Bored US lawmakers bring pets, comics as Kevin McCarthy’s speaker fight drags on
- Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who brought her dog, Libby, to the House floor, says ‘there are no rules right now’ when asked if the pooch was allowed
- Other lawmakers were photographed reading, playing games on their devices or yawning and slumping in their seats as the marathon voting continued
After 13 rounds of voting as of Friday afternoon, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy still has not succeeded in his bid to become speaker of the House.
As a result of his party’s slim majority in the US House of Representatives, McCarthy needs the support of nearly all Republicans to reach the necessary votes to become speaker.
A group of 20 Republicans, members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, have repeatedly withheld their support since the start of the 118th Congress on Tuesday.
By Friday afternoon and the fourth day of voting, and after lengthy behind-the-scenes negotiations, more than a dozen of those Republicans flipped in favour of McCarthy in the 12th ballot.
But faced with the remaining holdouts, the California Republican still lacks a majority to become House speaker, and he was denied in both the 12th and a subsequent 13th ballot.