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Biden readies '24 campaign launch

President Biden’s reelection campaign is preparing to launch.

After months of “will he or won’t he,” Biden and his senior aides are readying the details around his 2024 campaign.

Multiple sources tell The Hill the president is planning to make his intentions to run for a second White House term public in the coming weeks, likely in February, around the State of the Union. 

One source close to Biden’s 2020 campaign with knowledge of the president’s plans said a more formal announcement is expected to come in April. 

Behind the scenes, his advisers are meeting with key allies and are putting together an expansive and revamped digital presence. 

Biden is moving closer to the official reelection announcement after spending time with his family in St. Croix over the holidays discussing his next steps for another bid, said the source familiar. 

The intention to mount another presidential campaign began to crystallize even as some Democrats continue to question whether Biden will run again, mainly because of his advanced age. He turned 80 in November. 

“I think it’s all about timing at this point,” said one Biden ally. “It seems like he’s all in. It’s not really ‘if’ he runs anymore.” 

The State of the Union is typically held in late January or early February, but the president has to be invited by the Speaker of the House to address the Congress and the chaos surrounding the Speakership this week has inevitably delayed the address.  

In recent months, as Biden has mulled his next steps together with first lady Jill Biden, he has been getting briefed by advisers on what a potential campaign would look like. 

Last month, a group of Biden’s top advisers met with key allies and constituency groups to talk about the president’s agenda. But one attendee told NBC News it had the feel of a “strategy session ahead of a campaign launch.” 

And as Biden tried to make a decision about his political future, his aides were quietly building the infrastructure needed for a new campaign. The Washington Post reported last month that aides were working to expand their digital footprint on platforms such as TikTok and WhatsApp, where political advertising is prohibited.  

The potential expansion is the result of an extensive research effort paid for by the Democratic National Committee to lay the groundwork for Biden’s expected launch.  

Those around Biden maintain he has time on his side, particularly amid the GOP disharmony in the Speakership vote this week.

Some influential members of Biden’s inner circle, including one member of Congress, were hesitant to weigh in on the president’s next steps until the Speaker race concluded, signaling the delicate nature of the ongoing preparations, one source close to the lawmaker said.  

The hush-hush nature has punctuated much of the Biden era, and the weeks leading up to a potential announcement were no different, including on Capitol Hill. 

For the most part, as Republicans scrambled, Democrats focused their attention elsewhere.

As Biden’s senior aides, including Mike Donilon and Bruce Reed, toiled on a State of the Union speech, which they have been trying to perfect for weeks, the president spent time touting legislative projects, including his infrastructure package.

On Wednesday, the president traveled to Kentucky, where money from the bipartisan infrastructure bill will be used to reconstruct a bridge between Kentucky and Ohio. Alongside Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Biden was able to telegraph that he had kept one of his campaign promises — bringing the parties together — as Republicans battled on the House floor. 

One Democratic operative said it was the perfect backdrop to what a campaign kickoff might look like.

“The bipartisan infrastructure event this week is a good soft campaign launch for the president,” said the Democratic strategist. 

“It positions Biden’s accomplishments, shows him as a unifier and contrasts him with Republicans who are cannibalizing each other during this messy Speaker fight.” 

Biden has not been shy about his desire to seek reelection, especially if it turns into a rematch against former President Trump, with his aides and allies often echoing his eagerness around the matter. 

But even the loquacious president dodged questions about a hypothetical campaign-in-the-waiting in recent days.

“There’s an election coming up?” Biden quipped after reporters pressed him about a decision to run again. “2023 is going to be a good year,” he added. 

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy concessions to win Speakership raise eyebrows

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was forced to give in to a series of demands from detractors to win the support necessary to win the Speaker’s gavel after a historic week of failed ballots.

While most GOP lawmakers are downplaying the significance of McCarthy’s concessions, the changes — which are designed to empower rank-and-file members at the expense of his own leadership authority — are also raising concerns that they could cripple the governing functions of the lower chamber.

One change in particular — which empowers a single lawmaker to launch the process of ousting the Speaker — is giving heartburn to lawmakers in both parties, who fear a hardline group of conservatives will use it repeatedly to browbeat McCarthy into keeping crucial must-pass bills off the floor.

The result, they say, will be a heightened risk of shuttering the government, defaulting on federal debts and grinding the business of the House to a screeching halt. 

