Kevin McCarthy Scrambles To Secure Deal As House Heads Into Third ‘Groundhog Day’ Without A Speaker

News networks again will center their attention on the unfolding drama on Capitol Hill, where Kevin McCarthy and his allies are trying to sway 20 dug-in detractors.

The U.S. House is scheduled to meet at noon ET/9 AM PT, but it is unclear whether members, none of whom have been sworn in to the new Congress, will proceed to a seventh vote for speaker, or whether McCarthy’s side will move to an adjournment, giving even more time for negotiations.

What viewers saw on TV on Wednesday night was one of the most visible holdouts, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who appeared on Fox News’ Hannity and MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, as host Stephanie Ruhle pressed her on claims that opposition to McCarthy is growing even though no votes changed in the three roll calls on Wednesday. In fact, it got so repetitive that Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL), in nominating McCarthy, said, “It’s groundhog day again.”

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But Boebert told Ruhle, “As some of my colleagues said, we could be here until the cherry blossoms bloom.”

She also faced a contentious interview with Sean Hannity, who pressed her, “Who will you only support to be speaker? It’s not that hard.” “I’m willing to have conversations with the Republican conference to come up with a consensus candidate.” Hannity pointed out multiple times that her side had only 20 votes and McCarthy had 203.

But Boebert, who along with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) left a meeting with McCarthy Wednesday evening insisting that nothing had changed the calculus, may be intractable where other holdouts are not. Punchbowl News and other outlets reported that talks have been ongoing with Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who has been a key leader in the anti-McCarthy group, and McCarthy has been agreeing to a number of concessions. Among them, according to The Washington Post, is a rule change that would lower the threshold to compel a vote on removing the speaker. Instead of five members sponsoring such a resolution to oust that person, it would be just one. So essentially McCarthy, if he is elected, would be speaker under a lingering threat of being shown the door at any moment.

What has complicated things is the 20 dissidents do not necessarily speak with one voice. Over and over again on the Hill, some of the holdouts have told reporters that this is not a personal crusade against McCarthy, even though figures like Boebert have also turned around and made clear that she will not vote for him.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who as surrogate for McCarthy has, amazingly enough, tried to be a voice of reason against the holdouts, told reporters on Wednesday, “This is the problem with the ‘never’ movement,” she said. “Just like there was ‘never Trump,’ that stopped people from working together, and now we are seeing it here with the ‘never Kevin,’ and Matt Gaetz was very open about that.”

Meanwhile, a group of McCarthy-supporting veterans held a press conference where they talked about the implications of a stalled Congress. That includes the inability of members to get national security briefings because committees have yet to be activated by new House leadership.

Some Democrats, meanwhile, were a bit miffed that two of their members, Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) did make the Wednesday evening vote on a motion to adjourn. Republicans narrowly won that vote, 216-214, after a raucous few moments in which each side scrambled to get members to the clerk’s dais before the voting deadline. The adjournment gave McCarthy more breathing room to negotiate. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) griped on Twitter that McCarthy won the vote because two Democrats “inexplicably didn’t show up to vote,” noting that even Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) was there even though he is going through cancer treatments.

“Frustrating to say the least,” Huffman wrote.

Democrats by and large have been watching the long slop through three roll call votes with some sense of amusement. Some have said that they have been using the time to meet with new members and talk about legislative priorities, said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA).

“The problem is with them, and so they have to figure it out,” he said.

He added, “McCarthy has given away everything, including his dignity, so I don’t know what it left to give away.”

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