CNN
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House Republicans are in contention over who will be the next Speaker. I was allowed to.
The House of Representatives will convene at noon Wednesday and will now hold a fourth vote to elect a speaker. On Tuesday, the House conducted his three ballots, and McCarthy fell short each time, falling short of the majority criteria needed to secure the presidency. The House closed Tuesday evening after a voting series stretched for hours with no solution in sight.
Now Republicans are desperate to find a way forward. Allies of McCarthy say he has no intention of dropping out and is ready to crush this.
Talks continued on Tuesday night, with McCarthy making the call from his office, sources said. He also sent several special envoys, including Brian Fitzpatrick, Garrett Graves, French Hill, Patrick McHenry, and Guy Leschenthaler, to find deals with his enemies and direct their demands to the House Republicans. Helped present to other members of the meeting.
Until this stalemate is resolved, the House will continue to be paralyzed. And McCarthy’s Republicans are beginning to fear that if the Republican House leader goes to war any longer, they won’t be able to pull off their bet on the Speaker.
One of McCarthy’s backers told CNN that if McCarthy doesn’t win the House Speaker’s vote, there is a growing fear that he will be unable to do anything about legislation, and another candidate will come forward. He said he might have to leave.
“He probably has 24 hours left to get an agreement. “Maybe no one else can, but he certainly can’t.”
The same member said the statement Wednesday morning that former President Donald Trump reaffirmed his support for McCarthy and urged Republicans to back him was basically a washout.
Another warned that since Tuesday it’s been clear that opposition to McCarthy is personal, meaning there’s little he can do to turn the tide at this point.
Asked whether Trump’s statement would make a difference, the person admitted they were skeptical.
House Republicans hold 222 seats in the new House, so McCarthy can only afford to lose four Republican votes to reach 218. His stumbling block is facing a small but determined force of hard-line conservatives who have so far succeeded in denying votes to secure the gavel.
This group has used the power they have in a very thin Republican majority to extract concessions. McCarthy has already yielded to many of their demands, such as making sitting speakers easier to knock down, but so far his efforts haven’t been enough.
The situation seemed even more dire for McCarthy as votes rose on Tuesday, with more votes against his chairman’s bid.
The first ballot in the presidential ballot was McCarthy with 203 votes and Republicans with 19 votes for other candidates. The second ballot resulted in McCarthy with his 203 votes and Republican Jim Jordan (of Ohio) with his 19 votes. In the third round of voting, McCarthy had his 202 votes, Jordan had his 20, and his 19 Republicans who voted against McCarthy in the first two rounds had Byron He Donalds. was added.
It was the first time since 1923 that an election for the chairman had been voted on more than once.
“My vote yesterday was basically to break the deadlock because we were stuck and got nowhere. If it recurs, yeah, I can be there, that’s fine, but what we need now is for Republicans to come together and find a way to elect a speaker.
Trump has been keeping a close eye on the dynamics unfolding in the Capitol, and his public support has become a key focus of McCarthy’s efforts.
Two Republican sources familiar with the matter said McCarthy’s allies were panicking on Tuesday after the former president gave a lukewarm response to NBC News when asked about his support for McCarthy. . The former president also refused to issue a statement reiterating his support for McCarthy on Monday, despite behind-the-scenes efforts by several McCarthy supporters to get Trump to do so, the two said. An informant said.
Then one of McCarthy’s close allies began performing cleaning duties behind the scenes, pressuring Trump to release a statement clarifying his support. Connected by phone, McCarthy said Trump had expressed that he was still committed to backing him. He urged McCarthy to vote not to turn a huge victory into a huge and embarrassing defeat.
Trump’s remarks may not move the needle among McCarthy’s fiercest opponents, but one of the sources said he was worried that McCarthy’s world would look “weak” and that he would lose support. I was worried about it, so I felt it was important to reverse the story.
Gates, one of the House Republicans opposing McCarthy’s bid for chairman, dismissed Trump’s recent efforts to help California Republicans as “sad.”
“This does not change my view of McCarthy, Trump or my vote,” Gates said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
The refusal of Gates, a longtime staunch ally of Trump, to bow to Trump’s desire for McCarthy’s orator is a testament to the former president’s influence over Republicans during his third presidential campaign. This raises new questions about the decline in
“If Matt Gates is ignoring you, that’s not a good sign,” said an ally of Trump involved in the 2024 campaign.
Trump has been calling on McCarthy’s behalf over the past 24 hours to break the conservative blockade against him, but his efforts have so far been fruitless.
A lawmaker who spoke with Trump late Tuesday suggested the former president himself should run for chair, according to a person briefed by phone. Trump disputed this and continued to pressure this person to endorse McCarthy, claiming he would become a staunch supporter of “America First.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