“I think it’s a terrible decision,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.). 

“If one person can push a motion to vacate, we’ll do this again. How would you like to do this every week?” he said, referring to the internal battle that delayed McCarthy’s speakership victory for days. “I think that’s the future with a few of these individuals. … It weakens the speaker, and it strengthens the smallest caucus of all the caucuses.”

Some of McCarthy’s conservative critics have also demanded that any move to raise the nation’s debt ceiling — which allows the government to borrow money to pay its obligations — must be accompanied by cuts in the nation’s entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare. And a provision of the new House rules package requires a separate vote on hiking the debt limit. 

“It’s safe to say that we believe there ought to be specific, concrete limits on spending attached to a debt ceiling increase,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday.

“There will be no clean debt ceiling increase, that’s for sure,” echoed Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), another McCarthy opponent who was brought around to support him by the new concessions. 

That demand has prompted howls from Democrats, who want to protect the nation’s safety net programs and fear the heightened risk of a federal default if McCarthy yields to the conservatives’ wishes. 

“If they do the debt ceiling, we’re screwed,” a Democratic lawmaker said Friday.

Another major concern for centrist Republicans throughout the week’s marathon negotiations was the conservatives’ push to win more subcommittee gavels for themselves — an idea that infuriated those already in line for those seats.

Bacon had called it “a non-starter,” particularly among the more moderate Republicans who have worked their way up the ladder into those seats. 

“If you’re talking about chairmanships and things like that, they’re gonna have to still earn it,” Bacon said. “I call it affirmative action for [the] smallest of the caucuses to put them in leadership roles when they’ve not earned it. We believe in a merit-based system on the GOP side.”

Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), who has served in the House since 2013, also highlighted the “seniority process” for chairmanships.

“Everybody has to work their way through the seniority process and earn positions on both committees and gavels and things of that nature,” she said.

The other changes adopted by Republicans as they open the 118th Congress are less controversial. They include a guaranteed floor vote to establish term limits for all House lawmakers; an open amendment process, providing rank-and-file lawmakers with more power to alter legislation; adoption of the so-called Holman rule, which grants Congress new powers over federal agencies; and a 72-hour rule — requiring a full three days to allow lawmakers to read bills before they hit the floor. 

Those changes have all been adopted at points in the past. And most Republicans are brushing aside any narrative that McCarthy gave too much up for the gavel in return.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who emerged as one of McCarthy’s most vocal advocates amid the Speaker’s race.

“These concessions have been agreed to by our conference, and ultimately I believe it’s going to lead to a more people-driven legislative process,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). “It’s about restoring more power and decision making to the members.” 

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) downplayed concerns about even the single-member motion to vacate, saying there is little difference between one-person or five-person threshold, which was the minimum in the initial rules package.

“You already agreed to five, what’s the difference between five and one?” he said. “It’s an accountability issue. So let’s just all work as a team and it’ll be fine.”

McCarthy himself is also defending the ninth-inning negotiation, assuring that the key concession will not make him a “weaker Speaker.”

“It would only be a weaker Speaker if I was afraid of it,” he told reporters Thursday night. “I won’t be a weaker Speaker.”

“That’s the way it’s always been except for the last Speaker. I think I’m very fine with that,” he added.

But Democrats are sounding the alarm, warning that the California Republican’s offer to his right flank diminishes his authority at the detriment of stable governance. 

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had eliminated the single-person vacate rule as Speaker in the previous two Congresses, called its reinstatement “ridiculous.” 

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the previous majority leader, said the deal gives too much power to the Republicans’ far-right fringe.

“I think he gave away much more than I wish he’d given,” Hoyer said. “I think it does give to a small, willful faction of his caucus, a negative faction of his caucus, a faction of his caucus that has been almost uniformly obstructionist, more authority than they ought to have.”

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy praises Trump, Gaetz for helping secure Speakership

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) praised former President Trump and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for pushing him over the finish line and helping him secure the gavel.

He gave the two credit for convincing each of the six remaining Republican holdouts — of which Gaetz was one — to vote “present” on the 15th ballot, lowering the number of votes McCarthy needed to win.

“I don’t think anybody should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning,” McCarthy said of Trump after the House had adjourned for the weekend. He added the former president was “all in” and “helping get those final votes.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) confirmed Trump was on the other end of the line when she offered her phone to Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), one of McCarthy’s detractors. A photo of her doing so was widely circulated during the votes.

