The Humiliation of Kevin McCarthy

Seven years after he was first poised to become Speaker, and four since he became the Republican floor leader, it appears Kevin McCarthy still does not know how to count votes. 

More than a dozen House Republicans torpedoed McCarthy’s grand plan to become Speaker of the House on Tuesday, denying him a majority of votes three times before the new Congress finally gave up and adjourned until Wednesday.

McCarthy, a Californian, faced a challenge from far-right former House Freedom Caucus chair Andy Biggs of Arizona as well as Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Jeffries won a plurality of votes on the first ballot, as all 212 House Democrats in attendance voted for him, while 203 Republicans voted for McCarthy. The other 19 GOP votes were split between McCarthy, Biggs, and other Republicans including Rep. Jim Jordan, who supported McCarthy on the first ballot. 

Tuesday was the first time in exactly a century that the vote for Speaker went to multiple ballots, according to Congressional records. 

On the second ballot, Jordan nominated McCarthy, but minutes later, Rep. Matt Gaetz—a leader of the anti-McCarthy faction—nominated Jordan himself for Speaker. McCarthy picked up no new votes; nineteen Republicans voted for Jordan, and Jeffries again secured the most votes. 

Almost immediately after the second vote, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise re-nominated McCarthy. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas re-nominated Jordan, saying that Republicans currently “do not have the tools or leadership yet to stop the swamp from rolling over the American people.” 

McCarthy was again denied the majority, but this time actually lost one member, as Florida Rep. Byron Donalds switched his vote to Jordan. “My concern has been like look, it’s been two months, bro, you got to close the deal,” Donalds said after the third vote, according to the Hill. “And so at this point now is that if you can’t close it, we got to find who can.”

After three ballots, the House adjourned until noon Wednesday.

“Feel like I’m living in a worldstar video the way McCarthy is getting beat down right now by his own party on the house floor,” Democratic Rep.-elect Maxwell Frost of Florida tweeted during the third ballot.

But there were clear signs before the House convened that it would turn out this way. Despite McCarthy’s prior optimism that he’d get the 218 votes he needed to win the speakership, long-simmering tensions exploded during a closed-door GOP caucus meeting Tuesday morning, just hours before the vote.

McCarthy directly went after the Freedom Caucus, whose membership has largely been skeptical of his bid for speaker, saying they didn’t care if Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries was ultimately elected Speaker of the House, according to Punchbowl. 

McCarthy, who was a leading candidate for Speaker in 2015 before abruptly dropping out due to opposition to his candidacy from the right, has been in the House Republican leadership since 2011. “I’ve earned this job,” he told House Republicans during the caucus meeting, according to the Washington Post. McCarthy had even already begun moving into the Speaker’s office prior to Tuesday, according to Politico. 

Far-right Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, who went on to vote for Jordan three times,  called McCarthy’s speech “bullshit,” according to multiple reports. 

“I came into this position and we had less than 200 members, we are now sitting in the majority,” McCarthy told reporters before the first vote Tuesday, before suggesting his opponents were only interested in securing their own power.

“Matt Gaetz said, ‘I don’t care if we go to plurality and elect Hakeem Jeffries’...that’s not about America,” McCarthy said. “I don’t see how a few people—maybe it’s five, maybe it’s 20—sit because they want a gavel that they can’t earn by the conference of themselves [sic]. That’s not what their constituents voted for.” 

Gaetz, one of the leaders of the anti-McCarthy faction, told reporters following the meeting that McCarthy was indistinguishable from outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise,” Gaetz said. “It is true that we struggle with trust with Mr. McCarthy, because time and again, his viewpoints, his positions, they shift like sands underneath you.”

“There’s very little difference between Nancy Pelosi and her California delegation mate that seeks the gavel,” Gaetz added. 

Following the failure to elect a speaker on Tuesday, Gaetz wrote a letter to the House architect effectively asking for McCarthy to be evicted from the Speaker’s office. “What is the basis in law, House rule, or precedent to allow someone who has placed second in three successive speaker elections to occupy the Speaker of the House Office? How long will he remain there before he is considered a squatter?” 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, perhaps McCarthy’s most notable supporter among the House’s far-right wing and previously a close ally of Gaetz, denounced her Freedom Caucus colleagues Tuesday and, like McCarthy, suggested their opposition was based in self-interest and personal dislike. 

“We found out that there were several members, three in fact, who were demanding positions for themselves,” Greene told reporters following the meeting. “I haven’t asked for one thing for myself, and I’m the only Republican that has zero committees…I find out that it’s my Freedom Caucus colleagues and my supposed friends that went and did that, and they asked nothing for me.”

Greene was kicked off her committee posts a month into her first term for antisemitic and violent posts she made on Facebook prior to being elected to Congress. McCarthy defended both her and Rep. Paul Gosar, who was censured and stripped of his committee posts in 2021 after his Twitter account posted a meme of an anime showing him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

Gosar voted for Biggs on the first ballot, then Jordan on the other two; he was also seen chatting with Ocasio-Cortez during the chaos on Tuesday. 

“I am furious,” Greene said, before launching into an attack on “my friend Matt Gaetz” for backing Paul Ryan’s speakership in 2017, and Freedom Caucus chair Scott Perry, for voting for a gay marriage bill before he voted against it. (Perry has said his initial vote was a mistake.) 

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who supports McCarthy, told CNN that Republicans who opposed McCarthy “are enemies now” because they “prefer a Democratic agenda than a Republican one.” 

Democrats were gleeful at the dysfunction on the other side of the aisle. “Today, Democrats are united,” California Rep. Pete Aguilar said during his speech nominating Jeffries for Speaker, to an explosion of cheers and applause.

Aguilar went on to say that Jeffries “does not bend a knee to anyone who would seek to undermine our Democracy,” and referred to former President Donald Trump as a “twice-impeached, so-called former President.” During his second nominating speech for Jeffries, Aguilar referred to the Brooklyn Democrat as “the lead vote-getter” during the first ballot. 

Though anti-McCarthy Republicans pledged to dig in their heels until they got what they wanted or new leadership entirely, pro-McCarthy Republicans also made extremely pointed comments indicating they wouldn’t go away easily. “Because I’m interested in governing, Kevin McCarthy,” Michigan Rep. Bill Huizenga said when he cast his ballot for a third time. 

As for McCarthy, he reiterated Tuesday night that he has no plans of stepping away, and said he still believes that he can win the speakership, either via an outright majority or having enough Republicans vote “present” to put him over the top—a technicality, essentially.

Trump had endorsed McCarthy well before the votes Tuesday, but after remaining silent as the day unfolded, reiterated his support for the Republican leader on Wednesday morning.

 “Some really good conversations took place last night, and it’s now time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY, & WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME TO A VERY BROKEN CALIFORNIA,THE ONLY SPEAKER IN U.S. HISTORY TO HAVE LOST THE “HOUSE” TWICE!” Trump posted on Truth Social. (Pelosi already stepped down as the Democratic House leader, but will remain in Congress.) 

Until the House elects a Speaker, it’ll be unable to conduct any other business, such as passing a rules package and assigning committee seats; no one has even been sworn-in yet in the House. The Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, held its ceremony on Tuesday. 

In 1855, the battle to elect a Speaker lasted two months and 133 rounds of voting before one was finally elected, according to House records. After the display the House GOP put on Tuesday, however, it’s not clear even that many ballots would give Kevin McCarthy the speakership. 

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