On Wednesday, President Joe Biden spoke to reporters about Republicans’ failure to select a speaker of the House of Representatives, the congressional chamber in which they hold a majority.
Six votes have been held so far — three on each of the two days that the House has convened since the start of the 118th Congress. Each of those six votes failed to produce a winner for the speakership. House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (California), who was viewed as the frontrunner for the position, needs to reach 218 votes in the chamber, but due to the party’s very slim majority in the House, can only afford to lose four Republican votes. A far right coalition of around 20 Republicans has voted against him in each vote so far.
After its sixth vote yesterday afternoon, the House voted to adjourn until 8 pm Eastern Time. At that hour, the House voted to adjourn again until Thursday at noon, though the situation hadn’t changed.
This is the first time since 1923 that a vote for speaker of the House went beyond the first ballot. Biden weighed in on the legislative branch’s dilemma on his way to an event in Kentucky to promote the infrastructure package.
“With regards to the fight over the speaker … that’s not my problem,” he said to reporters. “I just think it’s a little embarrassing that it’s taking so long.”
Still, Biden noted that the “rest of the world is looking” at the situation to see if House Republicans can “get [their] act together.”
Earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden would “not insert himself in that process,” referring to votes on the speakership.
Notably, Biden can’t do much with the House whether or not there is a speaker to run it — as long as Republicans are in charge, it’s unlikely the chamber will pass bills that would advance his agenda. Instead, Biden will likely focus on the Senate and the nomination of federal judges moving forward.
It will be easier for Senate Democrats to approve judges for Biden this term, as they gained an additional seat in last year’s midterm races. Even if Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who switched her party affiliation from Democrat to independent last month, chooses not to caucus with Democrats, the party would still have a 50-49 advantage over Republicans, relieving them of the need to broker a power-sharing arrangement, as they had in previous years.
Senate Democratic leaders have already expressed their readiness to approve more judges for Biden. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said last month that Democrats will “hit the ground running” when it comes to confirming judicial nominees. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has echoed those sentiments, stating that “judges will remain a top priority in the Congress to come.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy