Illustration for The Hindu
| Photo Credit: Satheesh Vellinezhi

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives finally succeeded in electing a Speaker, after more than three weeks of a leadership crisis in the chamber, the deleterious outcome of which was the stalling of important bills relating to federal government finances and congressional funding and support for Israel and Ukraine. In the aftermath of the ouster of Kevin McCarthy from the top role in the chamber on October 3, the candidate who emerged victorious after multiple rounds of closed-door confabulations and voting is Mike Johnson, Representative of Louisiana.

To win the coveted post, which makes him second in line for the U.S. presidency, Mr. Johnson had to persuade lawmakers that his relative lack of experience at the highest echelons of the House governance apparatus would not stand in the way of his proficiently wielding the Speaker’s gavel. Other than the Republican Study Committee, Mr. Johnson has neither occupied the top role in any high-profile House committee, nor held any other post, functional or ceremonial, that would have automatically led to name recognition as a political heavyweight in the tortuous contest to be the Speaker.

Also Read | Republicans nominate Mike Johnson for House speaker after Emmer’s withdrawal, desperate to end chaos

How, then, did Mr. Johnson reach this exalted point in his political career? Quite simply, it appears that the same political force that rendered the search for Speaker an embattled process equally propelled a candidate such as Mr. Johnson to the top: the long shadow of the 45th President of the U.S., Donald Trump, over the Lower House of Congress.

Looking back at the ouster of Mr. McCarthy and the failure of Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Steve Scalise of Louisiana to secure the gavel by cornering the minimum of 217 votes, despite being nominated to the role, it was the degree to which each of them enjoyed the support of the pro-Trumpers in the House that ultimately made the difference.

This begs the question of how far Mr. Johnson has gone to support the controversial views of Mr. Trump on a range of hot-button issues, and how he emerged as a compromise candidate to satisfy the demands of both the Trump-supporting camp and their opponents within the House Republican caucus.

Originally elected to Congress in 2016, Mr. Johnson represented an avowedly conservative corner of northern and western Louisiana. His tenure on Capitol Hill saw him rise gradually through the ranks of House Republican system, when he joined the Judiciary and Armed Services Committees and the recently-established select committee on ‘Weaponisation of the Federal Government’.

Hard right conservative

An examination of his voting record during this time, along with statements that he has made on the record, suggest that the relatively mild-mannered Representative was in reality a hard right conservative on social issues. For example, he has said that he does not believe that humanity has caused the climate crisis, that he is against abortion, and is unapologetic in his opposition to LGBTQ+ rights. On foreign policy, he has voted against continuing U.S. aid to Ukraine.

However, Mr. Johnson’s political leanings were most lucidly on display in recent years when he took a lead in the legal challenges contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, essentially arguing that ballot voting — necessitated by COVID-19-related lockdowns and movement restrictions — was a fraud by Democrats that allegedly denied Mr. Trump a fair run at winning the presidency. In that context Mr. Johnson was again on the record urging Mr. Trump to “keep fighting” and “exhaust every available legal remedy”.

Now that Mr. Johnson has gained the Speaker’s gavel, he has the power to introduce an ever-wider range of bills that favour the political agenda of Mr. Trump, who at this time looks likely to be the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

By setting the scene legislatively for Mr. Trump and thus paving the way for the latter’s second presidential campaign, Mr. Johnson will now put Democrats’ backs against the wall and force their hand in opposition to every contentious bill in the House.

The inevitable collapse of bipartisanship in the Lower Chamber that this outcome presages could well impact the very quality of governance by the federal government, not to mention deepen the bitter polarisation of the electorate on issues such as reproductive rights, immigration, the role of the government in steering the economy, and racism.

Washington:

 Republican Congressman from Louisiana Mike Johnson has been elected as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, bringing an end to three weeks of uncertainty in US politics.

The position of Speaker of the House of Representatives is one of the most powerful political chairs in the country and is third in the line of succession after the US President.

