House Speaker Vote: McCarthy Wins Speakership on 15th Vote The New York Times

Table Of Content

• How Every Representative Voted
• Kevin McCarthy falls short on first three votes for speaker in historic defeat
• Opinion: Is Arizona’s abortion ban a return to the 19th century? No, it’s actually worse
• Editorial: Speaker Johnson must ignore GOP hardliners and pass Ukraine aid now
• Tom Emmer won nomination only to drop out after opposition by Trump and far right
• Egypt sends delegation to Israel, its latest effort to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas
• These are the California cities where $150,000 still buys you a home. Could you live here?

Congress was able to veer from the dangerous, dead-end course that the Republican-run House had it on for the past 16 months only once Johnson very belatedly took the keys from his MAGA allies and started driving events himself. Recognizing that he had no choice but to deal with the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Biden, Johnson helped pass overdue government funding last month and, in recent days, green-lighted votes reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and — finally! — approving aid to Ukraine to help it defend itself and the rest of Europe from a rapacious Russia. Echoing one of the many grievances shared by hard-right Republicans who opposed all of the aid measures, Mr. Good said his support for “Israel’s right to defend itself remains unshakeable” but that he disagreed with a measure that would add to the nation’s debt. The House of Representatives has voted to pass a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

How Every Representative Voted

Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania said lawmakers are having "productive" meetings, but voting could stretch into the weekend. Ahead of the evening session, McCarthy said does not want another vote for speaker tonight. Sources said the talks tonight amongst McCarthy allies and holdouts have been the most productive and serious ones to date. In one sign of a breakthrough, a McCarthy-aligned super PAC agreed to not play in open primaries in safe seats — one of the big demands that conservatives had asked for but that McCarthy had resisted up until this point.

Kevin McCarthy falls short on first three votes for speaker in historic defeat

The House-passed bills are similar to a $95 billion package that passed the Senate in February but then stalled in the House. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive who is a member of the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday he would protect Johnson’s job if members of his far-right flank go through with their threat to oust him. If McCarthy can’t secure enough votes, it’s not clear who could, though some Republican members have floated the possibility of working with Democrats to elect a moderate speaker. McCarthy handily won an internal House Republican Conference vote for speaker in November against Biggs, 188 to 31. In a brief phone interview with NBC News, the former president declined to say whether he still supports McCarthy for speaker. Trump has so far proved unable to persuade rebellious GOP members of the House to back McCarthy for speaker, a powerful post that would put the man he once called “My Kevin” second in line to the presidency behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

Opinion: Is Arizona’s abortion ban a return to the 19th century? No, it’s actually worse

McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) became the first majority party leader in a century to fail to secure the speakership on the first ballot. He attracted zero additional votes on a second ballot and lost support on the third ballot, as Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) switched his vote from McCarthy to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Rep. Kevin McCarthy failed three times to secure a majority of votes to succeed Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House on Tuesday before the chamber adjourned with the outcome of the leadership contest still in doubt. Jordan’s supporters are confident that the public floor vote will force the remaining holdouts to flip their way. Kevin McCarthy narrowly won the speakership in January on the 15th round of balloting, after five excruciating days.

House recesses ahead of vote on Israel resolution

Speaker Johnson moves on foreign aid, possibly triggering vote to oust him - The Washington Post

Speaker Johnson moves on foreign aid, possibly triggering vote to oust him.

Posted: Wed, 17 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

"Congress and the American people needed a Republican Speaker three weeks ago," Palmer said in a statement Tuesday morning. Emmer is one of two speaker candidates who voted to certify the 2020 election results. House Republicans have begun voting on the first ballot for their speaker nominee after convening to elect a fourth candidate just hours after Emmer, who won the conference's nomination earlier Tuesday, withdrew his candidacy amid growing opposition.

Editorial: Speaker Johnson must ignore GOP hardliners and pass Ukraine aid now

Hours before a floor vote, one of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s most loyal supporters threw his support behind Jordan after days of hesitation. To seize the gavel, Jordan will need almost the full majority of his colleagues behind him in a House floor vote, as Democrats are certain to back their own nominee, Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Ahead of the election, he appeared to be short of the Republican votes needed to win the gavel, but he has sounded confident that he can pressure the holdouts to eventually vote for him.

Tom Emmer won nomination only to drop out after opposition by Trump and far right

“The empty chair is such poetry,” one onlooker said before the vote, pointing at the screen. A bartender switched the channel from basketball to C-SPAN about 10 minutes before the vote was set to start, but it was only when the session was called to order that the rowdy crowd turned its attention fully to the screens, hooting and clapping. WASHINGTON — Kevin McCarthy’s chaotic campaign for the speakership has become, for some in Washington, a spectacle to be consumed with the urgency of a major sporting event. The dramatic moment was captured on C-SPAN’s video cameras, which, lacking the typical restraints placed upon them in a House with a speaker, were free to show whatever moments from the floor its operators deemed newsworthy. Congratulations to @GOPLeader on his election as the Speaker of 🇺🇸 House of Representatives. U.S. support in all fields has been vital for 🇺🇦’s success on the battlefield.