 “Absolutely,” she said. “My favorite president.”

Greene declined to say what Trump’s message was.

 “I think I’m gonna keep that between us,” she said.  

It was Gaetz’s own “present” vote that set off chaos on the floor after the 14th ballot on Friday night. He was the last of the holdouts to cast a ballot and McCarthy needed his affirmative endorsement — not a “present” vote — to win.

Things appeared tense between Gaetz and other lawmakers — one had to be physically restrained — but McCarthy said it wasn’t heated.

“It became a tie and … Matt really wanted to get everybody there. Through all of this, people’s emotions go up and down. At the end of the night, Matt got everybody there to the point that nobody voted against it. It actually helped unite,” McCarthy said.

Gaetz cast a “present” vote on the 15th ballot as well but so did all five other Republican holdouts.

McCarthy added he’s “1,000 percent” confident he’ll be Speaker for a full two-year term.

Gaetz, for his part, said he had switched from voting for other candidates to voting “present” because “I ran out of things to ask for.”

Asked if he trusts McCarthy, Gaetz suggested he does not. “Fortunately, we have a rules agreement that isn’t reliant on that,” he said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Speaker McCarthy has arrived. Now what? 

The bitter battle to confirm Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House Speaker is finally over and the groundwork has been laid for the 118th Congress. 

But the multiday, historically long process laid bare the divisions and potential issues McCarthy and House Republicans face as they seek to pass legislation, launch investigations and get reelected in two years.

So what lies ahead for McCarthy, the GOP and Democrats? 

Here are six things to watch as Speaker McCarthy takes his seat:

How much did the Speaker battle weaken McCarthy?

The House Freedom Caucus has power for the first time since Democrats won the House in 2018, and the far-right group wasted no time in asserting itself, providing a glimpse at the issues McCarthy will confront as he takes over as the weakest Speaker in recent memory. 

The caucus of hard-line conservatives has put McCarthy between a rock and a hard place as he attempts to manage the unruly group and deal with bipartisan legislation that is likely to come over from the Senate — which will have to be cobbled together with 60 votes and will be, by its nature, more moderate.

What happens if the Senate sends over a spending deal later this summer that isn’t palatable to the deal McCarthy struck with House conservatives? Will he be willing to shut down the government, which Freedom Caucus members will likely be clamoring for him to do?

How much will he be willing to fight, with a one-vote threshold for a motion to oust him hanging over his head?

McCarthy’s goal for years was to win the gavel. No one questions that, including his allies. 

Now, the essential question to watch is: How far will McCarthy go to keep hold of the Speakership? 

Whether he cost himself a long and extended tenure in the position remains to be seen.

Debt limit, debt limit, debt limit

The looming effort to increase the debt ceiling will likely be the ultimate test of the coming year for the California Republican and will prove consequential in answering how long his tenure will last.

This week’s drawn-out adventure to name a Speaker is already causing some in the GOP agita over what’s to come when it’s time later this year to raise the nation’s borrowing limit — an issue that caused the party intense consternation in 2011, when the U.S.’s credit rating was dinged for the first time in history. 

“You’re looking at a preview of coming attractions,” Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) told The Hill amid the series of failed votes before a deal was reached. 

The Treasury Department has not yet said when exactly the U.S. will reach the debt limit, but it is expected to be sometime after July, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. 

Conservatives on Friday declined to reveal specifics about the deal struck with leaders in recent days, but a number of them indicated that cuts to mandatory spending programs — like Social Security and Medicare — will have to be part of any package, or else. 

“There will be no clean debt ceiling increase, that’s for sure,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters on Friday. 

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a fellow holdout until Friday, indicated that they would hold McCarthy’s feet to the fire over the cuts. 

“It’s safe to say that we believe there ought to be specific, concrete limits on spending attached to a debt ceiling increase,” Roy said, adding that the framework “serves as the template by which we’re going to be holding him accountable.”

Relationship with McConnell

While McCarthy deals with hard-liners day-to-day, he will also have another key relationship to manage in the coming months: one with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

The two men and their leadership styles are like oil and water. McConnell, the record-breaking GOP leader, has led his conference with a much firmer hand in recent years, a stark contrast to McCarthy, whose path to success has centered on backslaps and fundraising prowess in lieu of a bedrock political philosophy. 

