Nancy Pelosi Clowns On GOP Over Failed Speaker Votes

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Republicans left the House in limbo this week, failing to seat a Speaker on the first ballot for the first time in 100 years.

Kevin McCarthy, the chamber’s Republican leader, lost three successive votes all held on Tuesday, with about a dozen and a half members of his own party opposing his bid for Speaker. Becoming Speaker requires a majority across the House as a whole, and with Republicans only narrowly leading after the midterms, a small group of Republicans could derail McCarthy’s ascent to the Speaker role, as they did on Tuesday. Nancy Pelosi, who announced her departure from Democratic leadership with this Congress but is staying on in the chamber representing her district, reminded Americans of what real leadership looks like amid Republican infighting.

“Democrats are unified behind our great new leadership — Republicans are in conflict,” she said. “Democrats passed historic bills to deliver For The People — Republicans can’t even elect a Speaker. We’ve seen a Republican House — pure chaos. We CAN’T let them burn down what we’ve built.” With this level of procedural upheaval in something that historically has proven much simpler or at least more straightforward, it seems like an open question how many bills the House’s incoming Republican majority will even be able to pass. They won’t have a whole lot of options to see their legislative priorities through to enactment. Democrats are still leading the Senate, and well, there’s still President Biden, of course. None of those surrounding circumstances suggest House Republicans won’t be putting in their best effort at enacting their extremist agenda, though!

Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democratic Congressman who was chosen as House Democratic leader after Pelosi, also commented on Twitter. “Day One. House Dems are united and ready to get to work,” he said early Tuesday. “Complete chaos on the other side of the aisle.” Some Democratic members also posted pictures of themselves with popcorn around what was previously clear was going to be a chaotic push for House Speaker. That list includes Reps. Robin Kelly (Ill.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), Grace Meng (N.Y.), Ted Lieu (Calif.), and Ruben Gallego (Ariz.). Some made it more clear than others what they were posting about, although the shadow of Republicans fumbling whatever semblance of basic competence they might have carried obviously loomed large.