By LISA MASCARO, FARNOUSH AMIRI and STEPHEN GROVES (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nominated to be House speaker, Rep. Steve Scalise on Thursday ran straight into a well-recognized, intensifying Republican drawback: Skeptical GOP colleagues are refusing to present their help, denying him the majority vote wanted to win the gavel.
Frustrations mounted because the disaster deepened and Republicans misplaced one other day and not using a House speaker. Scalise should peel off greater than 100 votes, principally from those that backed his chief rival, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman favored by hard-liners, who introduced he was now not within the operating and tossed his vote to Scalise.
But many hard-liners taking their cues from Donald Trump have dug in for a chronic battle to exchange Rep. Kevin McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job. They argue that Majority Leader Scalise is not any better option, that he needs to be specializing in his well being as he battles most cancers and that he’s not the chief they’ll help. No House votes have been scheduled.
“We’re going to get this done,” Scalise stated after one other closed-door assembly on the Capitol,
Scalise, R-La., stated he took each query thrown his method and pledged in the course of the two-hour session to work by means of the problems raised. But there isn’t any straightforward endgame in sight.
“Time is of the essence,” McCarthy stated when he arrived on the Capitol.
Asked if it was nonetheless potential for Scalise to search out sufficient help, McCarthy stated: “It’s possible — it’s a big hill, though.”
The House is getting into its second week and not using a speaker and is basically unable to operate, and the political stress more and more is on Republicans to reverse course, reassert majority management and govern in Congress.
Action is required to fund the federal government or face the specter of a federal shutdown in a month. Lawmakers additionally need Congress to ship a robust assertion of help for Israel within the warfare with Hamas, however a bipartisan decision has been sidelined by the stalemate within the House. The White House is predicted to quickly ask for cash for Israel, Ukraine and the backfill of the U.S. weapons stockpile.
The scenario shouldn’t be totally totally different from the beginning of the 12 months, when McCarthy confronted the same backlash from a distinct group of far-right holdouts who finally gave their votes to elect him speaker, then engineered his historic downfall.
But the mathematics this time is much more daunting. Scalise, who’s seen by some colleagues as hero for having survived a 2017 taking pictures on lawmakers at a congressional baseball sport follow, gained the closed-door Republican vote 113-99. But McCarthy, R-Calif., famous that Scalise, a longtime rival, had indicated he would have 150 votes behind closed doorways, however missed that mark.
Scalise now wants 217 votes to achieve a majority that possible will likely be wanted in a flooring battle with Democrats. The chamber is narrowly cut up 221-212, with two vacancies, which means Scalise can lose only a few Republicans within the face of opposition from Democrats who will most actually again their very own chief, New York Rep, Hakeem Jeffries. Absences heading into the weekend might decrease the bulk threshold wanted.
Exasperated Democrats, who’ve been watching and ready for the Republican majority to get well from McCarthy’s ouster, urged them to determine it out, warning the world is watching.
“The House Republicans need to end the GOP Civil War, now,” Jeffries stated.
“The House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” he stated, urging that the House reopen and alter GOP-led guidelines that allowed a single lawmaker to place in movement the method to take away the speaker.
As Congress sat idle, the Republicans spent a second day behind closed doorways, arguing and airing grievances however failing to comply with their very own occasion guidelines and unite behind the nominee.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, stated the assembly to this point had been marked by “emotional” objections to voting for Scalise.
“It’s not for your personal grievances, but that’s unfortunately what I keep seeing,” he stated.
Some Republicans merely took their Chick-fil-A lunches to go.
Jordan, a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus who was backed by Trump within the speaker’s race, introduced he didn’t plan to proceed operating for the management place.
“We need to come together and support Steve,” Jordan instructed reporters earlier than the closed session.
It was probably the most vocal endorsement but from Jordan who had earlier provided to present his rival a nominating speech on the ground, and privately was telling lawmakers he would vote Scalise is encouraging his colleagues to do the identical.
But it was not sufficient to sway the holdouts.
Handfuls of hard-liners introduced they have been sticking with Jordan, McCarthy or somebody apart from Scalise.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, reaffirmed his help for Trump as speaker; the place doesn’t have to go to a member of Congress.
Trump, the front-runner to 2024 GOP presidential nomination, repeatedly mentioned Scalise’s well being throughout a radio interview that aired Thursday.
“Well, I like Steve. I like both of them very much. But the problem, you know, Steve is a man that is in serious trouble, from the standpoint of his cancer,” Trump stated on Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s radio present.
Scalise has been identified with a type of blood most cancers generally known as a number of myeloma and is being handled.
“I think it’s going to be very hard, maybe in either case, for somebody to get,” Trump stated. “And then you end up in one of these crazy stalemates. It’s a very interesting situation.”
Otherwise, Trump is predicted to take a hands-off strategy to the interior GOP battle now that Scalise, reasonably than his alternative of Jordan, is the nominee, based on one particular person accustomed to Trump’s considering who spoke on situation of anonymity.
Many Republicans wish to stop the spectacle of a messy House flooring battle just like the grueling January brawl when McCarthy turned speaker.
But others stated it was time for Republicans to get out from behind closed doorways and vote.
“Stop dragging it out,” stated Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on social media. “If Kevin McCarthy had to go 15 rounds then the next Speaker should be able to do the same or more if they have to.”
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”