In addition, the two have clashed on a number of items in recent months, ranging from the handling of the 2022 year-end effort to fund the government to how to deal with former President Trump to Ukraine funding. 

The newly minted Speaker also opposed a number of items McConnell helped marshal through the upper chamber in the 117th Congress. Headlining those were the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill — which McConnell helped herald on Wednesday alongside President Biden in Kentucky — gun violence legislation in response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act to boost domestic semiconductor production. 

Nevertheless, aides for both members have said the two have a good, cordial relationship. One GOP leadership aide told The Hill in October that the two try to meet at least once every congressional work period. The Senate GOP leader also threw his support behind McCarthy to win the top job before 2022 ended.

Ukraine funding

Funding to help Ukraine in its ongoing battle with Russia is also poised to be an area of contention within the fractured House GOP conference — and among Republicans in both chambers.

The government spending bill passed by both chambers in December included $45 billion in funding to support Kyiv, buying Congress some time before it has to weigh whether to appropriate more funds for the embattled ally. But when the hour does come for that debate, the negotiations could get messy.

While the majority of the House GOP conference has expressed support for Ukraine throughout its nearly one-year conflict, a handful of conservative Republicans have expressed opposition to assisting Kyiv as the war drags on.

In October, McCarthy warned that House Republicans would not write a “blank check” to Ukraine should they take control of the chamber, and months before that, in May, 57 Republicans voted against a multibillion-dollar aid package for Ukraine in May. 

The divisions were also on full display last month when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered an address to a joint meeting of Congress, which was well-received by some Republicans and disregarded by others.

Those differences could stymie sending aid to Ukraine in the future. Some Republicans have said the U.S.-Mexico border should be prioritized more than supporting Kyiv.

The small — but outspoken — opposition to Ukraine aid in the House may also set the scene for a chamber vs. chamber battle, pitting McCarthy against McConnell, a vocal supporter of Ukraine who has thrown his weight behind the aid sent to Kyiv.

Will Democrats rescue McCarthy on must-pass bills?

McCarthy’s concession to make it easier to oust a sitting Speaker has led to concerns on both sides of the aisle that conservatives will hold that threat like a cudgel over McCarthy, deterring him from bringing must-pass legislation — things like a debt ceiling hike and government funding bills — to the floor even if it has the bipartisan support to pass.

Some moderate Republicans have countered that they can still move such bills by teaming up with Democrats on a procedural gambit, known as a discharge petition, that allows a simple majority to force legislation to the floor even over the objections of the Speaker — an idea that Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a co-chair of the moderate Problem Solvers Caucus, has promoted this week.

That scenario poses a dilemma for Democratic leaders, who would be forced to decide whether to bail out McCarthy to prevent episodes like government shutdowns or to allow them and benefit from the opportunity to highlight the dysfunction and divisions in the Republican ranks.

A similar question could accompany efforts to vacate the chair, which might provide Democrats the chance to topple McCarthy by teaming up with a small group of conservative firebrands. The fallout would again provide Democrats an occasion to focus attention on the discord within the GOP. But it would disrupt a functioning House, while lawmakers fought to fill the void, and raise the prospect that someone much more conservative — and more adverse to bipartisan compromise — could replace him.

This week’s Speakership battle may be instructive. While Republicans struggled, Democrats just steered clear. 

“All we are asking is House Republicans to get along with each other,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), the Democratic leader, said amid the GOP fight.  

Where does McCarthy take his relationship with Trump?

McCarthy’s relationship with Trump is both deep and delicate — a knotty political kinship that was only complicated by the attack on the Capitol two years ago. 

In the immediate aftermath of that rampage, McCarthy went to the House floor and declared Trump responsible for the riot. Yet just weeks later — after it was clear that Trump remained enormously popular within both the Republican base and the House GOP conference — he made the trek to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort, to make amends.

Now, exactly two years after the Capitol riot and McCarthy’s initial denunciation of the president, he is once again entangled with Trump.

The former president endorsed McCarthy’s Speakership leading into the midterms, despite reservations from the far right. And when McCarthy struggled this week to win over his conservative detractors, Trump intervened once more, imploring the holdouts to drop their opposition. That lobbying reportedly extended right up to the 14th ballot Friday night, which finally got McCarthy over the finish line.

The relationship could get trickier still in the months to come.

