear, coherent visions of society, even if their worship of free markets delivered economic insecurity and stagnating living standards. While today’s Tories and Trumpified Republicans remain committed to defending privileged interests, their driving ambition now seems to be deliberately provoking fury among the progressively minded, much to the delight of their supporters. It’s this tendency that led Donald Trump to denounce Mexicans as criminals and attempt to ban Muslims from entering the US; it’s the same tendency that drove the home secretary, Suella Braverman, to declare that her “dream” and “obsession” was to see a flight transporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. Cruelty is precisely the point.But this spite has found a particular target in younger British and American people, many of whom increasingly embrace progressive social values such as anti-racism and LGBTQ+ rights (granted, this relies on a generous definition of youth as millennials – while the oldest members of Generation Z are only in their mid-20s, the most senior millennials have now reached their early 40s). These generations have become a common enemy for the right. The feeling is mutual. According to new research and survey data, millennials are defying a supposed iron law of politics, that we shift to the right as we age. No other generation in recorded political history has retained such an entrenched rejection of rightwing politics as they’ve grown older.The right has become its own gravedigger for two reasons. First, by building an economic model that promised individual freedom but delivered mass insecurity; and second, by intentionally and repeatedly insulting the social values of the young. British culture fetishes home ownership even while its economic policies make this an increasingly distant dream for younger citizens. Young people have also borne the brunt of austerity, being saddled with university debt and suffering the closure of youth and Sure Start centres. Yet a generation that is more educated than ever but simultaneously deprived of prospects is treated with unadulterated contempt by the right. It is, after all, labelled the “snowflake generation”, which the Collins English Dictionary has defined as “the young adults of the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offence than previous generations”.On both sides of the Atlantic, the right fears a younger generation of economically insecure and socially progressive citizens. Commentators and politicians treat younger people as woke barbarians at the gates threatening to tear down everything conservatives hold dear. The moral panic over so-called “cancel culture” is a striking example of this: what it really boils down to is an attempt by millennials and zoomers to assert their progressive social values and reject the bigotries found among some older Britons and Americans. “Millennials are the silencing generation,” complains the rightwing Wall Street Journal, denouncing them as “perpetually offended” (what this perhaps really means is that younger people are less keen on demonising migrants or obsessing over the existence of trans people). “Millennials were woke enough … but the next generation is much worse,” cries the Telegraph, denouncing university students as “Stalinist foot-soldiers”. Younger people are more likely to defend the rights of the minorities bullied and harassed by rightwing politicians, and conservatives hate them for it.And so the British and US right have apparently condemned themselves to a political doom loop: savaging the progressive values of younger generations, and in doing so driving them further into the arms of the left. This bile may serve a short-term political purpose in rallying the core vote of the Tories and Republicans, but it seems that conservatives have thought little about what will happen as younger generations come of age politically and culturally. Perhaps rightwingers believed that the historic precedent of voters shifting rightwards with age would automatically assert itself, however much the young remained locked out of the prosperity their parents had enjoyed. What’s intriguing is how rightwing politicians and commentators alike have doubled down on poisonous invectives that alienate young people. Perhaps this is evidence of a fatalism: they know their fate is sealed, so nothing is to be gained from restraint.As a case in point, last week a British rightwing shock jock announced that she’d choose the life of professional misogynist Andrew Tate “over the life of a half-educated, autistic, doom-mongering eco-cultist” Greta Thunberg. Her use of autistic as an insult was indicative of an increasingly vicious rightwing culture, but the unapologetic loathing towards Thunberg – whose offence is to seek to prevent humanity from destroying itself – was revealing. Thunberg has become emblematic of progressive younger generations: the bile frequently directed at her speaks to a hatred and fear of those whom she is seen to represent.In building and benefiting from an economic model that has left younger people bereft of a secure future, and repelling them with a “culture war” against progressive values, British and US conservatism seems to be authoring its own demise. Young people voted for Margaret Thatcher’s Tories in the 1980s, but little over a fifth of voted for the party in 2019. While young Americans flocked to support Reagan in the 1980s, today their political icons are Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The political right has treated the young as the enemy within. It may soon realise what bitter harvest it has reaped as oblivion awaits.
      Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist
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      Kevin McCarthy again falls short in second round of voting for House speaker – live

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      It’s an epic defeat for Kevin McCarthy and warring House Republicans. The second round of voting – which has not happened in a century – is over and California Republican McCarthy is still nowhere near a majority.The clerk of the House, Cheryl Johnson, will announce the official tally shortly, but the pen-and-paper watchers have Democrat Hakeem Jeffries on 212 votes, McCarthy on 203, the same desultory number he got in the first round, and fellow-Republican Jim Jordan on 19 votes.Once again it is unclear what will happen next, the chamber is still in session and, unless McCarthy drops out, we have a third round of voting pending. If Democrats could leave the chamber they’d probably pop to the proverbial popcorn cart and settle in for the rest of the spectacle.Representative Byron Donalds, a Republican of Florida, has become the first McCarthy supporter to switch his vote from McCarthy to Jordan.The vote got a few claps in the chamber.Hi there, is Maanvi Singh, reporting from West Coast. It seems Kevin McCarthy is on the verge of losing for the third time today, after five Republicans so far voted in support of Jim Jordan. Democrats, meanwhile, have remained united in voting for Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. Hello again, US politics blog readers, the drama in Washington is far from over as the election for House Speaker is still inconclusive.Republican Kevin McCarthy is suffering a humiliating drubbing at the hands of his supposed fellows, as right-wing rebels turn the first day of GOP control of the House in the new Congress into a crisis for the party.We are about to witness the third round of voting. Louisiana’s Steve Scalise just rose to his feet to nominate McCarthy for speaker.My colleague in California, Maanvi Singh, will take the helm of this blog now and we’ll continue to bring you the developments as they happen.Here’s where things stand:
      As we head for an excruciating third round of voting in the election for House Speaker, there is no sign of California Republican Kevin McCarthy, who has long aspired to step into the role, gaining a majority of the votes.
      Kevin McCarthy suffers defeat in second round of voting in House speaker election. It’s an epic loss for McCarthy and warring House Republicans. The second round of voting – which has not happened in a century – ended with McCarthy nowhere near a majority.
      Right-winger Jim Jordan of Ohio, who is a McCarthy supporter but was nominated by anti-McCarthy rebel Matt Gaetz to disrupt everything, already took 19 votes in the second round of voting in the election for House speaker.
      The first round of voting delivered a humiliating defeat for Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become House speaker. He just made history in the worst way. The first person in a century to lose the vote for speaker in the first round.
      After the roll call vote in the first round, Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries had 212 votes, McCarthy had just 203, Republican strategic thorn Andy Biggs (nominated by rightwing rebel Paul Gosar) had 10 votes and nine lawmakers supported none of the three hats in the ring.
      All the new members of Congress elected in the midterm elections in November will arrive on Capitol Hill today, many with family in tow, waiting to be sworn in to the brand new 118th Congress. There will be exuberant scenes but the House speaker vote comes first.
      House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy faces historic struggle to clinch speakership, with a battle royale on Capital Hill.
