House Republicans are on the verge of electing a new speaker, but so far, it’s not looking good.
The House is expected to vote Wednesday to replace Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the first ever House leader to be removed from the position after eight rebel members of his own party led a campaign to boot him. However, a closed door meeting on Tuesday night proved that deep divisions in the party still remain.
Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) put the odds of finding a speaker Wednesday at “two percent,” reported The New York Times’s Luke Broadwater, noting that some party members are “dug in” for their candidates, including former McCarthy-backers.
So far, party members have put forward two leading candidates: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Trump ally and Judiciary Committee chairman Representative Jim Jordan.
But the rules of the game are changing while the ball is still in the air, according to Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman, who reported that the party is still contesting the rules of the election even as the election itself arrives. The House vote has also become increasingly private, with politicians stripped of their cell phones ahead of the closed door meetings.
“Not [a] fan of snitches,” tweeted Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, referring to the policy change.
Meanwhile, the House remains paralyzed without a leader, unable to move forward on things like the spending bill or responding to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine.
While Republicans blunder more time on their civil war, another government shutdown looms large on the horizon, with just a month and change until the House’s stopgap spending bill expires.