McCarthy's race for speaker risks upending House on Day One Los Angeles Times

Table Of Content

• Democratic Party
• These 21 House members didn't vote for Kevin McCarthy. Here's what they want
• House Democratic Caucus consensus
• From New York to Arizona: Inside the head-spinning week of Trump’s legal drama
• Homeless encampments are on the ballot in Arizona. Could California, other states follow?
• At a Capitol Hill bar, the prolonged fight for a speaker becomes a drinking game.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, the chair of the Financial Services Committee, has been named speaker pro tempore, or interim speaker, until a new leader is elected. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to reporters hours after he was ousted as speaker of the House on Tuesday. Progress for McCarthy was slow earlier in the week, but he gained momentum in a Friday afternoon vote when 14 of his 20 detractors flipped to vote for him after four days and 12 rounds of balloting. The California Republican eked out a victory after a historic 15 rounds of voting and a dramatic series of events on the House floor late Friday night.

Democratic Party

And the Senate, traditionally viewing itself as the more refined chamber, chose not to hang around for the slugfest in the House. Instead, senators organized without incident and expeditiously vacated the Capitol to let their counterparts across the Rotunda sully themselves alone. WASHINGTON — The House was in an uproar, unable to settle on its new speaker, forcing roll call vote after roll call vote. The Senate had quietly slipped out of the city while insurgents in the House demanded more power as the nation watched anxiously.

These 21 House members didn't vote for Kevin McCarthy. Here's what they want

Shannon Terranova, widow of Capitol Police Officer Police Williams Evans, and their children Logan and Abigail, join a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the east front steps of the U.S. Capitol to honor the police officers who lost their lives in the attack on the Capitol, on the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot. Without a speaker, lawmakers can't form committees, advance legislation or participate in intelligence briefings. Hakeem Jeffries made history as the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress, addressing the 118th Congress for the first time in the early hours of Saturday morning.

House Democratic Caucus consensus

In April 2018, Ryan said he would not serve another term and left as the party was losing its majority that fall. The next two Republican speakers would be John Boehner, elevated to the job by the GOP recapture of the House in the "Tea Party" election of 2010. Boehner worked hard to fashion budget deals with both a Democratic President Barack Obama and a Democratic Senate. But his efforts alienated some in his own ranks who in 2015 formed an insurgent group known as the House Freedom Caucus. Increasingly exasperated with his untenable predicament, Boehner simply resigned in October of that year.

With a perilously slim 222-seat Republican majority in the 435-member House and facing a handful of defectors, McCarthy is working furiously to reach the 218 votes typically needed to become speaker. If McCarthy steps down after that time, it would be up to the governor to decide whether to call a special election. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. Millan Patterson, a protege of McCarthy’s whom he first urged to run for the party post in 2019, is widely expected to easily win reelection. Such electoral results were among the few causes of celebration for a party that last won statewide office in 2006, and whose voters are outnumbered nearly 2 to 1 by Democrats. While McCarthy enjoyed support from most Republicans in his slim majority, eight Republican detractors — many of the same hard-right holdouts who tried to stop him from becoming speaker in January — essentially forced him out.

Homeless encampments are on the ballot in Arizona. Could California, other states follow?

The Freedom Caucus’ early leaders, under Mark Meadows, the former North Carolina congressman who became Trump’s chief of staff, wielded the procedure to pressure Boehner and Ryan. As of Friday, officers had stopped 6,301 guns at airport security checkpoints nationwide, according to the Transportation Security Administration. “In the last two cycles, we have done nothing but win,” McCarthy said, ignoring the lack of statewide success and the party’s dismal showing in last year’s attempted recall of Newsom. No presidential candidates attended despite the state’s primary taking place less than a year from now, and California offering the largest cache of delegates of any state in the nation.

McCarthy, All Carrots and No Sticks, Grinned His Way to the Speakership

“What we’re seeing is the incredibly shrinking speakership, and that’s most unfortunate for Congress,” former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said as she entered the chamber on Friday afternoon. By Friday afternoon, Mr. McCarthy had won over 15 of the 21 Republicans who had defected, and he pressed into the night for more converts, a remarkable turnabout for a man who only days before appeared to be headed for defeat. His path was narrow until the end; only a few of the six remaining holdouts were seen as open to negotiating further. Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician who served as the 55th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from January to October 2023. Representative for California's 20th congressional district from 2007 until his resignation in 2023. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., a moderate who is on the Foreign Affairs Committee, blasted Greene’s effort to oust Johnson on Sunday when he was asked about her criticism of the foreign aid package.