      Is Kevin McCarthy’s bid to be House speaker doomed? As we head for an excruciating third round of voting in the election for speaker, there is no sign of the California Republican, who has long aspired to step into the role, gaining a majority of the votes.Some speculate that if this goes on, McCarthy could step aside and nominate prominent Louisiana congressman Steve Scalise to be speaker in his stead.Any idea of Ohio rightwinger Jim Jordan leapfrogging into the seat and grasping the gavel seems far-fetched.Jim Jordan isn’t gaining much traction among House Republicans voting for Speaker. If Kevin McCarthy can’t twist enough arms or offer enough inducements to get to 218, look for Steve Scalise of Louisiana to be among the nominees eventually, possibly next@AJEnglish— John Hendren (@johnhendren) January 3, 2023
      And…After @Jim_Jordan fails to garner the support of House Republicans, @SteveScalise will become the Speaker.Will @GOPLeader drag this out for several hours?Days?Or simply bow out?Remember, Kevin McCarthy pretends he’s very concerned about not stalling the oversight agenda. https://t.co/XeC84RkBGA— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) January 3, 2023
      It’s surreal.So Jim Jordan endorsed Kevin McCarthy… but keep an eye on Steve Scalise… he’s had his head down all day. @NEWSMAX— Rob Finnerty (@RobFinnertyUSA) January 3, 2023
      Steve Scalise is also a stalwart of the right wing known for hanging around with white supremacists and Klan types.Steve Scalise says attending white supremacist conference was a ‘mistake’Read moreScalise was badly wounded in a mass shooting targeting members of Congress at a baseball practice in 2017.It’s an epic defeat for Kevin McCarthy and warring House Republicans. The second round of voting – which has not happened in a century – is over and California Republican McCarthy is still nowhere near a majority.The clerk of the House, Cheryl Johnson, will announce the official tally shortly, but the pen-and-paper watchers have Democrat Hakeem Jeffries on 212 votes, McCarthy on 203, the same desultory number he got in the first round, and fellow-Republican Jim Jordan on 19 votes.Once again it is unclear what will happen next, the chamber is still in session and, unless McCarthy drops out, we have a third round of voting pending. If Democrats could leave the chamber they’d probably pop to the proverbial popcorn cart and settle in for the rest of the spectacle.The humiliations for Kevin McCarthy just keep coming. Right-winger Jim Jordan of Ohio, who is a McCarthy supporter but was nominated by anti-McCarthy rebel Matt Gaetz to disrupt everything, already has 19 votes in the election for House speaker.Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, is also ahead of McCarthy, with 196 votes compared with McCarthy’s 183. Jeffries won’t be able to get a majority, with Republicans controlling the House, but he is playing a big part in the epic embarrassment for McCarthy.We’re up to the Ws already in the roll call vote, so McCarthy’s second go around of twisting on a skewer is about to wrap up.McCarthy is doing his best to keep a fixed smile on his face in the chamber, but the giveaway is his left hand reflexively tapping his leg with nerves.The last time the vote went to multiple ballots was in 1923, when a small bloc of Republicans refused to reelect Rep. Frederick Gillett (R-Mass.) as speaker. (The rebels were part of the party’s progressive faction, in contrast to the conservatives threatening to block McCarthy’s rise today, but like their modern counterparts, they were pressing for changes to House rules), the Washington Post reports today.The Washington Post continues:“So powerful and determined was the grip of the insurgents that after the fourth ballot Nicholas Longworth, the Republican floor leader, moved an adjournment until tomorrow, when the struggle will be resumed,” the New York Times reported at the time.Gillett did not prevail until the ninth ballot, two days after voting began. He was elected with 215 votes, the lowest total of any speaker since the House reached its modern size. (Others have come close, though: Pelosi prevailed with 216 votes in 2021, as did Boehner in 2015.)Older fights over the speakership dragged on even longer, such as the 1855 deadlock that ended with the election of Representative Nathaniel Banks as speaker. It took 133 ballots. “This will not take that [long],” former House speaker Newt Gingrich told The Early last month.The second round of voting for the speakership has begun. There was no recess between votes, only frantic minutes of huddling horse-trading on the floor.This has not happened in century. All other speakers have managed to get elected on one round of voting.Arizona rightwinger Andy Biggs, who was nominated in the first round as a spoiler and got 10 votes, just voted for Jim Jordan, the Ohio rightwinger who’s just been nominated by Florida rebel Matt Gaetz as a spoiler against McCarthy in this round.Freedom caucus extremist Lauren Boebert just voted for Jordan, too.Here’s Axe:This is awful for Rs. Good for the Ds. But likely bad for the country as a whole over the next two years, as the crazy right holds the House hostage.This was foreshadowed by the anemic R margin in the fall, a rejection by Americans of the very extremism that is seizing the day.— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) January 3, 2023
