Headline Roundup • January 4th, 2023
House Adjourns After McCarthy's Speaker Bid Falls Short
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) failed to secure the necessary votes for the House Speaker positions in three rounds of voting Wednesday, with 19 Republicans casting ballots for another nominee.
Key Quotes: "Kevin McCarthy is not going to be a speaker," said GOP Rep. Bob Good. Referring to President Joe Biden's agenda, second-ranking House Republican Steve Scalise said that "We can’t start fixing those problems until we elect Kevin McCarthy our next speaker."
For Context: The House will reconvene to resume voting on Wednesday. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries beat out McCarthy in some of the votes on Tuesday, but also failed to gain a majority. Some legislators have held back support for McCarthy since the midterm elections, saying he represents the status quo. Other prior House Speakers, such as Nancy Pelosi and Republicans Paul Ryan and John Boehner, have been elected without unanimous support from their parties.
How The Media Covered It: Some right-rated sources pointed out that Republican holdouts could decide to vote "present," which would lower the majority needed by McCarthy to obtain the Speaker's gavel. Some left-rated sources pointed out that even if McCarthy locks down the votes, his leadership would be weakened since he has had to make key compromises to some Republican legislators in order to obtain their vote. Updated 1/3/22 at 6:52 p.m. ET with the House's adjournment.
Featured Coverage of this Story
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
The House adjourned without a speaker on Tuesday for the first time in a century after Kevin McCarthy failed in a third straight vote for the gavel.
And in the final ballot, the GOP leader watched his support begin to chip away.
Staring down a threadbare majority, McCarthy has been unable to dislodge dug-in opposition from the right flank of his conference, who are now openly pushing for conservative hero Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to take the gavel.
GOP lawmakers now hope to resolve their leadership battle privately after several humiliating hours on the...
House Republicans know where they want to lead the country, even if they don’t know who their leader will be.
As Washington was captivated by Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s struggles to become House speaker, lawmakers were chafing to get on with the business of passing bills and teed up a dynamic list of targets, including abortion, border security and China policy.
First up is a bill to claw back tens of billions of dollars from the IRS by reversing part of Democrats’ climate spending legislation from the summer.
Republicans then want...
Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bid to become the next House Speaker fell short on Tuesday over a string of three consecutive votes, marking a chaotic opening to a new Congress — and dampening the Republicans’ celebration as they took control of the House for the first time since 2018.
The GOP standoff — pitting McCarthy and his allies against a small but persistent group of conservative firebrands — led to a bizarre day of commotion and confusion on the House floor, where frustrated Republicans sniped internally, amused Democrats reveled in...
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