How Kevin McCarthy (finally) became speaker of the House

Mike Johnson and the troubled history of recent Republican speakers - NPR

Mike Johnson and the troubled history of recent Republican speakers.

Posted: Sat, 27 Apr 2024 09:00:42 GMT [source]

Probing “the weaponization of the F.B.I.” as McCarthy just mentioned, was a big priority of the hard-right flank of defectors. Chip Roy of Texas said earlier tonight that the defectors won an assurance that McCarthy would launch a select committee investigating the “weaponization of government” that would receive “the kind of budget and the kind of staffing” that the Jan. 6 select committee received. “The motion to vacate is accountability,” he added, referring to the measure allowing a snap vote to remove the speaker. Despite the divisions on display, Mr. McCarthy also emphasized the theme of unity in a speech after taking the speaker’s gavel, pledging open debate and an open door to both Republicans and Democrats. Reached for comment about the House's changing posture toward a motion to vacate, office directed NBC News to recent remarks from Johnson, R-La., which included his saying Saturday that he doesn't walk around the Capitol "being worried about a motion to vacate." Eleven far-right Republicans revolted against that deal by breaking a two-decade tradition that the majority allows floor debate even though lawmakers might oppose final passage.

At a Capitol Hill bar, the prolonged fight for a speaker becomes a drinking game.

But Moreno, who wore a Trump lanyard and brought along a years-old picture of herself with McCarthy from a previous convention, said she felt pride in seeing the Bakersfield native rise to become second in line to the presidency. She also supported the actions he has taken since becoming speaker, such as booting Democratic Reps. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, Eric Swalwell of Dublin and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from congressional committees. Nearly a year ago, audio recordings emerged of McCarthy telling fellow GOP leaders in early 2021 that he planned to urge Trump to resign during the waning days of his presidency. But recently, McCarthy decided to hand over some 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 security video to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who used the material to fuel an effort to explain away the deadly Capitol attack. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, making a homecoming appearance in front of California Republicans on Saturday, said that after his successful yet protracted fight for the gavel both he and the GOP emerged as a tougher and more formidable political force in Washington.

She told The Hill shortly after starting the job that she had taken diction classes to prepare and had done a three-minute audition that involved reading out a resolution, amendment, handwritten amendment, presidential message and bill. Ms. Alli and Ms. Cole work under the clerk of the House of Representatives, Cheryl L. Johnson, who is charged with keeping lawmakers in order until a new speaker is elected. Even before the votes had been secured, many at the bar seemed convinced that electing a speaker was inevitable as the vote drew closer to a close.

WASHINGTON — For days as hard-right lawmakers voted again and again to block him from becoming speaker, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California sat on the House floor with a grin plastered to his face. Even as some lawmakers have grumbled about the revival of earmarking, neither House nor Senate Republicans have issued a binding ban against including them in spending bills. Several Republicans in both chambers joined Democrats in securing earmarks in the roughly $1.7 trillion government funding package that became law last month, with more than 7,200 projects in the bill.

"No matter the odds, or personal cost, we did the right thing. That may seem out of fashion in Washington these days, but delivering results for the American people is still celebrated across the country," McCarthy, R-Calif., wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. Democrats, who have bristled at McCarthy’s leadership — cajoling them one minute, walking away from deals the next — said they were just holding back, waiting for Republicans to figure out how to run the House. Trump, the former president who is the Republican front-runner in the 2024 race to challenge Biden, complained about the chaos. “Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves,” he asked on social media. One of McHenry’s first acts in the temporary position was to oust Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi from her honorary office at the Capitol while she was away in California to pay tribute to Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

“I am humbled and honored to serve the American people as the @HouseDemocrats Whip for the 118th Congress,” added Clark, who ran unopposed. The state’s at-large House seat became vacant after Democratic incumbent Peter Welch — who was first elected in 2006 — decided on an ultimately successful Senate run to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, who was himself first elected in 1974. Along with being Vermont’s first female member of Congress, Balint is also the first out LGBTQ person elected to Washington from the Green Mountain State. The comic will be joined by a photo of Garcia’s parents, who died of Covid-19, and his citizenship certificate, according to a Thursday tweet from Garcia.