      Ohio right-winger Jim Jordan has just re-nominated Kevin McCarthy to become House Speaker.Jordan said: “We need to rally around him.” He then quoted the Bible, calling on the caucus to “keep the faith” and unify around McCarthy.It’s a crisis for the Republicans in the House, no doubt about it.California Democrat Pete Aguilar is now once again nominating Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries as that party’s choice for speaker.Freedom caucus and right-wing rebel Matt Gaetz of Florida has now risen. he’s nominating Jim Jordan to become speaker. We’re definitely in sitcom territory now, other than this is about one of the highest offices in the land and third in line to the presidency.Wry smiling from McCarthy, who’s sitting feet from Gaetz. In the first round, Arizona congressman Paul Gosar nominated Andy Biggs. He’s not being nominated this time around. The reading clerk is now going to call the roll and voting will begin.House clerk Cheryl Johnson is now formally reporting the vote in the first round for House Speaker, where Kevin McCarthy slumped to a humiliating defeat.Johnson confirms that Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries received 212 votes. McCarthy received 203 votes. Rightwinger Andy Biggs of Arizona received 10 votes. Rightwinger Jim Jordan, who was not formally nominated, received six votes.There were 434 votes vast. Republicans hold 222 seats and should have been able to reach a majority behind one nominee – but civil war prevails.Johnson announced: “No person, having received a majority of the whole number of votes cast … as speaker has not been elected.”She notes that for the first time since 1923, the voting will now go to a second round.Astonishingly, because it is the first day of the new Congress, the floor of the House of Representatives is not just full of representatives, there is a smattering of children, babies, even, miniature adults in suits and a variety of family members.They’re there to see their relatives sworn in for the 118th Congress. There are many freshman members who won their races in the midterm elections in November and are now waiting to take their seats.On the first day of a new congress, new members bring family along. What these folk are now witnessing is an historic mess as Republican civil war in the House produces a scene of chaos.No-one is being sworn in until the House has a Speaker, which it is currently missing, the Speaker’s seat sitting vividly unoccupied, the gavel silent.Right-winger and conspiracy theory-fan Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is huddling with Kevin McCarthy right now, after he just lost the first round of voting to elect the House Speaker.She voted for him, unlike other right-wing rebels such as Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and Scott Perry.Jim Jordan, who backs McCarthy, is trying to swing support behind McCarthy now, doing the rounds on the floor.🚨🚨 NEWS: Sources tell me TEAM MCCARTHY wants to move DIRECTLY into second ballot.JORDAN making the rounds on the floor to whip his supporters.— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 3, 2023
      Much huddling and milling about on the floor of the House of Representatives before the chamber is expected to proceed to an historic second round of voting for the election of House speaker.California Republican Kevin McCarthy just spectacularly failed to win a majority of House votes to become speaker in the first round. The House currently has no speaker. The chamber is not in recess, it’s still in session. It’s not entirely clear what will happen in the moments between now and the next round of voting.McCarthy has been handed his pride on a plate by a knot of right-wing rebels in his own party who refused to vote for him, who he has failed to win over despite intense days and, indeed, weeks of negotiating.Six lawmakers voted for representative Jim Jordan, even though he was nor formally on the ballot. Will Jordan try to get those people to switch to McCarthy? That still won’t give McCarthy the requisite 218-vote majority he needs.McCarthy can be seen laughing loudly as he talks to allies on the floor. One wonders what he is feeling inside.The first round of voting is over and it’s a humiliating defeat for California Republican Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become House speaker.He just made history in the worst way. The first person in a century to lose the vote for speaker in the first round.After the roll call, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries had 212 votes, McCarthy had just 203, Republican strategic thorn Andy Biggs (nominated by rightwing rebel Paul Gosar) had 10 