Mr. Johnson had been in touch with the president’s team on his myriad legal challenges seeking to overturn the results, “to restore the integrity of our election process,” according to a Facebook post by Mr. Johnson recounting the exchange. Mr. Johnson said Mr. Jordan called him when he was running for office, because “he knew I was a conservative,” contributed money to his campaign and invited him to Washington for a meeting with him and other Freedom Caucus members. After a mob of Mr. Trump’s supporters, believing the election was rigged, stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and injured about 150 police officers, Mr. Johnson condemned the violence. But he defended the actions of congressional Republicans in objecting to Mr. Biden’s victory. A social conservative, Mr. Johnson played a leading role in recruiting House Republicans to sign a legal brief supporting a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results. The election on Wednesday of Mr. Johnson, 51, to the post second in line to the presidency has focused new attention on his behind-the-scenes role in trying to overturn the election results on behalf of former President Donald J. Trump.

Rep. Austin Scott has been eliminated from the speaker's race in the third round of voting, according to a tally from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Emmer remained the top vote-getter, with 107 votes, according to McMorris Rodgers, followed by Johnson with 56 votes. Johnson said Emmer is "putting on a master class in there, about how to stand in the fire, answer questions in front of a room of 200, frankly, very opinionated members, and I think he's winning converts." GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik tweeted the full list of candidates shortly before the candidate forum was to begin this evening. Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, Mark Green of Tennessee, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Roger Williams of Texas, are running.

It marked a victory for the far right that has become a dominant force in the Republican Party, which rose up this month to effectively dictate the removal of an establishment speaker and the installation of an arch-conservative replacement. The members who ousted McCarthy also told reporters that they have no regrets now about ousting McCarthy. How someone in power responds to 1st Amendment rights being exercised in criticism of the government says a lot about what they value. Republicans’ eagerness to deploy armed troops to quash peaceful protests suggests that they don’t really believe in free speech after all. To the contrary, Johnson played a key role in helping Trump try to overturn the election.

If the proposed repeal wins final approval from the Republican-controlled Senate and is signed into law by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become the prevailing abortion law. A week ago, one Republican in the Arizona House joined 29 Democrats to bring the repeal measure to a vote, but the effort failed twice on votes. There appears to be enough support for repeal in the Arizona Senate, but a final vote is unlikely before May 1.

As scenes of frustration and confusion unfolded on the House floor, the mood at Bullfeathers felt similar, albeit on a much smaller scale. The bartenders turned the overhead lights back on, and small groups huddled while still minding the screens. As the vote-casting began, a few people packed their bags, closed out their tabs and left.

Shortly after reconvening Wednesday night, the House voted to adjourn until noon Thursday — with still no speaker elected. Sources said the talks Wednesday between McCarthy allies and holdouts have been the most productive and serious ones to date. And in one sign of a breakthrough, a McCarthy-aligned super PAC agreed to not play in open Republican primaries in safe seats -- one of the big demands that conservatives had asked for but that McCarthy had resisted until this point. To secure the votes required to succeed fellow Californian Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) as speaker, McCarthy had to agree to compromises that dramatically weaken the power of the post. Eight House Republicans and 208 House Democrats voted Tuesday to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — the first time in U.S. history a House speaker has been removed in a no-confidence vote. Emmer, who was first elected to Congress in 2014, has the endorsement of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted from the speakership almost three weeks ago.

His lack of legislative experience has been a criticism that moderates and Democrats have deployed against him in recent days. But his office has pushed back, saying he has been instrumental in getting legislation through the committees he serves on without putting his name on it. “I feel confident,” he said Tuesday while trailed by a scrum of reporters in the Capitol.

He made no mention of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, or of the impending government shutdown that will begin next month if Congress fails to pass legislation to keep the government funded. And the hard-right Republicans who voted to oust Mr. McCarthy, setting into motion the three-week stretch of chaos that left the House without a leader, said Mr. Johnson’s ascension to the top job made their decision to depose the California Republican worth it. The elevation of Mr. Johnson, 51, an architect of the effort to overturn the 2020 election and a religious conservative opposed to abortion rights, homosexuality and gay marriage, further cemented the Republican Party’s lurch to the right. It came after a historic fight that began when the hard right ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 3, and raged on as the divided House G.O.P. nominated and then quickly discarded three other candidates to succeed him.

"The people's House is back in business," Johnson told colleagues before being sworn in. While some had received subpoenas in the Jan. 6 investigations and were later referred to the House Ethics Committee, their power showed they were far from outcasts and had paid little price for their actions. “That remains an issue to be resolved,” said Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, as he shuttled between meetings on Thursday. The practice of earmarking — where a single lawmaker can use a sliver of the sprawling government budget to send money to a specific project in his or her state — has been both embraced and reviled over the years. Congress banned the practice more than a decade ago, after a series of scandals tied to earmarks and anti-spending fervor swept through the institution with the rise of the Tea Party, but it has since reintroduced it with more guardrails.