Johnson on Wednesday was elected by 220 to 209 votes in a bitterly divided Congress, three weeks after his predecessor Kevin McCarthy was unceremoniously voted out of the seat for the first time in US history. In the 435-member House, the Republicans hold a slender majority with 221 seats against 212 of the Democrats.

The 56th Speaker of the House of Representatives, Johnson, 51, a lawyer by profession, is a four-term Congressman from the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana.

In his maiden address to the Congress, Speaker Johnson said his first legislative agenda would be to bring a resolution in support of Israel, a country that was hit by a terrorist attack by Hamas early this month.

“We are going to show not only Israel but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas that we have seen play out on our television screens is wretched and wrong,” he said.

“We want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations. Let the enemies of freedom around the world hear us loud and clear: The people’s house is back in business,” Johnson said.

However, his main challenge at hand would be to avoid a government shutdown by passing the spending bill and approving the USD100 billion request by President Joe Biden to fund the war in Israel and Ukraine.

Johnson, whose candidature was supported by former president Donald Trump, said that he would propose a short-term measure to fund the government through January 15 or April 15.

“So, at this time yesterday, nobody was thinking of Mike and then we put out the word and now he’s speaker of the House, so I wanted to thank all of the supporters that I have and I want to thank all of the supporters Mike has, and again he will be a great speaker,” Trump said after the election of the new speaker.

In his speech, Johnson indicated that he is getting down to business immediately. “The American people’s business is too urgent at this moment,” he said.

“We’re in the majority right now. We’ve gone through a little bit of suffering. We’ve gone through a little bit of character building. And, you know what it’s produced? More strength, more perseverance, and a lot of hope. And that’s what we are about to deliver to the American people,” Johnson said, adding that he would have an aggressive schedule in the days and weeks ahead. US President Joe Biden said he is looking forward to working with the Speaker Johnson.

According to the White House, this afternoon, Biden called Johnson to congratulate him on his election, and expressed that he looks forward to working together to find common ground on behalf of the American people “While House Republicans spent the last 22 days determining who would lead their conference, I have worked on those pressing issues, proposing a historic supplemental funding package that advances our bipartisan national security interests in Israel and Ukraine, secures our border, and invests in the American people. These priorities have been endorsed by leaders in both parties,” Biden said in a statement.

“We need to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days. Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Republicans eagerly elected Rep. Mike Johnson as House Speaker on October 25, elevating a deeply conservative but lesser-known leader to the seat of U.S. power and ending for now the political chaos in their majority.

Mr. Johnson, 51, of Louisiana, swept through on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put the past weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing. He was quickly sworn into office.

“We are ready to get to work again,” he said after taking the gavel.

To the American people watching he said, “Our mission here is to serve you well and to restore the people’s faith in this House.”

A lower-ranked member of the House GOP leadership team, Mr. Johnson emerged as the fourth Republican nominee in what had become an almost absurd cycle of political infighting since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as GOP factions jockeyed for power. While not the party’s top choice for the gavel, the deeply religious and even-keeled Mr. Johnson has few foes and an important GOP backer: Donald Trump.

“I think he’s gonna be a fantastic Speaker,” Mr. Trump said on October 25 at the New York courthouse where the former President, who is now the Republican front-runner for President in 2024, is on trial over a lawsuit alleging business fraud.

Three weeks on without a House Speaker, the Republicans have been wasting their majority status — a maddening embarrassment to some, democracy in action to others, but not at all how the House is expected to function.

Far-right members had refused to accept a more traditional Speaker, and moderate conservatives didn’t want a hard-liner. While Mr. Johnson had no opponents during a private party roll call late on October 24, some two dozen Republicans did not vote, more than enough to sink his nomination.

But when GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik rose to introduce Mr. Johnson’s name on October 25 as their nominee, Republicans jumped to their feet for a standing ovation.

“House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson will never give up,” she said.

