Biden ‘Will Not Insert Himself’ Into House Speakership Vote: White House

U.S. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) talks with reporters after a House Republican caucus meeting on the first day of the 118th Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 3, 2023. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

President Joe Biden will not interject himself into the rancorous battle for speaker of the House following the failure of the Republican Party to secure a successor to Nancy Pelosi on Jan. 3.

“The president served as a U.S. senator for 34 years and he understands how this process works,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday. “He certainly will not insert himself in that process.”

“This is something that the Republican conference has to figure out on their on their own, and they will do so.”

Jean-Pierre’s comments come as the future of House leadership remains in the air. The House held two inconclusive votes on Tuesday, in which the Republican majority failed to nominate a new House speaker.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-calif.) failed to achieve the 218 votes required for the nomination in both rounds of voting, earning just 203 votes to Hakeem Jeffries’ (D-N.Y.) 212. It was the first time in a century that the House failed to elect a speaker on the first vote.

The historic defeat for McCarthy leaves the Republican Party with no clear way to move forward with an already chaotic start to the new Congress.

The drama unfolded as several more staunchly conservative Republicans rejected McCarthy’s bid to become House Speaker in favor of several other candidates including Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz), who received 10 votes.

Biggs and the other GOP detractors largely come from the “House Freedom Caucus,” a Trump-aligned faction that contends that McCarthy is not conservative enough or tough enough to challenge Democrats.

The caucus, now led by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Penn.), issued a lengthy set of proposed changes in the House rules, which determine how legislation is written, debated, and voted on for final passage or defeat. Without further concessions from McCarthy to their demands, members of the HFC said they would refuse to vote for McCarthy.

At the center of the group’s proposals was one to restore the “motion to vacate the chair,” a rule that enabled one member of the House to move for a new vote on the speaker. That motion had been part of the House Rules since 1789 until Democrats dropped it in 2018.

The members demanded the motion be restored as the prerequisite to multiple reforms they claimed were necessary to return the House to its status as the most direct voice of the people.

McCarthy initially opposed restoration of the motion to vacate, but in the final days before Tuesday’s drama, offered to compromise by requiring at least four co-sponsors to back an initial motion. The HFC did not believe this was sufficient.

After a raucous private GOP meeting, the core group of conservatives was furious, calling the meeting a “beat down” by McCarthy allies and remaining steadfast in their opposition to the GOP leader.

“There’s one person who could have changed all this,” said Perry.

The group said McCarthy refused the group’s last-ditch offer for rules changes in a meeting late Monday at the Capitol.

“If you want to drain the swamp you can’t put the biggest alligator in control of the exercise,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

“He eagerly dismissed us,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).

After being defeated in the second ballot, McCarthy held firm, telling reporters: “We stay in it ’til we win ... it will eventually change.”

The House agreed to return at noon Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.