A House in revolt

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Jan 03, 2023 View in browser   By Charlie Mahtesian and Calder McHugh With help from Ari Hawkins Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), right, during the House speakership election at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 3, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICO WILD RIDE — A small but steadfast minority of Republicans in Congress threw the House into chaos today, as they rejected California Rep. Kevin McCarthy's bid for speakership three separate times before adjourning until Wednesday. A speakership fight hasn't gone to a second ballot in exactly 100 years, when Speaker Frederick Gillett (R-Mass.) prevailed in his re-election effort on the ninth ballot. McCarthy, who was elected Republican leader in November, has long had eyes on the speaker's gavel. But he saw his fears officially realized today when his party's right wing followed through on public promises that they wouldn't elect the California congressman speaker. And while McCarthy tied himself in knots in an attempt to acquiesce to various demands, even agreeing to a clause that only five members could introduce a motion to vacate (a formal request to remove the speaker), it wasn't enough for hardline Republicans who are determined to deny McCarthy the speakership. McCarthy could afford to lose only four Republicans today — he lost 19 in the first two ballots, and 20 in the third. Who did his GOP colleagues vote for instead? An assortment of conservatives, including one who isn't even in Congress anymore. Here's a guide to who received votes for speaker — and what it revealed about the Republican conference. Rep. Andy Biggs: Biggs, a former chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, picked up 10 votes on the first ballot — second only to McCarthy. But he was never really a viable challenger. McCarthy had defeated the Arizona congressman in November when the House Republican conference voted for McCarthy to be its leader. Two of Biggs' votes came from fellow Arizonans. He also received first-round support from Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Trump ally and conservative lightning rod, and Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, the current chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a key figure in former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Rep. Jim Jordan: The Ohio lawmaker and partisan pugilist received 6 votes on the first ballot — including from three newly elected lawmakers and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert. Jordan, who was expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee, then nominated McCarthy on the second ballot — to no avail. All 19 Republicans who had voted against McCarthy coalesced around Jordan and delivered their votes to him. In the third round of balloting, Jordan actually picked up Florida Rep. Byron Donalds from McCarthy, for a total of 20. Rep. Jim Banks: The Indiana congressman and former chairman of the Republican Study Committee — the largest House GOP caucus — picked up one first-round vote for speaker from Josh Brecheen, a newly elected Oklahoma congressman. Banks is a Fox News regular and a close ally of Donald Trump Jr. whose sights might be fixed elsewhere — perhaps on Indiana's open Senate seat in 2024. Rep. Byron Donalds : The Florida congressman received a single first-round vote from Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who has been a thorn in McCarthy's side since winning election to Congress in 2018. Roy had also nominated Biggs for speaker at the November internal party meeting. Donalds has shown an interest in moving up in House leadership, though not to the top spot. One of four Black Republicans in the House, Donalds made a long shot challenge against New York Rep. Elise Stefanik to become conference chair — the House GOP's number 3 position — but fell short. Lee Zeldin: The former congressman from New York picked up a first-round vote from Maryland Rep. Andy Harris . Zeldin, who left his Long Island-based House seat to run for governor last year, has seen his political stock surge after running a strong 2022 campaign that fell short by just six percentage points in blue New York. His top-of-the-ticket performance is credited by some with helping deliver the narrow House Republican majority since the GOP flipped four congressional seats there. There's never been a speaker who wasn't a House member — and Zeldin never publicly expressed interest in the position — but there's no rule against it either. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Contact tonight's authors at cmahtesian@politico.com and cmchugh@politico.com or on Twitter at @PoliticoCharlie and @calder_mchugh. What'd I Miss? — Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to criminal charges in New York: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in federal court in Manhattan today to criminal charges alleging the disgraced crypto industry titan led a massive international scheme that siphoned billions of dollars from consumers and investors. The 30-year-old political megadonor faces eight counts of wire fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations and could spend decades in prison if he's convicted. — McConnell breaks Senate record for longest serving leader: Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) officially broke the record for longest serving Senate leader today. In his floor remarks to open the new Congress, McConnell paid tribute to the last Senate leader to hold the record: Democratic Sen. Mike Mansfield of Montana, who served as majority leader for 16 years. "This scholarly Montanan was not an exciting idealist who transformed our national discourse, nor a