Republicans in the House of Representatives are flailing through a second day of balloting for speaker, unable to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy after four separate votes.
A fifth nomination, also expected to fail, comes moments after a fourth vote showed 20 conservative holdouts still refusing to support him, unchanged from the previous time around. He fell far short of the 218 votes typically needed to win the gavel.
The California Republican is vowing to keep fighting despite the historic losses, which have thrown the new majority into tumult.
Animated private discussions have broken out on the chamber floor between McCarthy supporters and detractors searching for an endgame.
Democrats have re-upped their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, for speaker, and a right-flank leader from the Freedom Caucus twice offered a challenge to McCarthy — nominating Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., in another history-making moment. Both Jeffries and Donalds are Black.
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