Trump has already announced his 2024 presidential bid, and one member of McCarthy’s leadership team, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), has already endorsed him. But Trump’s popularity is also waning, even among Republicans, and a series of legal and financial entanglements could drop those numbers further still. 

That complex network of political factors could put the newly seated Speaker in a difficult spot as he navigates through an election cycle when Trump, a figure famous for demanding loyalty, is on the ballot.

Source: TEST FEED1

Kevin McCarthy secures Speakership after historic floor battle

He got the gavel.

Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) became the 55th Speaker of the House in the midnight hour on Saturday, ending a historic four-day, 15-ballot stalemate caused by a group of 20 hardline conservative members — and fulfilling the California Republican’s longtime goal.

The final vote, on the 15th ballot, was 216 for McCarthy, 212 for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and six present votes. With the present votes, he needed 215 votes to win.

McCarthy’s securing of the Speakership came after a dramatic scene on the House floor on the 14th ballot, with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) casting the deciding vote that put McCarthy just one vote shy of the gavel. 

Members huddled around Gaetz in intense discussion after the vote. At one point, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) went up to the group in anger, and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) physically pulled Rogers back.

Republicans were about to adjourn until Monday — until Gaetz approached McCarthy, asking for one more vote. On that ballot, all remaining holdouts flipped to vote present so he would win.

It is a major victory for McCarthy. There were points where many outside observers — and even privately some of his House GOP supporters — did not think he was going to be able to pull it off.

He proved them wrong.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a longtime friend of McCarthy, said in one of the final nominating speeches that he had “a front-row seat as he’s grown as a leader — and especially this week, as he’s grown as a leader.” 

“He’s relentless. The man does not quit,” McHenry said of McCarthy. 

Before becoming Speaker, though, McCarthy had to listen.

As far back as July, hardliners in the conservative House Freedom Caucus had started making demands to change House rules to weaken the power of leadership; increase the number of right-flank members in key positions; stay out of open Republican primaries; and take a more aggressive stance toward the Biden administration, Democrats and the Senate.

Midterm elections proved disappointing for Republicans, handing them a far slimmer majority than McCarthy had long predicted. That gave hardliners leverage. Five key detractors signaled early on that they would not vote for McCarthy, while several others withheld support as they pushed for rules changes and commitments. For a few of those holdouts, the opposition appeared to be personal.

Compromises offered over New Year’s weekend did not appease them, and posturing from McCarthy supporters to persist through ballot after ballot did not sway them.

The Speaker race looked to be heading for a repeat of history. Objections from members of the House Freedom Caucus had forced McCarthy to bow out of his first Speakership bid in 2015, when he ran to replace a resigning Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

McCarthy was not going to let that happen again. He vowed to never bow out of the race, steadfast even after days of multiple failed ballots.

The GOP Leader and his allies — including McHenry, Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) — worked furiously to reach an agreement with the detractors as McCarthy failed the ninth, 10th and 11th ballots on the floor. Negotiations with holdouts like House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) lasted late into the night on Thursday.

He gave them what they wanted – or most of it, at least.

Concessions include lowering the threshold for forcing a vote on ousting the Speaker to just one member; creating a select subcommittee on “weaponization of the federal government”; and agreeing to hold a vote on term limits. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a PAC aligned with McCarthy, also agreed not to spend money in open-seat primaries in safe Republican districts.

When the House returned at noon Friday, McCarthy showcased his momentum, flipping a total of 14 of the detractors to support him on the 12th and 13th ballots.

Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and freshman Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), who were absent earlier in the day, rushed back to Washington for the final ballot to help McCarthy get over the finish line. Buck had been gone due to a medical procedure, and Hunt had traveled back to Texas to be with his premature newborn son and his wife, who suffered non-life threatening complications that put her in the hospital.

The drawn-out Speakership fight makes history as the fifth-longest by number of ballots, and the single longest since before the Civil War. It is the first time that the Speaker vote went to multiple ballots since 1923.

“I think over the last several months, and over the last several years, [McCarthy] has shown how he’s going to do [manage the conference],” said Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.), McCarthy supporter. “He brings people together. He is able to unite people you wouldn’t think would be united.”

But McCarthy will likely have more challenges ahead as he manages a wide range of ideologies with weakened power.

Ahead of the final Speaker vote, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, said he would vote against the House Rules package. His stance points to potential dysfunction in Congress even after it elects a Speaker.

