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The U.S. House of Representatives entered its fourth day of voting to elect a new speaker on Friday, falling on the grim two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The U.S. House adjourned Thursday for a third night in a row without a speaker — the longest the chamber has gone leaderless in a century — after GOP leader Kevin McCarthy lost an 11th vote and scrambled to work out a deal with a group of 20 far-right Republicans who have blocked his bid for the top job in the House.
McCarthy still didn’t have a clear path to win as of Friday morning.
GOP leaders have scheduled a 10:15 a.m. ET conference call with rank-and-file members to brief them on the deal McCarthy’s been negotiating behind the scenes, according to NBC News. It would give some of the party’s most conservative members more power on key committees and him the gavel. The House is scheduled to reconvene at noon.
Support for McCarthy dwindled over the first three days of voting from 203 votes on Tuesday to 200 by the 11th vote on Thursday, falling far short of the 218 he needs to win the speakership. With 222 Republicans in the House, he can only afford to lose four votes.
Ahead of Thursday’s final vote, the bloc of 20 Republican holdouts opposing McCarthy’s speakership offered alternative candidates to McCarthy: Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.. received 12 votes; Kevin Hern, R-Okla., received seven votes; and former President Donald Trump, who was put forward by his longtime ally, Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, received one vote from Gaetz.
All 212 Democrats have unanimously backed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies for each vote.
Anniversary of Jan. 6 Capitol riot looms over McCarthy’s struggle for House speaker
Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy’s protracted struggle for the House speaker’s gavel has now overlapped with the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The insurrection by a violent mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters forced lawmakers in the House and Senate to flee their chambers, impeding the transfer of power from Trump to now-President Joe Biden.
McCarthy had initially blamed Trump for the attack, saying the president “bears responsibility” even as he opposed Democrats’ efforts to impeach Trump for a second time. But McCarthy soon walked back that criticism, and that same month visited Trump and posed with him for a smiling photo.
Trump has in recent days urged the faction of House Republican defectors to back McCarthy for speaker. But although the group of far-right lawmakers are highly supportive of Trump — GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz even voted for Trump for House speaker in two of McCarthy’s failed votes — they have not acquiesced to his demand.
Some Democrats are linking the current Capitol chaos to the radicalism that led to the 2021 riot.
“Unfortunately, the utter pandemonium wrought by House Republicans this week is just one more example of how the extreme fringe of their party, led by election deniers, is pulling them further into chaos and making it impossible for them to govern,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Friday morning.
Biden is set to attend a ceremony at the White House at 2 p.m. ET marking the two-year anniversary of the insurrection. He will be joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
— Kevin Breuninger
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