votes and nine lawmakers supported none of the three hats in the ring.McCarthy needed 218 votes to be elected speaker and he technically could have garnered that many based on Republican numbers, but failed spectacularly.This immediately plunges House Republicans into crisis on their first day in control of the House after the midterm elections.We’re coming up on the end of the alphabet and not only is Kevin McCarthy far short of winning a majority in the election for House Speaker, he’s behind Democratic minority leader HakeemJeffries in the voting.This is a disaster for Republicans on their first day supposedly in control of the House of Representatives.They can’t recess without the clerk of the House, Cheryl Johnson, agreeing to a vote, it seems, so the Democrats might just keep everyone on the floor and force the second round of voting to proceed with McCarthy having any chance to twist more arms on his side. More

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      Kevin McCarthy faces long battle after two votes fail to win House speakership

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      Kevin McCarthy faces long battle after two votes fail to win House speakership‘We have a battle on the floor’: ultraconservatives vote against the aspiring leader as challengers rack up votes In a historic delay, House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, is facing a protracted battle to secure the speaker’s gavel after failing to win the first and second votes on Tuesday, the opening day of the new Congress.On both of the first two ballots to decide the next House speaker, 19 Republicans opposed McCarthy’s candidacy, leaving him 15 votes short of the 218 needed for a win. In a demoralizing sign for the new House Republican majority, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries received more votes than McCarthy on both ballots.With his loss, McCarthy became the first nominee for speaker in 100 years to fail to win the initial vote for the gavel. After the inconclusive first two ballots, the House prepared for additional votes that could stretch into Tuesday evening.McCarthy previously acknowledged he was unlikely to win the speakership on the first ballot, setting the stage for a potentially lengthy delay before new members of the House can be sworn into office. Underscoring his commitment, McCarthy suggested he was comfortable breaking the record for the longest speakership election in history, which currently stands at two months and 133 ballots.“We may have a battle on the floor,” McCarthy told reporters ahead of the vote. “But the battle is for the conference and the country, and that’s fine with me.”The Republican opposition to McCarthy has been led by members of the House Freedom Caucus, a hard-right group of lawmakers who have pushed for a number of changes to chamber rules in recent weeks. Scott Perry, the chair of the Freedom Caucus, reiterated his opposition on Tuesday and accused McCarthy of failing to work in good faith with his group.“At nearly every turn, we’ve been sidelined or resisted by McCarthy, and any perceived progress has often been vague or contained loopholes that further amplified concerns as to the sincerity of the promises being made,” Perry said in a statement. “Kevin McCarthy had an opportunity to be Speaker of the House. He rejected it.”McCarthy’s allies have lashed out against Perry and other holdouts in the speakership vote, contending they have prioritized their own political ambitions over the wellbeing of the party.Formally nominating McCarthy for speaker before the first vote, Elise Stefanik wholeheartedly endorsed his candidacy and delivered some thinly veiled criticism of his opponents.“No one in this body has worked harder for this Republican majority than Kevin McCarthy,” Stefanik said. “A proud conservative with a tireless work ethic, Kevin McCarthy has earned the speakership of the People’s House.”In the first vote, a third nomination was put forward by Arizona congressman Paul Gosar, a far-right Republican who offered Arizona congressman Andy Biggs as a conservative alternative. Of the 19 Republicans who opposed McCarthy on the first ballot, 10 supported Biggs, who lost to McCarthy in the November nominating contest, 188-31. On the second ballot, Jim Jordan, a Republican of Ohio, won the support of all 19 Republicans who opposed McCarthy in the first vote. That impressive showing came even after Jordan himself nominated McCarthy for the second ballot in an attempted show of unity. In his nominating speech, Jordan outlined Republicans’ legislative agenda and urged his colleagues to set aside their differences to achieve their collective goals.“We need to rally around him [and] come together,” Jordan said.The Tuesday conference meeting failed to resolve the lingering issues between McCarthy and his detractors. Matt Gaetz, one of McCarthy’s most vocal critics in the caucus, said that those withholding their support were threatened with being removed from committees if they did not change their position.“If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise,” Gaetz told reporters. “I’m a Florida man, and I know of what I speak.”Gaetz and his colleagues showed no sign of relenting as the House prepared for a third ballot on Tuesday afternoon. Their continued opposition raised the prospect of the first lengthy floor fight over the House speakership in 100 years, as the last such spectacle unfolded in 1923.”We’re not going to back down until we get in a room and we decide how we’ll be able to stand up and fight for the American people no matter who the speaker is.””I’m not blinking.” pic.twitter.com/BGY2RmucQ8— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) January 3, 2023
