McCarthy refuses to back Scalise or Jordan for House speaker

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Kevin McCarthy has urged his Republican allies not to vote for him to retake the role as speaker of the House of Representatives – while also refusing to endorse either of the two candidates Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan.

Members of the GOP gathered behind closed doors in the US Capitol on Tuesday night for a forum to try to decide who should take the gavel.

In the session, former House speaker Mr McCarthy told his party not to nominate him this time round, following his unceremonious ouster last week.

Instead, he read aloud the poem “Anyway” by Mother Teresa – curiously on the topic of forgiveness – and led the party members in a prayer before quickly exiting the forum.

Speaking to CNN after, he said: “I know a lot of them want to nominate me, I told them ‘please do not nominate me’.”

While appearing to rule himself out, he then said that he would not give an endorsement to any of his potential successors.

“I haven’t endorsed anyone. I’ll let the conference decide,” he said, before taking a thinly veiled jab at the lawmakers who led to his ouster.

“It’s more than selecting a speaker. If this conference continues to allow four per cent of the conference to partner with Democrats when 96 per cent of the conference wants something else, they will never lead,” he said.

Mr McCarthy was ousted as speaker last week when eight Republicans – led by MAGA congressman Matt Gaetz – joined Democrats to vote to remove him from the speakership.

Mr McCarthy had grown increasingly at odds with the far-right wing of the party – notably lead rebel Mr Gaetz.

The Trump ally had filed a motion to vacate the speaker in outrage that Mr McCarthy struck a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown – one that could have temporarily shuttered key services for American people and furloughed federal workers.

After Democrats declined to bail out the speaker and members of his own party turned on him, Mr McCarthy was removed in a 216-210 vote to vacate – marking the first time in American history that a speaker has been ousted by other lawmakers.

On Tuesday night, the House GOP held a closed-door candidate forum to hear from candidates Mr Jordan and Mr Scalise as they seek to appoint a new speaker.

Neither of the two candidates made any hard promises or concessions to their colleagues during the forum, according to reports – with questions growing as to whether either candidate has enough support to take the gavel.

The first vote to decide who will become the next speaker is expected to take place on Wednesday, with Republicans holding an internal vote to select the party’s nominee at 9am ET.

A full chamber vote is possible as soon as Wednesday.

However, based on last time round, it could still be some time before a speaker takes the gavel.

Back in January, the House went through a staggering 15 votes before Mr McCarthy finally surpassed the vote threshold.