On Monday, House Republicans will again begin electing a new speaker who could lead the chamber and address issues related to financial aid to Israel and Ukraine, as well as forming the budget for the next fiscal year.
Disagreement among Republicans on Oct. 3 led to the impeachment of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and derailed attempts by two potential successors to lead the House: Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan.
The leadership vacuum is hampering Congress, which must approve military aid to Israel and Ukraine and vote on a budget by Nov. 17.
“This is probably the biggest shame I can remember,” Republican Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, told ABC on Sunday. “We basically stopped the government from working.”
On Monday, Republicans will try again to nominate a candidate for president. Nine declared candidates will participate in the Republican caucus.
Seven of the nine new presidential candidates (Jack Bergman, Byron Donalds, Kevin Hurn, Mike Johnson, Dan Meuser, Gary Palmer and Pete Sessions) once tried to block the certification of the 2020 election results lost by Donald Trump. On the day of the vote on this issue, Trump supporters stormed Congress.
The remaining candidates, Tom Emmer and Austin Scott, did not vote to block certification of the election results.
With the slim majority that Republicans have in the House of Representatives, it is not clear if any of them will be able to obtain the necessary 217 votes.
When the full House votes, a candidate for whom only four Republicans do not vote will not be able to get the required number of votes.
Jordan tried three times to become spokesperson and failed.
McCarthy endorsed the No. 3 House Republican, Tom Emmer, noting his experience working to secure partisan votes on major legislation since January, when Republicans won the House majority.
“This is not the time to learn new things in a new place,” McCarthy told NBC, adding, however, that “it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
