Nine days after eight members of the GOP voted to oust the Speaker of the House, Republicans are “no closer” to electing a replacement amid reports their nominee, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), has been unable to get the necessary number of votes and may withdraw, and Republicans are now trashing each other.
“The House Republican Conference is a mess,” reports Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman. “Complete and utter mess. They are no closer to picking a speaker. They are a month away from a shutdown. Israel is asking for aid, which needs to pass in the next few weeks. They are completely lost. And have no idea how they will get out.”
Sherman also posted a quote from an unnamed source: “Based on what I’ve heard, I don’t there’s gonna be a vote this week.”
Punchbowl News’ John Bresnahan adds, “Republicans in the [meeting] room said Scalise repeatedly wouldn’t tell members what his plans were, including whether he would seek a floor vote.”
“Just rambled and didn’t directly answer questions. No plan. Didn’t unify or inspire the conference.”
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House Republicans “joke Jesus couldn’t get the 217 votes to be their speaker,” CNN’s Lauren Fox reports. “The amount of shrug emojis I’ve gotten from sources when asking what happens next? Too many to count.”
Scalise appears unable to grow his tiny majority by any significant means. CNN’s Manu Raju calls Scalise’s prospects “very very grim.”
Far-right extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene are very publicly declaring their support for Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, and using Scalise’s cancer as an excuse.
On Thursday Congresswoman Greene, who is backing Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, complained, “I’ve heard certain key people have fundraisers this weekend and we are going to ultimately get sent home. If this is the case either vote today or send us home already.”
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Greene also attacked fellow far-right Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who also is refusing to support Scalise, but because he “attended a white supremist conference, and compared himself to David Duke.” The Georgia Congresswoman called Mace’s comments “an unfair and quite frankly disgusting attack … using Democrat talking points, using the same lines of attack that Democrats use against every single Republican, every single election, every single day, in these halls of Congress to attack Steve.”
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) says House Republicans are proving China’s Xi Jinping correct that “democracy doesn’t work.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) left the GOP’s “meeting unhappy,” reports MSNBC’s Sahil Kapur, and “says eight Republican ‘traitors’ (he used the word four times) have ‘paralyzed’ the House by removing McCarthy. He tells me Scalise has the same problems and GOP may NEVER get 217 votes for a Speaker. He says Dems must help.”
Kapur reports, “Chaos persists as ‘fractured’ House GOP frets about when—or if—they’ll elect a speaker Some Republicans worry they may never get 217 votes without some Democratic help.
He adds that “Republicans are getting nervous about the paralysis.” U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) “calls for empowering McHenry for 30, 45 or 60 days.” Congressman Patrick McHenry, a top ally of ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, is currently the Speaker pro tempore who, according to House rules, may only act to help the House elect a new speaker.
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Congressman Rogers “says no; Scalise was chosen so he’s ‘gonna be the person that’s our next speaker if we get a speaker, ever.’ ‘EVER.'”
CNN’s Raju reports that U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls’s (R-TX) message to his colleagues: “You want to talk about confusing the American people? They think this whole place is a circus up here and all of a sudden Jim Jordan is nominating Steve Scalise and we’re voting for Jim Jordan. That’s just utter chaos.” And U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) “on GOP members who won’t back Steve Scalise: ‘I think they should all resign their congressional seat unless they get 100% of their district to vote for them,’ he told me.”
As the crisis continues, with no end in sight, some Republicans, Raju reports, worry they could lose their seats as a result.
Early Thursday morning the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman wrote, “The reality may be that no R can get 217.”
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