“I am a NO on the house rules package. Welcome to the 118th Congress,” he tweeted Friday evening.

Other Republicans were quietly growing frustrated with McCarthy bending so much to the will of his detractors rather than to the swing-district members who handed him the majority, multiple sources said.

The date on which he secured the gavel marked two years since another pivotal moment for McCarthy: the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

That day, McCarthy yelled at former President Donald Trump on the phone as rioters breached the building.Later that night he voted against certifying election results from Pennsylvania. In the aftermath, he said Trump bore responsibility for the attack. Then he helped to rehabilitate Trump’s stature in the GOP by meeting with him at Mar-a-Lago before the end of the month.

In his Speakership bid, Trump endorsed the GOP Leader and called the holdouts to lobby for McCarthy.

A massive fundraiser and savvy campaign tactician, McCarthy has long shown a willingness to bend to the political winds. In his memoir, Boehner recalled McCarthy – as the House Majority Whip in 2013 – voting with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor against a “fiscal cliff” tax deal that he had whipped to ensure it would pass. He could see the growing anti-government Tea Party sentiment in his party.

As Minority Leader, McCarthy has elevated and empowered members of the right flank who helped push Boener to resign the Speakership. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who once ran against McCarthy to lead House Republicans, is set to chair the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who previously cast doubt on whether McCarthy could become Speaker, became one of his fiercest supporters in his battle for the gavel.

In October, McCarthy told Punchbowl News that if he did not win the Speakership, it was “not God’s plan for me to be speaker.”

McCarthy may have gotten an answer to his prayers – just not in the way he likely envisioned.

Source: TEST FEED1

Republicans change minds on adjournment, McCarthy potentially on brink of Speakership

After a shocking final vote in which Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was the deciding vote that denied GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) the Speakership for the 14th time, Republicans moved to adjourn. 

But after they had gotten 218 votes, the threshold needed to adjourn, something changed.

Gaetz walked up to McCarthy, appearing to say “one more time.” 

After that, McCarthy and his allies changed their votes at the last minute. 

“One more time!” members shouted as they rushed to the House Clerk to deliver vote changes.

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy fails to win Speakership as Gaetz casts deciding vote

In a stunning display on the chamber floor late Friday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) cast a dramatic present vote for Speaker, preventing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-Calif.) from securing the 217 total votes he needs to win the Speakership.

McCarthy received 216 votes, with 212 for incoming House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and four Republicans voting for other candidates. Gaetz and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) voted present. 

That left McCarthy with 216 of the 432 votes cast, one less than he needed for a majority. 

Two sources said Boebrt was expected to vote in favor of McCarthy, but then changed her vote to present without telling anyone.

Republicans applauded Gaetz when he cast his present vote, even though it prevented them from getting the 217 votes McCarthy needed at that point to win the election.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-Va.), a key McCarthy lieutenant who had been sitting with Gaetz through much of the vote, was among those who stood to applaud Gaetz.

Gaetz waited until the last minute to cast his vote of “present” — a shift from the previous 13 rounds, when he’d voted for a specific individual.

But it was not enough to put McCarthy over the top, a realization that came to McCarthy and his allies in dramatic fashion.

McCarthy walked over to where Gaetz was sitting in the chamber after he realized he had not hit the magic number for winning the Speakership.

At one point, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) angrily went up to the group in anger, and incoming National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) physically restrained him and pulled him back. McCarthy had walked away fro the huddle at that point.

Rogers declined to comment while walking off the floor.

It capped a wild day in the House in which McCarthy previously won over 14 of the 20 Republican holdouts, who had opposed him for the Speakership on previous ballots cast over the last three days.

The House had adjourned until 10 p.m. to hold what was to be a final vote to put McCarthy over the top.

This story was updated at 11:41 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

What McCarthy has offered his GOP opponents, and what's under discussion

Here are the tentative agreements and offers that Kevin McCarthy has made, and others under discussion, as he aims to woo the 20 Republicans voting against him for Speaker. 

Thirteen of those 20 Republicans backed McCarthy in Friday’s vote, edging him closer to a Speakership.  

Several said their votes were pending negotiations.  

What McCarthy has offered 

Motion to vacate: McCarthy has offered to lower the threshold to bring up a move to force a vote on ousting the House Speaker down to just one member, a change from a threshold of five members that was revealed in a House Rules package over New Year’s weekend.  

