As the House adjourned Friday afternoon, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy vowed — despite the two unsuccessful ballots earlier in the day — that by nighttime he would finally have the votes required to elect him speaker.
“We’ll come back tonight … and finish this once and for all. It just reminds me of what my father always told me: It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” McCarthy said. “I think at the end of the day, we’re going to be more effective, more efficient.”
“That vote is an indicator that we have a negotiation in place that is a good-faith effort,” Josh Brecheen , who flipped for McCarthy, said after the 12th ballot. “The potential of what’s been described to us, pending approval, is transformative to empower the rank-and-file.”On the 13th ballot, McCarthy gained support from one more holdout, Andy Harris , capping the most momentum he had seen all week. Still, those 214 votes were not enough.
Meanwhile, as they had all week, House Democrats unanimously backed caucus leader Hakeem Jeffries , who received 211 and 212 votes in Friday’s voting rounds. McCarthy also expressed willingness to place more members of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus on the Rules Committee, which debates legislation before it moves to the floor. And he relented on allowing floor votes to institute term limits on members and to enact specific border policy legislation.The proposed rule changes represent a stunning reversal that, if adopted, would weaken the position of speaker and make his hold on the job highly tenuous.
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