Groundhog Day is just over four weeks away, but Wednesday sure felt like it in the House of Representatives.
For the second day in a row, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California failed on three separate ballots to win the votes he needs to be named speaker of the House. Twenty conservative Republicans opposed to McCarthy again blocked his leadership bid for a fourth, fifth and sixth time. All three failed votes came after former President Donald Trump publicly backed McCarthy’s bid and urged Republicans to fall in line.
“That Trump can no longer sway or influence his former core supporters is another data point that underscores how ungovernable this majority will be — whoever eventually gets the role of Speaker,” analyst Chris Krueger of the Cowen Washington Research Group said in a note to clients.
Following the sixth vote, the House adjourned until 8 p.m. ET, and McCarthy was seen heading into a closed-door meeting with some of his opponents. A breakthrough could conceivably still happen tonight as Republicans continue to negotiate. “We will get 218, will solve our problems and we will all work together,” McCarthy told reporters.
Signs of progress? A number of Republicans reportedly indicated that they had been making progress toward agreement Wednesday afternoon, even as the vote totals stayed the same across the fourth, fifth and sixth ballots. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York received all 212 of his party’s votes, while McCarthy got 201 votes and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) got the 20 votes of the Republican rebels. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) voted “present.”
“We’re having ongoing conversations, they’ve actually been more productive in the last two hours than they’ve been in a long time,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), one of McCarthy’s 20 GOP opponents, said. Roy later indicated, thoughm that he still wasn't backing McCarthy.
Democrats and the White House had to love Wednesday afternoon’s televised split screen: House Republicans’ continuing chaos on one side while on the other, President Joe Biden and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were in Kentucky touting more than $1 billion in new funding under the bipartisan infrastructure law to upgrade a bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio.
“I wanted to start off the new year at this historic project here in Ohio and Kentucky with a bipartisan group of officials because I believe it sends an important message — an important message to the entire country: We can work together. We can get things done. We can move the nation forward,” Biden said. “We just drop a little bit of our egos and focus on what is needed in the country.”
Biden noted that McConnell is now the longest-serving leader in Senate history and joked that he had asked the senator if he could say something nice about him. “I said I’d campaign for him or against him, whichever would help him the most,” the president said.
As he was leaving for Kentucky earlier in the day, Biden said the House speaker fight was “not my problem” but called it “a little embarrassing” and said it would not look good to the rest of the world.
“I hope they get their act together,” he said of Republicans.
The bottom line: This evening’s GOP talks could break the deadlock, but it’s still not clear how McCarthy can overcome the objections of enough Republicans to secure the 218 votes he needs, especially given that some of his opponents insist they will not back him. Republicans may soon start pressing for a more viable alternative. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) has been garnering the most mentions.