That was also lowered from a threshold of half of the House GOP conference that was agreed to in November. 

Floor vote to establish term limits for all House lawmakers: Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who has introduced a term limits bill, said McCarthy made that commitment. 

Floor vote on a border security bill: In a House GOP conference call on Friday, Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) said there will be movement on legislation encompassing a border security plan crafted by Texas Republicans, according to a source.

Commitment to move bills through regular order: McCarthy has pledged to bring up 12 regular appropriations bills individually and also made commitments on an open amendment process.

Create Subcommittee on “Weaponization of the Federal Government”: Housed under the House Judiciary Committee, the panel is a response to a request from GOP members who have withheld support for McCarthy to form a “Church-style” committee to investigate alleged government abuses, in reference to a 1975 Senate select committee named for former Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) that investigated intelligence agencies. 

Require 72 hours from release of final bill text before a vote on the House floor.

Bring back the Holman rule: A recently released House rules package brings back the Holman rule, which allows members to propose amendments to appropriations bills that cut the salaries of specific federal workers or funding for specific programs down to $1, effectively defunding them.  

Some Republicans have suggested using the rule to defund certain investigations and officials in the FBI and Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security or officials who were involved in COVID-19 policies.

What McCarthy has discussed 

Committee membership still under discussion: Hard-line conservatives want increased representation on influential committees, but there is no agreement or promise on that – and McCarthy does not have the sole power to give it, as is a decision for the House GOP Steering Committee, a group of around 30 members from leadership and elected regional representatives.

What McCarthy has not offered 

On a House GOP conference call on Friday, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) shut down rumors that Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) had been promised chair of the powerful House Rules Committee.  

Source: TEST FEED1

The 13 Republicans who switched their votes to McCarthy

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made significant gains in his bid to become the next House Speaker on Friday after a deal with his detractors swung 13 votes in his favor.  

It’s not enough to make McCarthy the Speaker, as he needs a majority of those present. But his 214 votes fell just three shy of the number needed to seize the gavel, and it marked the first time this week that he bested the Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), who had led every previous ballot.  

Jeffries received 211 votes, reflecting one Democratic absence. The seven Republicans who maintained their opposition to McCarthy split their votes between two of their GOP colleagues. Two additional Republicans were absent during Friday’s vote. 

It’s not clear if McCarthy can win over his final opponents. But it does represent real progress for the embattled Speaker-in-waiting after a difficult and historic week in which 20 Republicans repeatedly blocked his path.  

Here are the Republicans who switched sides.  

McCarthy ‘Noes’ who are now ‘Yes’ (13)

Rep. Dan Bishop (N.C.)

Bishop was the first of the group of 20 to switch sides by virtue of the alphabet. Republicans backing McCarthy rose and gave him a loud ovation after he announced on the floor his vote for McCarthy, on the 12^th ballot.  

Rep.-elect Josh Brecheen (Okla.)

Rep. Michael Cloud (Texas)

Rep. Andrew Clyde (Ga.)

Applause from McCarthy supporters also followed the announcements by Brecheen, Cloud and Clyde as they announced their support for McCarthy.

Rep. Byron Donalds (Fla.)

Donalds, in just his second term in Congress, was thrown into the spotlight this week when he became the first McCarthy supporter to switch to the opposition, in the third ballot, and was later nominated by the detractors to challenge McCarthy directly. 

Yet Donalds spent most of Thursday playing a central part of the talks with McCarthy’s allies. In the 12^th ballot as the votes changed, he was not nominated against McCarthy.

Rep. Paul Gosar (Ariz.)

Gosar voted for McCarthy on Friday.

Rep.-elect Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.)

“Pending negotiations in good faith … with this entire conference, Kevin McCarthy,” Luna said to applause. 

Luna, who has been an adamant opponent of McCarthy, told reporters Thursday night that talks in Emmer’s office had been “all net positive.”

That was one day after she issued a statement saying “I did not come to Congress to conduct business as usual or bow to the notion that this is just ‘how things are done in D.C.’”

“I have made my position clear, and it remains the same as when you elected me: I will stand strong until we get a Speaker who will fight for the American people and fix the chaos and corruption in our nation’s Capitol,” she added. “I will continue to stand firm against all forms of pressure.”

Rep. Mary Miller (Ill.)

Miller also said she would back McCarthy based on pending talks.

Rep. Ralph Norman (S.C.)

