London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Kevin McCarthy loses historic 11th vote for US House Speaker

Kevin McCarthy loses historic 11th vote for US House Speaker

The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, has failed in his latest bid to get elected Speaker in a paralysis of US government not seen since the pre-Civil War era.

A cohort of right-wingers in his party derailed an 11th attempt to elect him on the third day of voting.

Republicans took over the House in November's midterm elections, but the impasse has left the chamber unable to swear in members or pass bills.

The House has adjourned until Friday.

Not since 1860, when the United States' union was fraying over the issue of slavery, has the lower chamber of Congress voted so many times to pick a Speaker. Back then it took 44 rounds of ballots.

A group of 20 hard-line Republican lawmakers are refusing to give Mr McCarthy the necessary 218 votes.

The rebels are sceptical of the California congressman's conservative bona fides, despite his endorsement from former President Donald Trump.

One of the dissidents, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, told the BBC he simply does not trust Mr McCarthy.

The congressman said Mr McCarthy's team had threatened political retaliation against them if they did not fall in line, in the weeks leading up this deadlock.

"We were going to be thrown off committees," Mr Norman said. "We're going to lose every privilege we had.

"And we'd basically told them, 'If we can't ask questions, if we can't vet out the most powerful person that we're getting ready to put in office, then we're out.'"

Meanwhile, the minority Democrats continued to vote in unison for their leader, New York's Hakeem Jeffries, the first black person ever to lead a party in Congress. But it seems unlikely that he could win over six Republican defectors to become Speaker.

Lawmakers in the sharply divided chamber will reconvene at noon (17:00 GMT) on Friday, the second anniversary of a riot by Trump supporters at the US Capitol.

Despite the holdouts, Mr McCarthy - who has served as the top House Republican since 2019 - has won support from more than 200 Republicans, over 90% of his caucus. They are growing restless as their agenda stalls.

"I'm very worried about it and I'm on the intelligence committee," said Pennsylvania Republican Brian Fitzpatrick. He added that he and the other committee members are not able to received classified briefings until lawmakers are sworn in.

Rules do not require the speaker to be a member of the House, and on Thursday, Florida Republican rebel Matt Gaetz cast a protest ballot for Mr Trump to serve in the role.

"This ends in one of two ways: either Kevin McCarthy withdraws from the race or we construct a straitjacket that he is unwilling to evade," he said.

Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert nominated a lawmaker from Oklahoma, telling her colleagues to move past Mr McCarthy.

"It is not happening," she said, adding that Republicans "need to get to a point where we start evaluating what life after Kevin McCarthy looks like".

Mr McCarthy has offered a number of concessions to the rebels, including a seat on the influential rules committee, which sets the terms for debate on legislation in the chamber. He also agreed to lower the threshold for triggering a vote on whether to unseat the Speaker, to only one House member.

During Thursday's eight-hour session, he was seen huddling with aides and having animated one-on-one talks with colleagues.

The Speaker of the House is the second in line to the presidency, after Vice-President Kamala Harris. They set the agenda in the House, and no legislative business can be conducted there without them.

In November, Republicans won the House by a slender margin of 222 to 212 in the 435-seat chamber. Democrats retained control of the Senate.


Watch: Republican Gaetz nominates Trump for Speaker


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
×