Democrats again nominated their leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, criticising Mr. Johnson as an architect of Mr. Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

With Republicans controlling the House only 221-212 over Democrats, Mr. Johnson could afford just a few detractors to win the gavel. He won 220-209, with a few absences.

Mr. Jeffries said House Democrats will work with Republicans whenever possible for the “good of the country.”

Overnight the endorsements for Mr. Johnson started pouring in, including from failed speaker hopefuls. Rep. Jim Jordan, the hard-charging Judiciary Committee chairman, gave his support, as did Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the fellow Louisiana congressman, who stood behind Mr. Johnson after he won the nomination.

“Mike! Mike! Mike!” lawmakers chanted at a press conference after the late-night internal vote, surrounding Mr. Johnson and posing for selfies in a show of support.

Anxious and exhausted, Republican lawmakers are desperately trying to move on.

Mr. Johnson’s rise comes after a tumultuous month, capped by a head-spinning on October 24 that within a span of a few hours saw one candidate, Rep. Tom Emmer, the GOP Whip, nominated and then quickly withdraw when it became clear he would be the third candidate unable to secure enough support from GOP colleagues after Mr. Trump bashed his nomination.

“He wasn’t MAGA,” said Mr. Trump, referring to his Make America Great Again campaign slogan.

Attention quickly turned to Mr. Johnson. A lawyer specialising in constitutional issues, Mr. Johnson had rallied Republicans around Mr. Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

Explained | Gaining the gavel: the role of the U.S. House Speaker  

Elevating Mr. Johnson to speaker gives Louisianians two high-ranking GOP leaders, putting him above Scalise, who was rejected by hard-liners in his own bid as Speaker.

Mr. Johnson is affable and well liked, with a fiery belief system, and colleagues swiftly started giving him their support.

“Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system,” Mr. Johnson said after winning the nomination. “We’re going to restore your trust in what we do here.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who led a small band of hard-liners to engineer Mr. McCarthy’s ouster at the start of the month, posted on social media that “Mike Johnson won’t be the Speaker the Swamp wants but, he is the Speaker America needs.”

Republicans have been flailing all month, unable to conduct routine business as they fight amongst themselves with daunting challenges ahead.

The federal government risks a shutdown in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to pass funding legislation by a Nov. 17 deadline to keep services and offices running. More immediately, President Biden has asked Congress to provide $105 billion in aid — to help Israel and Ukraine amid their wars and to shore up the U.S. border with Mexico. Federal aviation and farming programs face expiration without action.

Many hard-liners have been resisting a leader who voted for the budget deal that Mr. McCarthy struck with Mr. Biden earlier this year, which set federal spending levels that far-right Republicans don’t agree with and now want to undo. They are pursuing steeper cuts to federal programs and services with next month’s funding deadline.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she wanted assurances the candidates would pursue impeachment inquiries into Biden and other top Cabinet officials.

During the turmoil, the House was led by a Speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the bow tie-wearing chairman of the Financial Services Committee. His main job was to elect a more permanent Speaker.

Some Republicans — and Democrats — wanted to give Mr. McHenry more power to get on with the routine business of governing. But Mr. McHenry, the first person to be in the position that was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks as an emergency measure, declined to back those overtures. He, too, received a standing ovation.

Washington:

Hardline conservative Republican Jim Jordan’s quest to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives ended on Friday as his fellow Republicans revoked their support following a third, failed vote on the House floor, lawmakers said.

The secret-ballot vote means the chamber will be leaderless and unable to respond to President Joe Biden’s request for aid to Ukraine and Israel until next week at the earliest.

Opposition to Jordan’s candidacy from within his party grew over the course of the week. Some 25 Republican lawmakers voted against him in a third round of balloting on the House floor on Friday, more than the 22 who had opposed in the second round on Wednesday. Jordan received 194 votes, well short of the 214 he needed to claim the speaker’s gavel.

Republicans then voted to revoke Jordan’s nomination in a closed-door meeting.

