Kevin McCarthy Just Dropped Out of the Race for Speaker of the House

Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) abruptly dropped out of the race for speaker of the house on Thursday, hours before the election was set to take place.

McCarthy told lawmakers he would be withdrawing, according to Republicans present in the meeting. Roll Call quoted Representative Mark Sanford (R-SC) saying that the meeting quickly descended into "mayhem." Outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) stormed out of the room after declaring that the election for his successor would be delayed. The top position in the House has been up for grabs since Boehner announced his resignation two weeks ago. The sudden development made plain the disarray within the Republican party's House leadership. Boehner had planned to step down from his position and resign his seat in Congress at the end of October.

McCarthy, the House majority leader who was widely seen as the frontrunner for the speakership, publicly announced his decision to drop out shortly after the meeting.

"If we are going to united and be strong, we need a fresh face to do this," he said.

Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) was slated to give the nominating speech for McCarthy today. Ryan said that he was "disappointed" by McCarthy's decision, calling him "the best person to lead the House." Ryan said that he has been encouraged to run for the speakership himself, but he does not want the job.

McCarthy provoked controversy last week for his comments on Fox News suggesting that the House investigation into the attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi was motivated to hurt Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. She was secretary of state at the time of the attack.

Shortly after the news broke, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted that "Washington (D.C.) is such a mess — nothing works!"

Washington (D.C.) is such a mess - nothing works! I will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! It's not going to happen with anyone else.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)October 8, 2015

McCarthy said he was dropping out of the race because he did not think he could unify a splintered caucus, Republicans at the meeting said.

"We were stunned," remarked Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.).