LATEST: The House has voted to adjourn until noon on Friday after Kevin McCarthy loses 11th speaker vote.
For a long and frustrating third day, divided Republicans kept the speaker's chair of the U.S. House sitting empty Thursday, as party leader Kevin McCarthy failed again and again in an excruciating string of ballots to win enough GOP votes to seize the chamber's gavel.
As night fell on the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters trying to overturn Joe Biden's election, Democrats said it was time to get serious. The House, which is one-half of Congress, is essentially at a standstill, unable to launch the new session, swear in elected members and conduct official business.
The incoming Republican chairmen of the House's Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees all said national security was at risk. Donalds, who is Black, is seen as an emerging party leader and GOP counterpoint to the Democratic leader, Jeffries, who is the first Black leader of a major political party in the U.S. Congress and on track himself to become speaker some day.
In fact, McCarthy saw his support slipping to 201, as one fellow Republican switched to vote simply present, and later to 200. With just a 222-seat GOP majority, he could not spare votes.
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