October 24, 2023 02:35 PM UTC

Tom Emmer is the New Best of the Worst in Speaker Race

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #7: Hello, “Square One.”

Emmer already dropped out of the running to become House Speaker. Via The Washington Post:

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the House majority whip, and the third Republican speaker pick since the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), had been elected as the GOP nominee on an internal ballot earlier Tuesday. However, it became clear that he could not attract a majority vote on the full House floor because of Republican holdouts in the narrowly divided chamber. Former president Donald Trump took direct aim at Emmer as he was trying to convert holdouts. In a social media post, Trump called Emmer a RINO — Republican in name only — and “totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters.”

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UPDATE #6: No word yet as to when a floor vote might be scheduled, because Emmer apparently has some work to do. First, there will be an airing of grievances — which is as delightful a sentence to write as it was to read.

As POLITICO reports:

Fresh off Emmer’s defeat of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) for the speakership nod, 26 Republicans have already indicated in another internal roll-call vote Tuesday that they will not support the majority whip for the speakership. That’s far more than the four members it takes to block the No. 3 Republican from the gavel, and Emmer’s team is still gaming out how to move forward.

Complicating the picture further: Former President Donald Trump formally came out against Emmer’s speaker candidacy on Tuesday in a post on his social media platform.

“There are some people that are pretty well dug-in and are not going to support the current designee as has been voted on today,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), describing the grim mood inside the room.

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) put it more bluntly, when asked if Emmer could get to 217: “I thought he could, but apparently he can’t.” [Pols emphasis]

Welp.

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UPDATE #5: Ruh-roh…

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UPDATE #4: We have a winner-ish! Congressman Tom Emmer has defeated Mike Johnson via secret ballot to become the latest Republican candidate to advance to the House Floor for an official vote to become the next Speaker of the House.

Via The Washington Post:

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the House majority whip, was elected as the GOP speaker nominee on a fifth ballot in an internal race that drew nine Republican candidates. Emmer, who has been in Congress since 2015, previously chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee — the House GOP campaign arm — for four years. He is the third Republican speaker nominee since the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). It is not clear whether he has enough support to be elected on the House floor. [Pols emphasis]

That last line is the key. Nobody knows if Emmer can get the 217 votes required to become the next Speaker of the House, especially when you consider that each round of voting this morning included multiple votes for “someone else” and at least one “present” vote.

So congratulations to Tom Emmer, who gets to take the next turn squirming in front of the eyes of the country while his colleagues shout out YAY or NAY on the House Floor at some point this week.

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UPDATE #3: We’re down to two candidates: Reps. Tom Emmer and Mike Johnson. In the last round of voting, Rep. Kevin Hern and Rep. Byron Donalds tied for the fewest number of votes. Donalds then voluntarily withdrew his name from consideration.

This last vote could give Donald Trump another chance to throw his considerable weight around. Trump doesn’t like Emmer because the Minnesota Republican didn’t help him try to steal the Presidential Election in 2020.

UPDATE #2: Peace out, Rep. Austin Scott:

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UPDATE: And then there were five, as Rep. Jack Bergman loses the third second round of Musical Speaker Chair. But new problems could lie ahead, as The Washington Post reports:

Five Republicans voted for candidates other than the seven running on the first ballot. On the second ballot, three Republicans voted for other candidates and two voted present.

It is not clear who those Republicans are because the vote is by secret ballot.

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) described those votes as a potential “harbinger of problems ahead.” [Pols emphasis]

What are the odds that the “present” vote is Rep. Ken Buck? Pretty good, right?

Here’s former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (again):

So @SpeakerMcCarthy among other @HouseGOP are admitting how bad this looks… Very poorly, very very poorly… from every aspect.

Sad thing is they still can’t pick a speaker knowing they are taking down the Republican Party. pic.twitter.com/2ION4bRRCE

— Skyleigh Heinen (@Sky_Lee_1) October 24, 2023

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[mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”60%”]“We’re not a governing body.”

— Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon via The New York Times[/mantra-pullquote]

House Republicans have begun the process of whittling down a field of candidates in the interest of finding someone to put forward for a floor vote to become Speaker of the House.

After spending Monday evening doing another internal “debate” thing, Republicans began the first of what should be at least seven rounds of voting this morning. The list of nine candidates from Sunday is already down to six: Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Meuser dropped out on Monday; Alabama Rep. Gary Palmer withdrew early today; and Texas Rep. Pete Sessions is done after finishing in last place in today’s first ballot.

[mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”60%”]“This is a bad episode of ‘Veep,’ and it’s turning into ‘House of Cards.'”

— Rep. Nicole Malliotakis to The New York Times[/mantra-pullquote]

Here’s the vote tally from ballot #1 today, via Leigh Ann Caldwell of The Washington Post:

♦ Tom Emmer: 78
♦ Mike Johnson: 34
♦ Byron Donalds: 29
♦ Kevin Hern: 27
♦ Austin Scott: 18
♦ Jack Bergman: 16
♦ Pete Sessions: 8

Five members cast votes for someone else, and one (probably Colorado Rep. Ken Buck) voted “present.”

The plan, apparently, is to eliminate the person with the least number of votes after each round until the cheese stands alone. At that point, the Republican conference will need to figure out if the last man standing then has the ability to get 217 votes on the House Floor at some point this week.

[mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”60%”]“This is embarrassing for the Republican Party, it’s embarrassing for the nation, and we need to look at one another and solve the problem.”

— Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (10/22/23)[/mantra-pullquote]

Meanwhile, as Aaron Blake writes for The Washington Post, many House Republicans have reached a new level of self-awareness

It’s not clear yet that House Republicans’ inability to elect a new speaker has significantly recast the political paradigm in this country. But the danger for the party is in a drawn-out process continuing to cast doubt on the GOP’s ability to actually govern when voters give it power. A poll released this weekend showed two-thirds of Americans agreed that “Congress needs to elect a speaker as soon as possible” to deal with issues such as Israel, Ukraine and the looming government shutdown.

The situation has apparently gotten so dire that Republicans are effectively admitting that they can’t govern — that their party is so badly broken that it can’t do the most basic work voters elected it to do. And in some cases, they’re indicating their own party is actually doing damage…

…When CNN host Jake Tapper on Friday likened the GOP infighting to high school, Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said that gave his party too much credit.

“That’s kind of offensive to high school people, because it’s really junior high stuff,” Womack said, adding: “I mean, look, we get wrapped around the axle on a lot of nonsensical things. But, yes, the world is burning around us. We’re fiddling. We don’t have a strategy.” [Pols emphasis]

Perhaps the most honest and direct quote we’ve seen from House Republicans came from Arizona Rep. Eli Crane, who lamented to The Washington Post last week:

“I don’t think a lot of people here in this conference actually give a s— what the American people want.”

You won’t get any argument here.