Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) withdrew his bid to become the new Speaker of the House on Thursday night, following a day of intense GOP resistance to his nomination for the position.
“It’s been quite a journey. And there’s still a long way to go. I just shared with my colleagues that I’m withdrawing my name as a candidate for the speaker designee,” he said, according to The Hill.
Speaking to reporters, Scalise said, according to Axios, “I was very clear we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs. This country is counting on us.”
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“But there’s some folks that really need to look in the mirror over the next couple of days,” he continued, “and decide are we going to get it back on track, or they’re going to try to pursue their own agenda.”
Scalise’s decision to drop out of the race was first reported by Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman. The 58-year-old lawmaker said he would remain in his position as Majority Leader, the No. 2 position in the GOP conference.
Scalise’s announcement ensures that House Republicans’ leadership crisis, sparked by their ouster of Kevin McCarthy last Tuesday, will drag on with no end in sight. Without a speaker, the House cannot function or conduct normal business, and the current situation is without precedent.
Now, Republicans are asking whether anyone will be able to gather enough support to lead the conference and revive a chamber that has been ground to a halt by McCarthy’s ouster nearly 10 days ago.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who Scalise defeated in a secret ballot nomination for speaker on Wednesday, began making calls Thursday night to revive his speakership bid, according to Punchbowl News. It's possible other Republicans could angle for the job, too.
Though Jordan endorsed Scalise, a critical mass of his backers publicly vowed to block the Louisiana Republican's campaign for the speakership.
At least 15 Jordan supporters said they intended to vote for him over Scalise on the floor, more than enough to deny Scalise the speakership. With 217 the magic number to elect a Speaker in the full House, any candidate can only lose four GOP votes.
A frustrated Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) raged at the party’s “traitors” on Thursday, telling NBC News that no Republican might ever be able to get 217 votes.
As of Thursday afternoon, lawmakers were clearly digging in for a protracted battle. According to Punchbowl News, GOP lawmakers have begun to explore whether the interim speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), might be given additional powers so the House could at least conduct legislative business while Republicans sort out their messy drama.
Members of the anti-Scalise faction offered a variety of reasons to explain their opposition.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) cited Scalise’s ongoing battle with blood cancer in her post announcing her vote for Jordan.
“I like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress,” she wrote. “I lost my father to cancer and it’s a very serious battle.”
Greene and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) are aligned in their support for Jordan, but that hasn’t stopped them from devolving into social media infighting over Mace’s rationale for opposing Scalise.
Mace said in a CNN interview that her position stemmed from Scalise’s attendance at a “white supremacist conference,” which is a disqualifying factor in her eyes—although it didn’t stop her from touting his endorsement in 2020.
Greene shot back that if Mace were right, it would mean a majority of House Republicans support a white supremacist.
“We have a member of our conference using Democrat BLM lines to attack a guy for Speaker that more than 100 of our own conference supports, you’re now saying half the conference supports a white supremacist,” Greene wrote on X.
As for serial fabulist Rep. George Santos (R-NY), there’s “absolutely nothing” that can be done to make him vote for Scalise, he told Axios. “I’m voting for Jim Jordan—I’ll vote for anybody. I’ll vote for Donald Trump.” (Santos, who was hit with a superseding federal criminal indictment on Tuesday, claimed Scalise had not called him to ask for his support.)
The chaos works in Santos’ favor for the time being, delaying his fellow New York Republican lawmakers from moving forward with their effort to expel him.
Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) told Punchbowl News that there’s concern Scalise is merely a “rubber stamp for McCarthy.” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), meanwhile, told right-wing talk host Glenn Beck that Scalise was part of “the swamp.”
Reps. Eli Crane (R-AZ), Mary Miller (R-IL), Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Bob Good (R-VA) and Keith Self (R-TX) each issued statements blasting Scalise and vowing to throw their support behind his former opponent.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) told CNBC he remained in Jordan’s camp; Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) told NBC News the same.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) initially voiced her full backing for Scalise Wednesday, writing on social media that he was going to allow her to “aggressively pursue” issues important to her.
But that support lasted less than a day, with Luna flipping on Scalise on Thursday and admitting that “there is no consensus candidate for the Speaker and I don’t think we will make it to the floor.”
At least half a dozen other detractors—including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX)—have said they won’t support Scalise on the floor but did not indicate who their ballots will be cast for when it comes time to vote.
The massive mutiny within Republicans’ ranks shows no signs of abating, threatening to extend the chamber’s unprecedented stretch without a leader and handing Democrats ammunition as they take aim at Republicans’ inability to govern.
Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Thursday again floated the idea of a consensus speakership to restore order to the House. The idea may have begun as a way to contrast Democrats’ seriousness with GOP chaos, but it may look less farfetched the longer the leadership crisis drags on.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told The Daily Beast on Sunday that the vacant speakership is especially concerning amid the unfolding war between Hamas and Israel, and that he’d be open to a consensus candidate to help Congress find its way out of the current turmoil.Re
