Rep. Steve Scalise is dropping out of the speaker’s race after House Republicans failed to coalesce behind him in the aftermath of Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster.

House Republicans met behind closed-doors for more than two hours Thursday afternoon, where the Majority leader urged his detractors to explain their opposition to him in front of the conference. After the meeting ended, Scalise huddled with those opposed to him in his office. And Republicans scheduled a second members-only conference meeting for Thursday evening.

But the opposition to Scalise as the next speaker only grew Thursday, with roughly 20 Republicans publicly opposing him. Scalise needs a majority of the House to be elected speaker, meaning he can only afford to lose four votes.

  • CapgrasDelusion@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Jordan would be a shit-show of massive proportions. Which is saying something given that it would have to beat out the current shit-show.

    EDIT: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/us/politics/scalise-jordan-house-speaker.html

    Even though the votes on Thursday had clearly stacked up against Mr. Scalise, some of his allies were still surprised by his withdrawal announcement in a closed-door meeting. Several openly wept.

    Congress being a circus shouldn’t be funny, but holy shit I lost it at that one.

    • protist@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      No way he’d ever get enough votes, too many moderates loath him, and his sordid past hasn’t even begun to hit the mainstream media news cycle yet