Now ending its third workweek without a leader, the House cannot act on a $106 billion national-security package unveiled by Biden on Friday that would bolster U.S. border security and send billions to Israel and Ukraine.

“Jim is a good man. But you know, when the votes aren’t there, the votes aren’t there,” said Republican Representative Greg Murphy, a Jordan supporter.

A close ally of Donald Trump, Jordan was a “significant player” in the former president’s attempts to overturn Biden’s 2020 election win, according to a congressional investigation.

“I think there were all kinds of problems with the 2020 election, and I’ve been clear about that,” he said at a news conference before the vote.

The narrow and fractious Republican majority has failed to unite behind Jordan or any other candidate to replace Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted by a handful of party members on Oct. 3. They also have been unable to agree on a fallback plan that would let the chamber take up legislation.

Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority, though some members were absent from Friday’s voting.

Jordan’s vote total was less than McCarthy netted in 15 grueling rounds of voting in January.

DEATH THREATS

Jordan’s bare-knuckle approach seems to have worked against him, as some of his Republican opponents have been outraged by harassing phone calls and death threats.

Jordan’s allies say that should not matter. “All of us in Congress receive death threats. I don’t know if that’s a newsflash for anybody here,” Republican Representative Scott Perry said.

Democrats describe Jordan as a dangerous extremist and have unanimously voted against him.

“Their nominee’s vision is a direct attack on the freedom and the rights of the American people, and he’s got the record to prove it,” Democratic Representative Katherine Clark said on the House floor.

It is unclear whether Republicans will be able to unite behind any other candidates possible candidates if Jordan drops out.

Republicans also are divided on a backup option that could allow the chamber to address Biden’s aid package and other pressing matters, like spending legislation that would allow the U.S. government to keep functioning beyond a Nov. 17 deadline.

That plan would give more authority to Republican Representative Patrick McHenry, who is filling the speaker’s chair on a temporary basis. House Democrats and the White House have said they are open to the idea, but Republicans rejected it on Thursday.

‘PETTY, PARTISAN, ANGRY POLITICS’

Biden urged Republicans to resolve their differences in a televised speech on Thursday. “You can’t let petty, partisan, angry politics get in the way of our responsibilities as a great nation,” he said.

Investors say the turmoil on Capitol Hill is also contributing to market volatility.

Jordan has built his reputation as a leader of that uncompromising right flank. His backers said that would make him an effective fighter for conservative policies in a town where Democrats control the Senate and the White House.

He helped to engineer government shutdowns in 2013 and 2018 and helped to push Republican Speaker John Boehner into retirement in 2015.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Republicans nominated conservative hardliner Jim Jordan as their candidate for speaker of the US House of Representatives, the party leadership announced Friday, as the lower chamber of Congress remained paralyzed for a 10th day.

The 59-year-old chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee saw off a challenge from Georgia congressman Austin Scott to win a secret ballot of House Republicans for the nomination, said conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik.

But he will have to win a majority of the 433-member full House to secure the gavel.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, talks to reporters as he announces he is ending his campaign to be the next House speaker after a Republican meeting at the Capitol in Washington, on October 12, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Representative Steve Scalise, who Republicans nominated to be the next speaker of the House of Representatives, dropped out of the race on Thursday as the party failed to resolve its divisions, prolonging the leadership crisis in the chamber.

Mr. Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, had secured his party’s nomination to replace ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy but was still short of the 217 votes needed to be elected on the House floor, as several of his fellow Republicans said they would not support him.

EDITORIAL | Fractured collective: On Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as U.S. House Speaker

Republicans could afford no more than four defections as they control the House by a narrow 221-212 margin if they wanted to end the House’s leaderless bout that has already lasted nine days.

“I just shared with my colleagues that I was withdrawing my name as a candidate for our speaker designee,” Mr. Scalise told reporters.

“If you look at over the last few weeks, if you look at where our conference is, there is still work to be done… There are still some people that have their own agendas.”

