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

Max Miller, former aide to Donald Trump and current representative-elect for Ohio’s 7th district, had a sharp assessment of Matt Gaetz as the Republican speaker debacle enters its fourth day.

Speaking on Fox Business, Mr Miller — who has backed GOP leader Kevin McCarthy in all eleven votes for speaker to date — was asked if Mr McCarthy’s struggles were reflecting poorly on former president Trump

Mr Miller said they were not, that he has spoken to the former president several times and that Mr Trump had been “helpful”.

“I wouldn’t say this was a repudiation of President Trump,” he added, saying that Mr McCarthy’s Commitment to America agenda was based off America First policies espoused by the former president.

Pivoting the discussion to Mr Gaetz, Mr Miller said: “I like Matt, he’s a decent man, all that being said, nominating President Trump was a political stunt and should be seen as nothing other than that.”

“When you go ahead and do that and then you send out fundraising emails and text messages — and I understand he feels the need to go ahead and raise money so he can fight against Kevin McCarthy — we don’t need to be raising money off of this,” he continued.

“To me that is a self-serving individual, putting yourself before the conference and the American people and that is why this is so upsetting, and I hope the American people can this for what it is — is that you have a group of some individuals who are good people but are using this platform for a negative way to make money and continue to push an agenda that is only their’s and not on behalf of the American people.”

Watch below:

Members of Congress marked the second anniversary of January 6 Capitol riot. They were joined by family members of the police officers who died following the events that day and observed a moment of silence.

Initial reports suggest that only one Republican attended: Rep Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

Kevin McCarthy is addressing a conference call of Republican members of Congress and kicks off by saying that he and Rep Chip Roy have worked very hard to come to an agreement.

He reportedly acknowledges that he could have done a lot to lower the temperatures at the last conference meeting and that he know’s it was difficult out on the floor of the House and the situation is frustrating.

Mr McCarthy reportedly says he has not given away any committee gavels as part of any negotiation, but the motion to vacate the speaker’s chair is down to one member from five.

“I'm not telling you we have an agreement, I am telling you we are in a good position,” he says, adding that they are still meeting and discussing.

Nebraska Republican Rep Don Bacon fears that the end result of the very public House speaker debacle will be the party being “pummeled” in the polls.

Mr Bacon, a Republican centrist, told Politico’s Olivia Beavers: “If this remains the face of the GOP in 2024 we will get pummeled in the Presidential and Congressional elections. We would have won more seats in 2022 but too many feared the extremes in the GOP even before this.”

He also warns: “The actions of a few that have shut down the House has embarrassed the GOP and our country. Authoritarian regimes will point at this and say representative government doesn’t work anymore. President Xi from China has been saying this for years already.”

Rep Garret Graves echoes Rep Bacon’s sentiments during the House GOP’s conference call this morning, reportedly saying that every single day they continue with this chaos helps Joe Biden.

Two years after a mob stormed the halls of Congress in a violent push to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, Kevin McCarthy walked into the Capitol on Friday morning pledging “progress” with his repeatedly failing attempts to secure enough votes to become speaker of the House.

“We’re going to make progress,” he told reporters. “We’re going to shock you.”

Alex Woodward has the latest.

A group of Republican rebels dubbed the “Taliban 20” have brought Washington to a standstill by torpedoing party favorite Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker of the US House of Representatives.

The House cannot perform any of its vital functions - including overseeing national security, investigating government misconduct and passing legislation - until its presiding officer is in place, spelling paralysis in Congress.

The renegade Republicans were given their unflattering nickname by frustrated lawmakers from their own side. But who are they and what do they want?

There is no obvious end in sight to the current speaker chaos at the moment.

The humiliation of Kevin McCarthy has already resulted in the longest House speaker vote since 1855. The only time multiple votes have been required since the start of the 20th century was in 1923. That took nine ballots and we have now had 11 this year.

Congress has elected a House speaker 127 times in its history, beginning with Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania in 1793.

On only 14 occasions has it required multiple ballots to find a winning candidate, with 13 of those instances occurring before the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861.

Most of these disputes were resolved after one or two rounds of voting, although there have been some notably drawn-out exceptions.

Joe Sommerlad has more:

As the Republican speaker stalemate drags on, the White House is celebrating two of the strongest years of job growth in history, following this morning’s release of the December jobs report.

A statement by President Joe Biden reads:

Today’s report is great news for our economy and more evidence that my economic plan is working. The unemployment rate is the lowest in 50 years. We have just finished the two strongest years of job growth in history. And we are seeing a transition to steady and stable growth that I have been talking about for months. We still have work to do to bring down inflation, and help American families feeling the cost-of-living squeeze. But we are moving in the right direction.

A fact sheet provided by the White House states:

• The President’s first two years in office—2021 and 2022—were the two strongest years of job growth in history.
• The unemployment rate is at the lowest level in 50 years.
• Unemployment is near record lows for Black and Hispanic Americans.
• The unemployment rate is at a record low for people with disabilities.
• Hourly wages were up 0.3% in December, following five months in which real wages rose.
• Manufacturing employment continued to grow, with 8,000 manufacturing jobs added last month for 750,000 total manufacturing jobs created since Biden took office.
• The labor force grew as labor force participation continues to grow more quickly in this recovery than past ones, especially for prime age workers.

Yahoo News reports that several Republican members of Congress blocking Kevin McCarthy from becoming Speaker of the House have been seen meeting at the offices of the Conservative Partnership Institute — an organisation run by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Republican senator Jim DeMint.

CPI was launched in 2017 by Mr DeMint, who represented South Carolina, and since the end of the Trump administration has been a hub for a number of former Trump advisers.

The outlet saw several “Never Kevin” members walking into the offices a little before 8.30am this morning, including reps Andy Biggs, Byron Donalds, Paul Gosar, Ralph Norman, Scott Perry, and Matt Gaetz. Chip Roy was seen in a car outside.

Sources tell Yahoo News that Mr Meadows is involved in efforts to stop Mr McCarthy from becoming speaker — in opposition to his former boss, Donald Trump, who backs the GOP leader.