policy entrepreneur who brought to the leader's role his own sweeping wish list of federal programs," McConnell said. "Mansfield made a huge impact through a different road: by viewing the role of leader as serving others." — Colorado plans to send migrants to New York: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis plans to send migrants to major cities including New York, Mayor Eric Adams said today, warning that the nation's largest city is already struggling to deal with an influx of people sent from Texas and other Republican-led states. However, the Democratic governor told POLITICO shortly afterward that the state has been helping asylum seekers reach their final destinations — including New York City — for weeks. The only change has been a recent winter storm and ensuing travel catastrophe that created a backlog of migrants wanting to leave Denver, which is now being cleared. AROUND THE WORLD COVID COORDINATION — EU countries are inching toward coordinated travel measures in response to China's COVID surge, including pre-departure testing, masks on flights and testing wastewater for possible new variants, writes Helen Collis. The push for a joint response comes only after several EU countries had already introduced their own measures to curb COVID rates from China and surveil for new variants, despite vows to improve collaboration during the first wave of the pandemic. At a health security meeting today between national ministers and representatives from the European Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization, officials moved closer to a consensus on pre-departure testing for travelers from China, stepping up wastewater monitoring from flights, and increased domestic surveillance of the virus, tweeted EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. The members "converged" on these measures, she said, adding: "Discussion continues tomorrow in [the integrated political crisis response (IPCR) mechanism meeting]." The draft includes wearing masks on flights from China, personal hygiene for travelers and increased EU vigilance on testing and vaccination. It includes genomic surveillance at airports to detect new variants, such as testing toilet water, as well as increased monitoring and sequencing. The EU's crisis response body will take all these measures into consideration when it meets Wednesday. Nightly Number 65,000 The number of people who viewed Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's body lie in state on the first official day of viewing, according to The Vatican, after the 95-year-old died on Saturday morning. That's tens of thousands more than the 25,000-30,000 people Italian officials believed would be in attendance. In 2013, Benedict became the first pope to resign in 600 years, setting a new precedent for the papacy. Radar Sweep A DANGEROUS GAME — A 24-year-old NFL player for the Buffalo Bills named Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field Monday night after making a routine tackle, and remains in critical condition after he was revived by medical personnel on the scene. A normal football game rolling along in the first quarter stopped in its tracks (and was ultimately suspended by the league), as questions arose immediately about the league's safety and how it views and treats its players. Kevin Clark reports on the tragedy and its giant implications in The Ringer. Parting Words Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) gave his final floor speech today. | Win McNamee/Getty Images 'HEAD BUTT AND A HUG' — Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse teared up during his final floor speech today as he reflected on his tenure as a conservative who has repeatedly faced the wrath of members within his own party, Ari Hawkins writes for Nightly. Sasse, who will resign from the Senate on Jan. 8 and begin as president of the University of Florida next month, described his eight-year stint in Congress as a "head butt and a hug all at once." He recalled his victory as a first-time candidate in 2014, and the backlash he faced after decrying efforts by Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election. "We get captivated by the declining brands "Republican" and "Democrat" and we regularly think that the problem in the city might actually be that the policy divides are taken so seriously, that the deep divide is red-jersey screaming versus blue-jersey screaming. That would be a mistake," Sasse said in a speech critiquing both parties. "The most important divide in American life today isn't red versus blue. It's pluralist versus political zealot. Recovery will come only from the pluralist and here's what it will look like — citizens that resist the temptation to reduce fellow Americans to caricatures of political affiliation," Sasse said. The lawmaker discussed his time on the Select Committee on Intelligence and his efforts to intensify Washington's response to China. He praised the resolve of Ukrainian war veterans who he met while visiting the Polish and Ukrainian border, and reaffirmed his beliefs as a free market conservative. "On the left, media personalities and activists often weirdly and ahistorically denounce the idea of America itself, calling the Founding racist and our institutions unjust … But on the right now too, victimization is a story we trumpet. Demagogues denounce the idea that there could be anything left to 'conserve' in America. According to these zealots, we lost the idea of America long ago and it's naive to think it could be recovered, much better to burn things down than try to rebuild. Cynicism is supposedly cool." Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh Katherine Long @katherinealong Ari Hawkins @_AriHawkins   Follow us

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