Republicans Nominate Steve Scalise As Next Speaker Of The House
Republicans on Wednesday named Rep. Steve Scalise as the next House speaker and will now try to unify to elect conservatives at the polls after they defeated the representative. Kevin McCarthy has been fired from his position.
House Republican lawmakers in a private vote at the Capitol. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan resigned in favor of current Majority Leader Scalise, lawmakers said. The Louisiana lawmaker is considered a hero by some after surviving a mass shooting of lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice in 2017. He is now battling blood cancer.
Republicans, deadlocked after last week's historic McCarthy impeachment, will try to rally their slim House majority around Scalise in what is sure to be a close vote throughout the House. Democrats must oppose the Republican candidate.
A vote on the full House of Representatives is likely to take place on Wednesday afternoon.
"I don't know how they got to 218," said Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, who normally needs a majority vote in the 435-member House to become speaker. "This could be a long week."
It is an extraordinary moment of political chaos that has paralyzed the House of Representatives just 10 months after Republicans took power, at a time of uncertainty at home and crises abroad. The Republican majority tries to work as a team and run the government like a business. However, with the unprecedented impeachment of a president, he has moved away from this goal.
Americans are watching. A quarter of Republicans said they approved of the decision by a small group of Republicans to remove McCarthy as president. Three in 10 Republicans think it's a mistake, according to a research poll by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs.
The coalition of far-right lawmakers that ousted McCarthy, R-Calif., showed how some lawmakers could play a key role in selecting his successor.
"I'm not excited about any of the options right now," said Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., who voted to unseat McCarthy.
It is unclear whether he will be able to attract nearly all the Republican votes needed to overcome Democratic opposition. Normally, the majority required would be 218 votes, but there are currently two vacant seats, reducing the threshold to 217.
Many Republicans want to avoid the scenario of a chaotic fight in the House as McCarthy did when he took office in January.
"People don't feel comfortable voicing their opinion with a simple majority, and then C-SPAN and the rest of the world are watching this fight," said Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla. said “We want this family to fight behind closed doors. »
Some have suggested a rule change that Acting President Patrick McHenry, RN.C. Consider securing a majority vote before giving the candidate a floor vote.
McCarthy himself seemed to agree with a consensus approach. "They shouldn't come out until they decide they have enough votes for who they want to bring to the floor," McCarthy said.
However, unless a rule is changed, Republican lawmakers must use majority rule.
Neither Scalise nor Jordan were seen as successors to McCarthy, who was ousted after the president tilted to the right after Congress passed legislation that would have prevented a government shutdown.
Jordan is known for his close alliance with Donald Trump, particularly the then-president's work to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which led to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump backed Jordan's attempt to back Givell.
Scalise and Jordan expressed similar views Tuesday at a forum for Republican candidates on spending cuts and securing the southern border with Mexico, a top Republican priority.
McCarthy's ousted engineer, Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. Several other lawmakers have said they are willing to support Scalise or Jordan.
At this point, McHenry is effectively in charge. He has shown little interest in expanding his powers beyond his assigned role: that of interim leader responsible for the upcoming presidential election.
The position was created after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 to ensure continuity of government. McHenry's name was at the top of the list McCarthy presented when he became speaker of the House of Representatives in January.
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Associated Press writers Farnoosh Amiri and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