Norman, another Freedom Caucus member, backed McCarthy on the floor.

Earlier he had said he was still reviewing the details of the agreement. But during an appearance on Fox News Friday morning, he said the deal includes “commonsense proposals” he and others put forward weeks ago.

“We’ll be looking at it, seeing if it’s enforceable, seeing if it’s something that will — will make — it — all of it makes sense, and we’re excited about having these changes made which should have, should have been done anyway,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to ask for them.”

Rep.-elect Andy Ogles (Tenn.)

Asked Thursday if he could ever change from voting for people other than McCarthy, Ogles said: “We’ll see.”

On Friday, he voted for the California Republican.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.)

Perry has been one of the most vociferous opponents of McCarthy with his statements in recent weeks. On Friday, he backed him on the floor.

“We’re at a turning point. I’ve negotiated in good faith, with one purpose: to restore the People’s House back to its rightful owners,” he said in a statement. “The framework for an agreement is in place, so in a good-faith effort, I voted to restore the People’s House by voting for McCarthy.”

Perry had spent long hours in the negotiations, and had expressed sharp reservations with McCarthy that have to do more with personal distrust than with anything more tangible that McCarthy might be able to provide. 

“We’re at a Reagan moment — ‘trust but verify,’” Perry tweeted Thursday night. “The devil is in the details, and we’ll take our time to ensure it’s right, not easy. One way or another, the status quo must go.”

But on Friday, his vote moved McCarthy a little closer to his goal.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) 

Roy, former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has been at the forefront of the negotiations with McCarthy’s allies and once the deal was close, he was expected to back McCarthy.

Roy, more than most of the detractors, has been consistent in his specific demands, which center around assurances that all legislation — particularly government spending bills — receive a robust debate and a separate floor vote. 

If a deal emerges, it will be because Roy has endorsed it. 

“We’re still talking. … I can’t speak to where the numbers are,” Roy said Friday just before noon. “[We’ve] had the guts of something that I believe in for a number of days. But you’ve got to get it all kind of worked out and work with the various interests in the conference.” 

Rep.-elect Keith Self (Texas)

“We are making progress,” the lawmaker-elect said, before naming McCarthy as his choice for Speaker.

Noes (7)

Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.)

Biggs, a former chair of the far-right Freedom Caucus, was among the earliest — and loudest — critics of McCarthy, challenging the long-time Republican leader for the Speaker’s spot in the GOP’s closed-door nomination vote in November, and then again on the House floor this week.

On Friday morning, he retweeted a Newsweek column praising McCarthy’s conservative opponents. 

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)

Boebert, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, told Fox News’s Sean Hannity Wednesday night that she will not support McCarthy — even after former President Trump, of whom she is a close ally, urged the conference to do so.

“I’m not going to support Kevin McCarthy, Sean,” she told the television host.

While those comments were made before House Republicans announced their tentative deal, Boebert told reporters Thursday night, “I am not a part of any negotiation.”

Rep.-elect Eli Crane (Ariz.)

Asked Thursday if there is anything McCarthy can do to win his support, Rep.-elect Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) said: “I don’t think so.”

But he backed him on Friday.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.)

Gaetz, who has expressed opposition to McCarthy since the internal GOP election in November, told reporters Thursday night that he is not supportive of the tentative deal.

“That’s correct,” he said, clarifying his continued opposition to McCarthy after being briefed on the new terms. Pressed on what his issues are with the deal, he responded, “It results in Kevin McCarthy becoming the Speaker.”

Rep. Bob Good (Va.)

Good, another McCarthy opponent from the start, told reporters Thursday that he will never vote for McCarthy.

“You never have to ask me again if I’m a ‘no’ Kevin McCarthy. I will never vote for Kevin McCarthy,” Good said.

Rep. Andy Harris (Md.)

Emerging from a closed-door meeting in Emmer’s office, Harris would not comment on the tentative deal — or even acknowledge that one was in place.

“What deal?” he told reporters when asked about progress on terms of an agreement.

He also rebuffed questions about what concessions he would like to see from McCarthy.

“You don’t think I’m negotiating in the press, do you?” he said.

Harris voted for McCarthy on the floor on Friday.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (Mont.)

Rosendale voted for Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) on Friday, though he at first offered a tease.

“Kevin,” Rosendale said, not finishing the name. “Hern!”

Rebecca Beitsch contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1