From TN Ashok in Washington
G.O.P.’s top contender Republican Chief Whip Tom Emmer(R- Minnesota) dropped out of the speaker race even after winning three rounds of secret balloting , wanting all 217 votes on floor to hold the gavel , thus plunging the house into chaos again with important legislations on funding to Israel and Ukraine in limbo. And a government shutdown looming large on November 17.
Rep. Tom Emmer has dropped out of the speaker’s race, CNN reported just hours after becoming the House GOP’s nominee for the position as mostly house conservatives voted in his favour three times to be the nominee. But Emmer wanted the full confidence of the GOP in him to garner all 217 votes to become speaker.
Tom Emmer, the House majority whip whose bid for House speaker was thrown into immediate jeopardy Tuesday afternoon, tried to balance an at-times moderate voting record while trying to appeal to the Donald Trump-aligned base of the Republican Party. Trump said it looks like Emmer’s speaker bid is “finished”.
Speaking outside the courtroom where his civil fraud trial is taking place, former President Donald Trump said it looks like Tom Emmer is “finished.”“It looks like he’s finished. Looks like he’s finished,” Trump said adding the chief whip was not his supporter. Emmer, the House GOP whip, is vying to be the new House speaker, but his bid is on the verge of collapse amid opposition from the right flank of his party. “He was a RINO. And it looks like he’s finished but we’ll see. You never know,” Trump said.
The Minnesota Republican emerged Tuesday afternoon as House Republicans’ new speaker nominee three times winning 117, 100, 90 in three rounds of voting to succeed in the scramble to replace ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy.
But with a razor-thin GOP majority in the House, Emmer can only afford to lose four Republicans, and 26 voted against him behind closed doors. And despite a phone call with Trump over the weekend, the former president posted negative messages about Emmer on his Truth Social platform in recent days, media reports said adding that could have influenced the republican holdouts.
Several Republicans opposing Emmer told CNN Tuesday they will not change their stance in voting against Emmer and were calling for a new candidate. Emmer was recently criticized by the Republican right wing , among other things, voting for the bipartisan law to avoid a debt default and to codify same-sex marriage.
Perhaps most importantly, he voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, a flagrant rejection of Trump’s oft-repeated falsehoods that the results were illegitimate, reports said pointing to election deniers voting holding out against him.
Emmer lost Trump’s support despite a long history of supporting the former president. The Minnesota lawmaker was first elected to Congress in 2014 and became majority whip earlier this year. Emmer, who lost a race for Minnesota governor in 2010, was a state representative from 2004 to 2008. He sits on the House Financial Services Committee.
As majority whip, Emmer has experience with keeping the GOP’s narrow majority in line. Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry, who is currently interim House speaker, told CNN that Emmer helped hammer out the negotiations between the 20 hardliners and the speaker’s office that eventually won McCarthy the gavel after 15 ballots. McCarthy had endorsed Emmer after his candidate Jim Jordan lost the race after Steve Scalise also dropped out in the first go at the speaker’s chair.
The House GOP is now reconvening behind closed doors. House Republicans have returned to their meeting room after a roughly two-hour break and will try to forge a path ahead in view of Emmer giving up. We will “stay here all night until we pick somebody”, house republicans said.
According to South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, “Minute speeches. We most likely know who’s going to be in it. The consensus is, unless it changes, to stay here all night until we pick somebody,” Norman said.
GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher said “we’re gonna do it again” with another candidate forum after Speaker designate nominee Tom Emmer dropped out of the race. Gallagher assailed members within his own conference who he said won’t “abide” by the rules of their conference.
“We’ll have a vote after the candidates make their case, and we’ll vote on that and if it looks like that person is close to 217, I guess theoretically we could go to the floor. Why not? See? Hope springs eternal,” he said