A monitor in Statuary Hall displays House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as he sits in the chamber at the start of a tenth ballot to elect a speaker of the House, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Capitol Hill faced another day of votes for the next House speaker as Kevin McCarthy failed to gain support in the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh rounds of voting.
Each of the Republican leader's attempts to win the speakership failed with 20 Republicans refusing to back him and another voting Present, even after the he made several concessions Wednesday evening.
McCarthy agreed to a rules change that would allow just one member to call for a vote to oust the speaker, a major concession that many defectors had asked for and initially something McCarthy had strongly opposed. He also agreed to allow more members of the Freedom Caucus to serve on the powerful House Rules committee.
The seventh and eight votes showed the reluctance of some defectors to ever support McCarthy as speaker.
“You never have to ask me again if I’m a no on Kevin McCarthy, I will never vote for Kevin McCarthy,” Rep. Bob Good, a consistent voter against McCarthy, told reporters Thursday morning. McCarthy can only afford to lose the support of four Republicans, given the slim majority they have.
But even after eight defeats, McCarthy has shown no signs of giving up the bid, in part not wanting to set a precedent that such a small faction of the party can have so much control.
The California Republican told reporters Thursday he was “confident” they would get to a solution and that lawmakers were having “good discussions,” but would not predict when he would have the votes by.
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey faced a new charge Thursday that he conspired to act as an agent of the Egyptian government, a remarkable accusation against a Democrat who had a powerful role in U.S. policy as head of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
An Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip would further escalate the war raging since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack, killing hundreds of civilians.
A retired bank official testified that former president Donald Trump obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in loans based on financial statements that have since been deemed fraudulent.
More than 90% of the people killed by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in western Afghanistan last weekend were women and children, U.N. officials reported Thursday.
Millions of Social Security recipients will get a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, far less than this year's historic boost and reflecting moderating consumer prices.
