House failure to elect new speaker frustrates new member of Congress from Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — After three tries this afternoon to elect Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the House adjourned until noon on Wednesday.
As KDKA political editor Jon Delano reports, the whole process kept members of Congress stuck in the House chamber for hours.
Traditionally, this date is supposed to be a quick vote to elect a new Speaker of the U.S. House by the majority party, then the swearing in of the new members of Congress with their families on the House floor, capped off with parties with supporters.
But not so fast this day.
"I've unfortunately been on the floor," said U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, an Aspinwall Democrat.
Deluzio stepped off the House floor for a quick zoom call with KDKA-TV after hours of balloting to elect a new speaker.
"It's, frankly, sad for the American people. The Republicans are showing themselves unwilling to be able to govern. It's chaotic," says Deluzio. "They don't have the votes on their own side to put a speaker forward. The Democrats are unified."
Through several ballots, Republican Leader McCarthy could not win the vote because up to 20 members of his party voted against him, denying him the speakership even though Republicans now control the U.S. House.
"Republicans cannot put a speaker forward that unifies their party," Deluzio said. "They have folks willing to shut down the House until they do that, which means we can't do the people's business, which is the business I was sent here to do and everyone else serving in the Congress ought to be doing."
The House has now adjourned until Wednesday afternoon when it will try again to elect a new speaker.
"The consequence of there not being a speaker, for those folks watching at home, means that we can't do any business on the House floor until that election happens," says Deluzio. "This obstructionism on the Republican side is holding us up from doing anything in the House, and it's an unfortunate state of affairs."
KDKA-TV also reached out to Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly and Guy Reschenthaler, but neither were available.
The last time we had this situation was in 1923 when it took weeks and nine ballots to elect a speaker.
