The House GOP picked Rep. Mike Johnson as their latest speaker nominee Tuesday evening, though the Louisiana Republican so far lacks the 217 votes needed to win the gavel – the latest sign that Republicans are still no closer to electing a new speaker three weeks after Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster.

The vote for Johnson came at the end of a tumultuous day that began when Republicans voted to elect Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer as speaker nominee only for Emmer drop out just hours later amid stiff resistance from the right flank of the conference and a major rebuke from former President Donald Trump.

In the final round of secret-ballot voting, Johnson was elected speaker nominee with 128 votes. McCarthy received 43 votes, the next highest tally, and some House Republicans are blaming the California Republican for undercutting Johnson’s ascent. Ahead of Tuesday night’s votes, some members raised the idea of a McCarthy tag team with Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan to solve the speakership stalemate – with McCarthy returning as speaker and then making Jordan his “assistant speaker,” sources told CNN.

  • SeaJ
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    458 months ago

    Wow. This guy is a huge piece of shit. Wants prayer in school, opposes same sex marriage, wants to completely ban abortion, and supports conversion therapy for LGBTQ people.

    • @Treczoks
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      168 months ago

      So, basically, he is a Rep shithead. Well, not a surprize.

  • @cybervseas
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    438 months ago

    McCarthy later clarified, saying, “no, I said Assistant to the Speaker.”

  • @[email protected]
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    358 months ago

    stiff resistance from the right flank of the conference and a major rebuke from former President Donald Trump.

    How fucked are we (the US), that an extremist 45 members of congress and a seditious ex-president are enough to bring the entire legislative branch to a halt?

    • @Wrench
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      8 months ago

      Congress isn’t just blocked by 45 extremists. There are another 177 Republicans refusing to go across the aisle to pull us out of this mess.

      Playing party politics at the cost of the nation. No adults in the room.

      • @cybersandwich
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        78 months ago

        Exactly. What’s really embarrassing is how polarized the Republicans are. To the point where it’s mortal sin to work with Democrats, your fellow Americans representatives, to go about the business of governing America.

        I actually think the Democrats would work, in good faith, with Republicans on this if the Republicans put forward a non-maga Republican who would commit to working in good faith.

    • @count_dongulus
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      208 months ago

      It’s not 45 congresspeople. It’s the millions of people they collectively represent who put them there by ticking a box on a voting machine. Those 45 people are doing exactly what their constituents elected them to do. That is the real problem.

      • Franzia
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        28 months ago

        That is manufactured consent. We only get a few options on the ballot, and then all of their positions are a compromise between voters and financial donors… Who often also influence the voters.

    • @[email protected]
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      8 months ago

      Megafucked, I mean, how do the hardworking citizens feel about paying $4.44 trillion for these overpaid dunces just to refuse to do their job?

  • @DocMcStuffin
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    228 months ago

    He didn’t even make it 1/20th of a mooch.

    • @baldingpudenda
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      218 months ago

      Gets nominated, talks to the MAGA caucus, immediately drops out instead of dealing with that bullshit.

  • fiat_lux
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    8 months ago

    This really is all it takes to destabilize the entire Republican party. Remove one from power and the rest will take each other out in the fight to claim power. They really cannot control their selfish impulses long enough to collaborate strategically on anything.

    No violence necessary, all the backstabbing is left to metaphor.

    • nomad
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      28 months ago

      You might not believe me, but this selfishness of all politicians gives rise to the checks and balances. Nobody can force any single issue alone. It sucks, but its a feature.

      • @[email protected]
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        18 months ago

        That might be valid if we were still dealing with the politics of yesteryear where the assumption was that politicians would compromise and vote for their constituents best interests and not simply their political party no matter what.

        The fatal flaw of the founding fathers was that they assumed men would continue to have a conscience and morality. They felt that perhaps one or two bad apples might find their way into political positions, but couldn’t fathom an entire party of them.

        When you have a party of traitors working to undermine democracy, you no longer are able to function as intended.

  • TornadoRex
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    128 months ago

    This dude probably has so many skeletons in his closet. He probably got a few texts and noped the hell out.

  • @[email protected]
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    88 months ago

    If they don’t solve this I wouldn’t put it past the Republicans to vote to put in Hakeem Jeffries at the very last moment to pass a continuing resolution with promises that he won’t do anything good afterwards.

    Then attack Jeffries for every bad thing in the next few months caused by their own dysfunction.

  • @Dkarma
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    88 months ago

    Trump rebuking u in gop land is the same as the popular girl in hs pointing out your Gucci bag is fake.

    Persona non grata? Not invited to the GOP orgies anymore I guess.

  • @[email protected]
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    68 months ago

    Whoever gets it… Why would they accept the “dead man switch” provision like the one Gaetz wanted? If any one person can automagically trigger your ouster at any point, that isn’t really a recipe for success in that position.

  • Chaotic Entropy
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    48 months ago

    It’s like watching a slot machine spin around and constantly missing the prize, which I can only assume is a row of 3 matching white power tattoos, from the candidates on offer.

  • @joel_feila
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    18 months ago

    Remember that head of lettuce vs truss. What if set up that for … And he dropped out.

  • Franzia
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    18 months ago

    It’s not all bad news: Matt Gaetz will never hold political power again. There’s party lock step and then there’s party lock step. A small number of obnoxious extremists forced the conservatives to elect a fascist speaker, and this sort of infighting will actually bring power away from a few of these fascists.