It’s day 10 without a Speaker of the House, and the House GOP has left Washington for the weekend after a week of chaos and infighting that left Congress paralyzed. We are exactly five weeks from yet another possible Republican government shutdown, and the House GOP has made no progress towards remedying its self-inflicted wounds. Instead, House Republicans’ chaos has stalled Congress at a time when Americans and our allies are in need of strong, steady leadership.
House Republicans remain as divided as ever and are leaving Washington for the weekend without electing a new Speaker of the House, thereby paralyzing Congress for the 10th day.
CNN: “House Republicans have picked Rep. Jim Jordan as their new speaker nominee, though it is unclear if the Ohio Republican can win enough support to secure the gavel in a full House vote as the conference faces a leadership crisis.
There are already signs Jordan will encounter resistance as several lawmakers have said they would not vote for him. Jordan may face the same math problem as Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who initially won the GOP speaker nomination but dropped out of the race abruptly after facing a hardened bloc of opposition.
Republicans have been mired down in in-fighting that has left the House paralyzed with no clear path to elect a new speaker after Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster.”
HuffPost: “‘We Are A Broken Conference’: Republicans At Standstill After Speaker Nominee Drops Out”
Associated Press: “Overwhelmed and exhausted, anxious GOP lawmakers worry their House majority is being frittered away to countless rounds of infighting and some don’t want to reward the speaker’s gavel to Jordan’s wing, which sparked the turmoil.”
Politico: “The House GOP has entered an angrier and more bewildered phase in its leadership crisis.”
“The fractious Republican conference has rejected a second speaker hopeful in eight days — this time, Kevin McCarthy’s longtime heir apparent, Steve Scalise. While Republicans appear to be turning next to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), some are already airing open doubts that Jordan can pull off what the majority leader couldn’t.
“The lesson Republicans have learned in the frenetic week since McCarthy’s fall: They have no clear choice for leader who can unite their ranks — no matter how long this drags out and their chamber of Congress is paralyzed.”
House Republicans continue to prove that their conference is incapable of governing and have failed to rise to the occasion amidst crises abroad that require strong leadership.
CNN: “By failing to coalesce behind a candidate, Republicans have plunged the House into uncharted territory and effectively frozen the chamber at a time when major international and domestic crises loom, from Israel’s war against Hamas to a potential government shutdown in mid-November.”
NBC News: “Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, expressed frustration Thursday that the failure by House Republicans to coalesce around a candidate for speaker is taking away from time that could be spent addressing the Israel-Hamas war.
‘I’ve got another family from a district in Des Moines who is trapped in the Gaza Strip right now because they went over to see sick family members,” he added. “I have friends on the [U.S.] carrier strike group who don’t know if their family is gonna get a paycheck when they get home because by the time that ship returns to port, we may not have a budget that’s been finished.’”
House Republicans have begun airing their frustrations about their own inability to govern publicly.
House Republican Austin Scott: “It makes us look like a bunch of idiots.”
Ryan Nobles, NBC News: “Rep. Mike Lawler on the status of the GOP conference as they emerged from their closed door meeting with no path in sight to pick a leader: ‘The French have a word for it.. clusterfuck.’”
Scalise: “There were people who told me they were fine with me three days ago who were moving the goalpost and making up reasons why that had nothing to do with anything.”
Scalise: “There’s some folks that really need to look in the mirror over the next couple of days and decide are we going to get it back on track, or they’re going to try to pursue their own agenda.”
House Republican Vern Buchanan: “I don’t like the way this whole thing has played out.”
House Republican Mike Collins: “We should just have a lottery. If you lose, you have to be speaker.”
Yesterday, Several MAGA Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy said they have no regrets about upending Congress.
House Republican Matt Gaetz: “People say it’s chaos here just because the special interests don’t have a unified way to control everything. I have no regrets.”
House Republican Tim Burchett: “No regrets. No.”
House Republican Bob Good: “No regrets.”
House Republicans are stuck in a state of chaos because they take their cues from Donald Trump.
Politico: “Trump Watches While His Party Implodes”
Sahil Kapur, NBC News: “One reason House Republicans are in this nightmare: They nominated a bunch of Trump-aligned extremists in 2022 who lost winnable seats and left them with this narrow majority.”
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