Republicans gear up for long speaker battle after candidates make their cases: Recap

Gaetz suggested he wasn't ruling out supporting Scalise or Jordan.

“I remain undecided," he told reporters in the Capitol. "I’m praying about it tonight."

At a meeting with Florida's GOP congressional delegation, Gaetz said: "I enjoyed the discussion with Leader Scalise and with Chairman Jordan. They answered questions that were really keen to the minds of Floridians about offshore oil drilling, about Immigration, about our agricultural policies and about our unique Medicare and Medicaid populations in Florida."

Gaetz said that once it's clear which of the two candidates has the most support, "I think there's going to be, you know, a tremendous amount of pressure to coalesce around that candidate."

Four of the former Ohio State University wrestlers who have accused Rep. Jim Jordan of failing to protect them from a sexual predator when he was the team’s assistant coach in the 1980s and ‘90s said Tuesday he has no business being the next speaker of the House.

“Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys?” said former OSU wrestler Mike Schyck, one of the hundreds of former athletes and students who say they were sexually abused by school doctor Richard Strauss and have sued the university. “Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?”

The wrestlers’ decisions to weigh in adds a new dimension to the speaker race, bringing in a controversial part of Jordan’s past that continues to hang over the Ohio Republican and staunch ally of former President Donald Trump.

Read the full article here.

The internal House speaker election that Republicans will hold behind closed doors tomorrow will take place at 10 a.m. ET. The meeting had initially been scheduled for 9 a.m.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said he's not thrilled with either speaker candidate, Scalise or Jordan.

"I’m not going to be bound by 51% of the caucus. There are some serious moral issues that we’ve got to come to grips with before we put a speaker up, or we’re going to go through this process again."

Buck said he expects the process won't be "pretty," but unlike the January fight to elect McCarthy, it won't be done it public.

“Hopefully this will be private and not pretty. I can’t imagine it’s going to be a great process. But there are some fundamental issues that need to be addressed before we move forward," he added.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said House members aren't just voting on the next speaker; they also must consider how that person will address the impending November deadline to fund the government and avert a shutdown.

"I think we're voting for two things at once here," Massie told reporters today. "We're voting for a speaker and for a plan to get through the next several days on the appropriations, and it's not fair for us to vote for a speaker and then vote against his plan."

Massie said Jordan detailed a plan.

"Jim's plan is to take shutdown off the table to do a CR, a long-term CR," referring to a continuing resolution, a bill that would fund the government but not allow for any increases in spending. "So that what drives the Senate back to the negotiating table is a 1% cut, not a shutdown."

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., isn't optimistic that House Republicans will be able to come to an agreement tomorrow on the next speaker.

"I put it at 2%," he told reporters after tonight's closed-door meeting.

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., told reporters after the meeting that Scalise and Jordan are "two good leaders" with "good perspectives on where the party needs to go."

"The question is how do we get to 217? And how do we bring this party back to a functioning majority? That's the key," Garcia said.

"My question to both of them is: How do you communicate to the middle third of America? We're good at communicating to our base, to the hard-core Republican districts, but it's districts like mine, the swing seats, that are really going to define whether or not we keep the majority."

Garcia said about Scalise and Jordan, "I think both of them are capable," but he added, "I don't know if there's gonna be a speaker tomorrow morning," meaning it could take longer before Republicans can settle on who can get 217 votes on the House floor. He said the odds are 50-50.

Scalise left the closed-door meeting just after 7 p.m. ET, telling reporters that the conference had a "great forum."

"There are things happening in the world that need to be addressed right now. We need to get back to work. The Senate needs to work, too," he said.

"We’re putting a strong coalition together," he added. "We’re gonna go get this done tomorrow, and the House is gonna get back to work."

Democrats most likely won't have much say in who will be the next speaker. But they will still offer their own candidate, so House Democrats are holding their own organizational meeting tonight. 

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York was renominated for speaker by unanimous consent, a source in the room says. Reporters could hear loud cheers and clapping from the hallway.

Rep. George Santos said he had "no comment" when asked about a new superseding indictment filed in his federal case that added 23 new charges, including identity theft.

“No comment. I have not had access to my phone”

As he left the closed-door meeting, McCarthy told reporters that there are two candidates for speaker in the meeting.

“I’m not one of them,” he said.

But that also means that in addition to Jordan and Scalise, no other candidates seem to have tossed their hats into the ring.

Asked by reporters, McCarthy said he hasn’t endorsed anyone for speaker.

Leaving the ongoing closed-door conference meeting, McCarthy said his advice to the next speaker is to "do what is right."

"That's what I did," he told reporters. "It’s important whoever takes that job is willing to risk the job for doing what’s right for [the] American public."

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., arrived at the Republican conference meeting in an odd choice of attire: a white T-shirt emblazoned with a large red A.

She referred to her shirt as her "scarlet letter," a reference to the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel in which a young woman is ostracized from her community and forced to wear a red A on her clothes, branding her as an adulterer. Mace has been criticized by many in her conference for her vote to oust McCarthy, as well as her media appearances and fundraising appeals after her vote.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who's running in the GOP presidential primaries, seemingly endorsed Jordan this afternoon in an interview with Howie Carr.

