GOP in tumult after McCarthy’s withdrawal from speaker race

Republicans, despite having control of both chambers of Congress – including a huge majority in the House – have been hampered by infighting.

But McCarthy’s sudden withdrawal from the contest for speaker Thursday stunned apparently everyone in the political establishment. And I think what’s interesting is that Chaffetz is in this because there is this critical problem.

Boehner said he would remain in his job until a new speaker was installed.

McCarthy had over 200 votes secured for the October. 29 vote, which has now been pushed to a later date.

The other two announced Republican candidates for speaker – Reps.

Winter is coming, House Republicans.

Trump and other GOP presidential candidates rushed to claim their share of the victory. McCarthy was by far the heavy favorite to replace Boehner.

We do know that several people in Washington wanted to draft Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, but Ryan declined, saying he can be more effective where he is on the influential Ways and Means Committee. With pressure mounting, he later declined to flatly rule out a run. “Our conference will work together to ensure we have the strongest team possible as we continue to focus on the American people’s priorities”.

Washington Post’s Robert Costa reported on what Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told him about the emotions inside the room.

“I’d like to see somebody like Tom Price take a look at it”, Sue Everhart of east Cobb, immediate past chairwoman of the Georgia Republican Party, said of the speaker position.

Stutzman is a member of the Freedom Caucus, which numbers about 40 hard-core conservatives. “They’ll have to go through it”, Huelskamp said.

The tumult was escalating as the GOP-run Congress hurtled toward showdowns with President Barack Obama over spending and borrowing. He led a white-knuckle showdown over the debt ceiling in 2011 that almost led to a government default and presided over a 16-day federal shutdown in 2013.

McCarthy said he would stay on as majority leader.

“Power doesn’t like to give up its power, and so that’s why many of us have gotten behind Mr. Webster”, Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana, a Freedom Caucus member, told reporters outside Thursday’s meeting.

Despite the opposition, McCarthy clearly had been expected to emerge the victor Thursday over Webster and a third rival, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“The question in my mind is, are these free and fair elections?”

“It’s about burning the corrupt Washington political machine to the ground and rebuilding our country so America can win again”, Huckabee said in a statement.

Mainstream lawmakers saw Kevin McCarthy as an honest broker in ragged times.

“Most of us have recognized that what happens tomorrow is really not the fight”. A small but determined bloc of conservatives had announced they were opposing him, and they commanded enough votes to block him on the floor.

McCarthy said, “Over the last week it has become clear to me that our conference is deeply divided and needs to unite behind one leader”. Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona said his initial reaction to the news was shock.

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said Ryan was probably the only lawmaker who could get the necessary 218 votes in the caucus.