Newsman: The house of the United States congress has failed 11th time to elect the speaker of the house and The House will reconvene at noon Friday when members.
The House of Representatives plans to reconvene for a 4th day when they could vote for a seventh time to decide who will serve as the next speaker. The House has not failed to elect a speaker on the first ballot in 100 years.
The last time the vote for a new speaker went past the first ballot was 100 years ago, in 1923.
The speaker is second in the line of presidential succession behind the vice president. Besides, there really isn’t any alternative without a speaker officially in place, because the House cannot even swear in its members and let alone do any other business.
President Joe Biden said, the failure to elect the speaker of the house is embarrassing.
“It’s embarrassing for the country,” President Joe Biden said on Wednesday in an event in Kentucky highlighting bipartisan political leadership over his massive infrastructure package, appearing with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
“I’m not making a partisan (point), that’s the reality – that to be able to have a Congress that can’t function is just embarrassing.”
Whichever party holds the majority on the House side of the Capitol typically elects its leader as the speaker on the first day of the new Congress. Each party nominates its leader and the majority has the most votes and prevails, even if a few members of the majority party defect or vote “present” or just don’t show up.
In the last few rounds of votes, a group of 20 Republicans have opposed GOP leader Kevin McCarthy bid for speakership. Beginning with the first ballot for speaker on Tuesday, at least 19 Republicans voted for someone other than their party nominee, Kevin McCarthy of California. They also wanted a rule change that would facilitate the use of a rather obscure item of House floor procedure known as “a motion to vacate the chair.” That provision allows a sufficient number of members to demand a vote on the presiding officer, a threat to replace the speaker.
McCarthy had resisted this as it would essentially put his job on the line on a daily, even hourly, basis. But in his last rounds of attempting to secure votes, he was reported to have given in even on this issue.
The motion to vacate the chair was famously used to take down the autocratic Republican Speaker Joe Cannon of Illinois (the “last of the czars”) in 1910. Cannon had and abused absolute power over committee chairs and assignments, floor procedure and rules for debate. No one since has had anything akin to this level of authority.
McCarthy has failed to meet the threshold needed to become speaker for a total of six ballots. There are still at least five who say they are voting against him: Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Bob Good of Virginia.
Early on Wednesday, Trump delivered the kind of full-throated endorsement of McCarthy that the Californian must believe he was owed after his obsequious support of the ex-president following the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
“VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “REPUBLICANS, DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT.”
It was the kind of social media blast that once would have had Republican members leaping into line. But It didn’t appear to change a single vote.
Prior the start of a new Congress, both parties hold a private meeting where they elect the party leadership for the next Congress. This takes place before Jan. 3, the official start of the new term when all House members vote for the speaker.
A candidate only needs a majority of votes from their respective party to win the nomination in the private meeting for leadership.
Even if a colleague votes against a candidate in the private caucus meeting, the party typically sticks together to back their nominee on the House floor in January, according to experts.
However, if the whole House votes, just a few votes in opposition to a candidate from their own party could cost them the speakership.
