House speaker vote: McCarthy thanks Trump for final votes as fight nearly breaks out on floor

ICYMI: Axios’s morning newsletter characterised allies of Kevin McCarthy as “optimistic” heading into Tuesday’s election for speaker, but reported that none could spell out a precise path to victory for the California Republican.

According to the news outlet, “even close allies privately say it's ’hard to see a path’ to the 218 votes McCarthy needs when the new Congress opens tomorrow”.

Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert, two far-right members of the Republican House caucus, held a meeting with Kevin McCarthy late on Monday as the GOP leader tries to get enough of his party on board to vote him Speaker on Tuesday.

But it seems the meeting was to little effect – at least according to Gaetz.

Coming out of the meeting the controversial Florida congressman insisted that the meeting had failed to change his mind and he would still not back McCarthy.

He told reporters: “We had a brief and productive discussion.” Asked how it was productive, he quipped: “In so far as it was brief,” to laughter from Boebert who was at his side.

Asked if McCarthy had won his support, Gaetz said: ”No.” And pressed on whether there was any chance he’d back the Californian Republican in his increasingly desperate bid to succeed Nancy Pelosi, Gaetz said simply: “I’m a no.”

Kevin McCarthy has yet to secure victory in his bid to control the House GOP conference as speaker in tomorrow’s elections.

But he’s already making promises for the new year, including bringing “accountability” to Washington.

ICYMI: Kevin McCarthy needs 218 votes to become speaker of the House.

The biggest question heading into tomorrow’s election remains whether he has done enough to placate the conservatives in his party — or whether he will be the first party leader in 100 years to fail to secure victory on the first ballot.

According to CBS News, “about two dozen members “ of the GOP conference are remaining publicly silent about how they will vote. That’s far more than would be necessary to tank Mr McCarthy’s bid. Several Republicans have already come out against him as well.

ICYMI: A GOP congressman who is part of a group threatening to vote against Kevin McCarthy in his bid for speaker on Tuesday says he’s still opposed to the California Republican’s leadership.

Congressman Ralph Norman made the comments Monday morning on Fox News, telling the network that he would vote instead for Rep Andy Biggs of Arizona.

ICYMI: Kevin McCarthy is continuing to campaign for speaker on the issue of “repealing” legislation that is set to fund the IRS and allow for the hiring of new staff. He retweeted an article in which he vowed to do so after sending his New Year’s message on Sunday.

A favourite punching bag of conservatives, the IRS was earmarked $80bn in funding over the next decade for operations as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Joe Biden signed that bill into law last year.

Mr McCarthy persistence on the issue is a sign of his reliance of GOP voters not understanding that the legislation to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act will never pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, which will remain in the hands of the president’s party for at least the next two years.

The House speaker vote will take place on 3 January, with Republican leader Kevin McCarthy still lacking enough votes to safely take hold of the gavel.

The election of the House speaker takes place before the chamber has settled on the rules for the next Congress, the 118th. This means that the vote will occur without regular procedures in place.

The House will meet for a Pro Forma session at 10am on Tuesday and adjourn the 117th Congress with the first session of the 118th Congress to convene at 12pm.

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How bad could things get for the US now that Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives?

According to President Joe Biden, pretty bad.

Speaking from the Roosevelt Room at the White House recently, the president pointed to Republican plans to use the US statutory debt limit – a legal ceiling on how much the government can spend to pay debts it has already incurred – as leverage to extract concessions from his administration, as an example of how the GOP could inflict massive wounds in pursuit of ideological victories.

Read more on the GOP’s plans for the new Congress:

Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on a House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol, blamed GOP leader Kevin McCarthy for giving Donald Trump a political lifeline after the insurrection, opening the door for “crazy elements” in the soon-to-be Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

“He is the reason Donald Trump is still a factor,” Mr Kinzinger told CNN on 1 January. “He is the reason that some of the crazy elements of the House still exist.”

The Illinois congressman is among several House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president for fuelling the assault on Congress in an attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election, which Mr Trump continues to falsely insist was “stolen” and “rigged” against him.

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This isn’t the first time that Kevin McCarthy has made a bid to become House speaker.

Back in 2015, the California lawmaker threw his hat into the ring following the resignation of then-House Speaker John Boehner.

However, Mr McCarthy then pulled out of the race – in a shock move that led to the vote being postponed.

Now, seven years later, he is making another play for the role.