As Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) took the floor to nominate Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as speaker Wednesday, he acknowledged that the process of finding a new majority leader hasn’t exactly gone smoothly. smoothly. .
The day before, the Chamber went through three rounds of voting and still could not agree on who should be president.
In Gallagher’s eyes, however, the chaos did not reflect badly on the Republican Party. Instead, he suggested that the media documenting the unrest and Democrats waiting for Republicans to organize so that members can be seated and the House can begin its work are to blame.
via the Associated Press
“You could send more popcorn emojis. I’m seeing. You could write your own headlines,” Gallagher said from the floor. “But what I see right now is energy — a tremendous amount of energy in this Republican caucus that wants to get people’s work done.”
Republican and Democratic majorities could, for a century, elect a leader in a single round; The last time the House needed to hold multiple ballots was in 1923. While reports before the first vote indicated the race for Speaker of the House would be close, few predicted it would take so much effort.
One congressman, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), posted a photo of himself holding a bag full of popcorn outside his office Tuesday morning with the caption, “About to go to the House floor.”
Gallagher said he knows the process “looks messy.”
“But democracy is messy,” he said, prompting a standing ovation from conservatives.
“Democracy is messy by design. Design. And that is a feature, not a bug, of our system,” he said.
McCarthy lost for the fourth time, then the fifth time, on Wednesday afternoon.
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