The Republican infighting has left the chamber unable to act to support Israel’s war against Palestinian militants of Hamas and pass government spending bills before funding runs out on November 17.

Republicans had been hoping to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing spectacle that occurred in January, when hardline conservatives forced Mr. McCarthy to endure 15 floor votes over four days before winning the gavel.

‘At a standstill’

Several Republicans earlier said they would stick with Scalise’s rival Jim Jordan, who lost out in a secret-ballot vote on Wednesday. Mr. Jordan has encouraged his supporters to vote for Mr. Scalise, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

While Mr. McCarthy was the first speaker to be removed in a formal vote, the last two Republicans to hold the job wound up leaving under pressure from party hardliners.

Mr. Scalise, 58, gained near legendary status within Republican circles by surviving a severe gunshot wound after a gunman opened fire during practice for a charity baseball game in 2017.

He also commands widespread respect as a veteran legislator, who has spent years in party leadership positions.

But Mr. Scalise also faces new health concerns as he undergoes treatment for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, which some Mr. Jordan supporters cited as a reason not to vote for him.

Mr. Jordan was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and appeared to be the favorite of populist minded hardliners.

Mr. Trump in an interview with Fox News Radio earlier on Thursday said he did not object to Mr. Scalise as speaker.

“Steve is a man that is in serious trouble from the standpoint of his cancer. I mean, he’s got to get better for himself,” he said in an interview with Fox News Radio.

Former President Donald Trump is officially backing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, House Judiciary Committee chairman and long-time Donald Trump defender, to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

“Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C., representing Ohio’s 4th Congressional District,” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social site shortly after midnight Friday. “He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”

The announcement came hours after Texas Rep. Troy Nehls said on October 5 that Mr. Trump had decided to back Mr. Jordan’s bid and after Mr. Trump had been in talks to visit Capitol Hill next week as Republicans debate who should be the next speaker following Mr. McCarthy’s stunning ouster.

The trip would have been Donald Trump’s first to the Capitol since leaving office and since his supporters attacked the building in a bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on January 6, 2021. Mr. Trump has been indicted in both Washington and Georgia over his efforts to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to President Joe Biden.

Donald Trump, the current GOP Presidential front-runner, has used the leadership vacuum on the Hill to further demonstrate his control over the Republican Party. House Republicans are deeply fractured and some have been asking him to lead them — a seemingly fanciful suggestion that he also promoted after inflaming the divisions that forced out Kevin McCarthy as Speaker.

Mr. Trump had been telling people in recent days that he preferred Jim Jordan for the post, according to two Republicans familiar with his thinking and granted anonymity to discuss it. But it was unclear whether he intended to announce it before Mr. Nehls’ tweet.

“Just had a great conversation with President Trump about the Speaker’s race. He is endorsing Jim Jordan, and I believe Congress should listen to the leader of our party,” Mr. Nehls wrote late Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Explained | What are the implications of Kevin McCarthy’s ouster?

In an interview with The Associated Press, Mr. Nehls, who had been encouraging Donald Trump himself to run for job, said the former President had made up his mind.

“After him thinking about it and this and that … he said he really is in favour of getting behind Jim Jordan,” Mr. Nehls said. “He believes Jim Jordan is right for the job.”

Jim Jordan is one of the two leading candidates manoeuvering for Speaker along with Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Both are trying to lock in the 218 votes required to win the job and need the support of both the far-right and moderate factions of the party. It’s unclear whether a Trump endorsement will force Mr. Scalise, the current GOP majority leader, out of the race.

Mr. Nehls said that if no current candidate succeeds in earning the support needed to win, he would once again turn to Mr. Trump. “Our conference is divided. Our country is broken. I don’t know who can get to 218,” he said in an interview.

Earlier, Donald Trump had told Fox News Digital that he was heading to Washington on Tuesday to meet with Republicans. Three people familiar with the matter disclosed the talks about visiting the Capitol to The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. Mr. Nehls, however, said it was unlikely Mr. Trump would make the trip.