      As Republicans squabbled, Democrats rallied behind their leader, Jeffries. “He does not bend a knee to anyone who would seek to undermine our democracy,” California congressman Pete Aguilar, the third-ranking House Democrat, said in a speech nominating Jeffries to be speaker.Across the Capitol, the Senate convened without incident. Democrats welcomed two new members – including Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who helped his party secure a 51-49 majority in the chamber.In his first floor remarks of the new Congress, the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, commended his counterpart, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, on becoming the chamber’s longest-serving party leader in history.As a new era of divided government begins, after two years of unified Democratic control, Schumer acknowledged the legislative path forward “won’t be easy” but was nevertheless optimistic.“After everything we’ve accomplished in an evenly divided Senate and a narrowly divided House,” he said, “there’s no reason both sides can’t keep working together for the good of our country, our beloved country.”Kevin McCarthy’s faces election for House speaker unsure if he has votes needed – liveRead moreTopicsHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansUS politicsUS CongressUS SenateChuck SchumernewsReuse this content More

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      Republicans fight over speaker of the House – but whoever wins, the party loses | Robert Reich

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      Republicans fight over speaker of the House – but whoever wins, the party losesRobert ReichThe Republican party has collapsed under its own contradictions, competing impulses and fear of the base On Tuesday, as Republicans in the US House of Representatives convulse over electing one among them as speaker of the House, with Kevin McCarthy attempting to outmanoeuvre his hardcore Maga detractors, the civil war in the Republican party comes into the open.But it’s not particularly civil and it’s not exactly a war. It’s the mindless hostility of a political party that’s lost any legitimate reason for being.Is Trump finally politically dead? Sort of | Robert ReichRead moreFor all practical purposes, the Republican party is over.A half century ago, the Republican party stood for limited government. Its position was not always coherent or logical (it overlooked corporate power and resisted civil rights), but at least had a certain consistency: the party could always be relied on to seek lower taxes and oppose Democratic attempts to enlarge the scope of federal power.This was, and still is, the position of the establishment Republican party of the two George Bushes, of its wealthy libertarian funders and of its Davos-jetting corporate executive donor base. But it has little to do with the real Republican party of today.In the 1990s, Newt Gingrich and Fox News’s Roger Ailes ushered the Republican party into cultural conservatism – against abortion, contraception, immigration, voting rights, gay marriage, LBGTQ+ rights, and, eventually, against transgender rights, teaching America’s history of racism and, during the pandemic, even against masks.At the same time, cultural conservatism was for police cracking down on crime (especially committed by Black people), teaching religion with public money, retailers discriminating against LBGTQ+ people, and immigration authorities hunting down and deporting undocumented residents.Gingrich and Ailes smelled the redolent possibilities of cultural conservatism, sensed the power of evangelicals and the anger of rural white America, saw votes in a Republican base that hewed to “traditional values” and, of course, racism.But this cultural conservatism was inconsistent with limited government – in effect, it called on the government to intrude in some of the most intimate aspects of personal life.The party line became confused, its message garbled, its purpose unclear. It thereby created an opening for a third and far angrier phase, centering on resentment and authoritarianism.The foundation for this third phase had been laid for decades as white Americans without college degrees, mostly hourly-wage workers, experienced a steady drop in income and security.Not only had upward mobility been blocked, but about half