Asked whom he’d support as speaker, DeSantis, a former House member, said: “I endorsed Jim Jordan back in the day a couple of times. So I had a long, long relationship with him. He’s a good guy. I know Steve Scalise, I think Steve’s also a good guy. I think the question is for them is OK, you have such a small majority, who’s going to be able to get to 218, 219, 220 to do things that are going to give us leverage to be able to deliver results? And that’s a skill apart from how conservative or not you are.”

Carr followed up, asking whether DeSantis would vote for Jordan again, to which DeSantis replied, “I think so. Yeah.”

Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who is serving as the temporary speaker, has arrived at the Republican meeting to pick a new speaker.

McCarthy says that despite the support he’s still getting from some members of the GOP conference, he is asking that he not be placed in nomination when the process of picking a new speaker formally begins. 

“Look, there are a number of members who want me to become speaker again,” McCarthy told Fox News radio. “What I have asked them is not to nominate me. And they’re going to nominations tonight or tomorrow. We have two individuals that are running. We will see if they can unite the conference to bring it back. I don’t understand what drove these eight to do what they’re doing.”

Asked whom he supports, McCarthy demurred, saying he didn’t want to put his “thumb on the scale.”

Congressman George Santos, R-N.Y., posted on X ahead of this afternoon's Republican Conference vote that Jordan "has my endorsement for House Speaker."

Santos faces 13 criminal charges in New York, including fraud and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty.

After the Capitol was quiet for the weekend and some Republicans attended meetings Monday, the building seems to be filling up ahead of meetings later today.

Democratic Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York arrived for a briefing a little before 3:30 p.m. ET.

McCarthy was ousted from power six days ago, but he’s still acting like he’s speaker of the House — at least when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war. 

He held a news conference Monday to discuss the conflict, convening it first outside the speaker’s office before he moved to another room in the Capitol. He held a phone call with the speaker of the Knesset, the Israeli legislative body. He offered a five-point plan to help Israel, offered criticism of the administration and called for further U.S. action.

But, stripped of his power, McCarthy lacks the ability to do anything, and his attempt to fill the void may do little more than draw attention to the fact that a chamber of Congress remains leaderless as the world grapples with a new crisis.

Yesterday morning, McCarthy held a 35-minute news conference about the bloody conflict, saying Hamas militants who carried out the surprise attack had been emboldened by the Biden administration’s “policy of appeasement” toward Iran.

Read the full article here.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., introduced a bipartisan resolution supporting Israel as it defends itself against the ongoing attacks by Hamas.

It’s the first major piece of legislation introduced in the House in the wake of the war. However, is unlikely to pass until there is a new speaker.

In a statement announcing the bipartisan resolution, McCaul said he expects it to be “one of the first, if not the first items considered on the floor once we elect a new Speaker” and that he expects it to pass with “overwhelming bipartisan support.”

Scalise is meeting with the Republican Governance Group, the moderate members who first met with Jordan today.

Jordan met with members of the Republican Governance Group, the group of moderate Republicans formerly known as the Tuesday Group, at the Capitol Hill Club.

Both Scalise and Jordan have been holding meetings with Congress members, various GOP factions and state delegations as they work to shore up support.

McHenry was spotted in an unusual area as he left the building — a staircase by the speaker’s lobby where video is restricted, which differs from the route McCarthy would take.

“That’s the goal,” McHenry said when he was asked whether a speaker would be elected by the end of the week.

McHenry also commented on the casualties of the Israel-Hamas war: “They are in my prayers, and if we need to act as a government we will.”

McHenry declined to speak with reporters after he left the chamber.

Interim Speaker Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., opened the floor for a pro forma session of the House. He quickly adjourned.

The Biden administration and key lawmakers in Congress are actively discussing whether aid to Israel could be linked to more funding for Ukraine as a strategy to pass both spending priorities, according to an administration official and two pro-Ukraine Republican lawmakers.

Lawmakers in both parties who support additional aid for Ukraine have suggested the approach as a potential way to secure funding for Kyiv despite opposition from some Republican members in the House and the Senate.

A group of House conservatives has steadfastly opposed new funding for Ukraine, which the White House has requested, and the issue is sure to be a factor in the GOP conference’s high-stakes leadership elections this week. Additional aid for Israel in the wake of Hamas’ brutal attack on Israelis is seen as less likely to face such a struggle in Congress.

Read the full article here.

The Republicans vying to be the next House speaker will make their case to GOP lawmakers today, the first formal step to settle a race triggered a week ago after an internal revolt ousted McCarthy and left the chamber leaderless.

Tensions are high, and the two declared candidates have already split the conference. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., has secured some endorsements from center-right and swing district members, and right-wing firebrand Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, snagged the support of former President Donald Trump and various House conservatives.

A GOP candidate will need to win a simple majority of the House to be elected speaker — at least 217 of the 221 Republicans (no Democrats are expected to join Republicans, and two seats are empty). It’s unclear when that vote would take place, and it could again be a messy process like the 15 rounds of voting it took McCarthy to win the gavel.

Read the full story here.

The House remains leaderless with an intraparty Republican fight over who should be the next speaker overshadowed by Hamas’ brutal attack on close U.S. ally Israel, which quickly escalated into war.

It’s an unprecedented moment that adds urgency to an already challenging week as fractured House Republicans try to agree on who should succeed Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., after they ousted him from power six days ago.

The already tense internal GOP conflict grew more complicated over the weekend when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, which has killed more than 700 people, including at least nine Americans. Israel declared war against Hamas, launching strikes in Gaza that have killed hundreds more.

Read the full article here.