Mr. Trump would most likely have attended a closed-door candidate forum that Republicans plan to hold Tuesday evening ahead of a Speakership vote that could happen as soon as on Wednesday, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Jordan is also one of Donald Trump’s biggest champions on the Hill and has been leading the investigations into prosecutors who have charged the former President. He was also part of a group of Republicans who worked with Mr. Trump to overturn his defeat ahead of January 6. Mr. Scalise has also worked closely with Mr. Trump over the years.

One of the people familiar with the planning had cautioned earlier on Thursday that, if Mr. Trump did go ahead with the visit, he would be there to talk with Republican lawmakers and not to pitch himself for the role.

Still, Mr. Trump continued to stoke speculation, telling Fox News Digital on Thursday that he would accept a short-term role as Speaker — for anywhere from 30 to 90 days — if another candidate doesn’t have the votes to win.

“I have been asked to speak as a unifier because I have so many friends in Congress,” he told the outlet. “If they don’t get the vote, they have asked me if I would consider taking the Speakership until they get somebody longer-term, because I am running for President.”

In a social media post earlier in the day, he added that he “will do whatever is necessary to help with the Speaker of the House selection process, short term, until the final selection of a GREAT REPUBLICAN SPEAKER is made – A Speaker who will help a new, but highly experienced President, ME, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The Republican conference is filled with members generally supportive of Donald Trump, but whether they’d back him to serve as Speaker remained to be seen. The role is a demanding position — effectively running the Capitol and dealing with hundreds of lawmakers — and requires an attention to the arcane details of legislating that Mr. Trump showed little interest in even when he was President.

While he is dominating his GOP Presidential rivals, Mr. Trump is also still travelling to early primary states to campaign and has been spending much of his time focussed on the four criminal indictments and several civil cases he is facing.

While there is no requirement that a person be elected to the House to serve as Speaker, every one of the 55 Speakers the House has elected has been a member of the chamber. From time to time, lawmakers have thrown their votes to those outside of Congress, often as a protest against the candidates running.

Mr. Trump helped Mr. McCarthy win the Speakership in January after 15 rounds of voting. But he exhorted Republicans to impeach Joe Biden and to reject deals that McCarthy negotiated. Last month, he urged the right flank to support a government shutdown if Republicans did not win deep spending cuts, declaring on social media that the GOP “lost big on Debt Ceiling, got NOTHING, and now are worried that they will be BLAMED for the Budget Shutdown. Wrong!!! Whoever is President will be blamed, in this case, Crooked (as Hell!) Joe Biden!”

Kevin McCarthy ultimately moved to keep the government open for 45 days without the cuts demanded by hard-right conservatives. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and long-time Donald Trump ally, cited that decision as reason to move to depose the Speaker.

Among those who had pushed Mr. Trump for Speaker was Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a long-time Trump ally who didn’t vote to remove Mr. McCarthy. She posted on X that she believed “he would take the job.”

Mr. Nehls, the Texas Republican who was among the first to promote Mr. Trump for the job, said before his Thursday evening conservation with Mr. Trump that he’d been contacted “by multiple Members of Congress willing to support and offer nomination speeches for Donald J. Trump to be Speaker of the House.” “Next week,” he wrote on X, “is going to be HUGE.”

Washington:

President Joe Biden wants the US House of Representatives to swiftly choose a new speaker after Republican Kevin McCarthy was axed by his own party, the White House said Tuesday.

“Because the urgent challenges facing our nation will not wait, he hopes the House will quickly elect a speaker,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Kevin McCarthy was axed from his role as speaker of the US House of Representatives Tuesday in a ruthless overthrow by far-right Republican lawmakers furious over his cooperation with Democrats.

For the first time in its 234-year history, the House backed a resolution “to vacate the office of the speaker” with a 216-210 vote setting the stage for an unprecedented contest to replace McCarthy a year before the presidential election.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)