their children wouldn’t live as well as they lived. The middle class was shrinking. Well-paid union jobs were disappearing.Enter Donald Trump, the con artist with a monstrous talent for exploiting resentment in service of his ego.It’s hard to believe, but things are getting better. They will continue to if we keep up the fight | Robert ReichRead moreTrump turned the Republican party into a white working-class cauldron of bitterness, xenophobia, racism, anti-intellectualism and anti-science paranoia, while turning himself into the leader of a near religious cult bent on destroying anything in his way – including American democracy.A political party is nothing more than a shell – fundraising machinery, state and local apparatus and elected officials, along with a dedicated base of volunteers and activists. The base fuels a party, giving it purpose and meaning.Today’s Republican base is fueling hate. It is the epicenter of an emerging anti-democracy movement.What we are seeing played out today in the contest for the speakership of the House involves all of these phases – what remains of the small-government establishment, the cultural warriors and the hate-filled authoritarians – engaged in hopeless, hapless combat with each other.They are also in combat with the aspirations and ideals of the rest of America.The Republican party will continue in some form. It takes more than nihilistic mindlessness to destroy a party in a winner-take-all system such as we have in the United States.But the Republican party no longer has a legitimate role to play in our system of self-government. It is over.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
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      George Santos: Brazil reactivates fraud case against fabulist congressman-elect

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      George Santos: Brazil reactivates fraud case against fabulist congressman-electRepublican is accused of using stolen checkbook and fake name at shop outside Rio de Janeiro in 2008 As the fabulist New York Republican representative-elect George Santos prepares to be sworn in on Tuesday, Brazilian prosecutors say they are reopening a criminal fraud case against him.Santos, who faces federal and state investigations involving possible criminal activity related to his two congressional campaigns, is accused of using a stolen checkbook and fake name at a clothing shop outside Rio de Janeiro in 2008, the New York Times reported on Monday citing court documents.House of lies: outrage as Republicans prepare to swear in fantasist SantosRead moreThe case languished for more than a decade, however, as Brazilian authorities did not know where Santos was.Santos reportedly told police in 2010 that he and his mother stole the checkbook from a man that she had once worked for, and then used it to make illicit purchases, per the Times.He seemed to come clean about the purported fraud to the store’s proprietor the next year on a Brazilian social media website, allegedly writing: “I know I screwed up, but I want to pay.”While a judge in Brazil greenlit a charge against Santos in 2011, he had already gone to the US. Because Brazilian authorities needed to officially notify him to the charges before the case could proceed, the case ground to a halt. Brazilian prosecutors will now file a petition in court asking that Santos respond to the charges, after which Brazil’s justice ministry will send it to the US justice department.If convicted, the maximum penalty is five years imprisonment as well as a fine, the New York Times said.Santos has insisted on his innocence. “I am not a criminal here – not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world,” he told the New York Post after the story was first revealed. “Absolutely not. That didn’t happen.”Santos has admitted to lying about integral parts of his biography, such as claims that he worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as well as completing college. “My sins here are embellishing my résumé. I’m sorry,” Santos said.He also tried to dispel criticism that he misrepresented having Jewish heritage. On Santos’s campaign website, he claimed that his mother was Jewish and that his grandparents fled the Nazi regime in the second world war.Santos is now claiming that he is “clearly Catholic”, but that his grandmother recounted being Jewish and later becoming Catholic. “I never claimed to be Jewish,” he told the newspaper. “Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish’.”Santos has since faced calls to step down by some members of his own party. The Texas Republican representative Kevin Brady, formerly the ranking member of the House ways and means committee, said on Fox News that Santos “is certainly going to have to consider resigning”, while the outgoing Arkansas governor, Asa Hutchinson, recently said that Santos’s falsehoods were “unacceptable” and needed to be investigated by the ethics committee.TopicsRepublicansHouse of RepresentativesBrazilUS politicsAmericasnewsReuse this content More