Scalise drops out of house speaker race – live

Former president Donald Trump weighed in yesterday against Steve Scalise before the Republican withdrew his candidacy for House Speaker.

Mr Trump said that Mr Scalise was unfit for the speakership role as he is battling blood cancer.

“Steve is a man that is in serious trouble, from the standpoint of his cancer,” Mr Trump said on Fox News Radio, adding, “I just don’t know how you can do the job when you have such a serious problem.”

He said: “I mean, he’s got to get better for himself. I’m not talking about even country now. I’m saying got to get better. And this is tremendous stress. … And, you know, most importantly, I want Steve to get well.”

Mr Scalise has said that his multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, is “very treatable” and that he is already exceeding his doctors’ expectations in terms of his progress.

Lauren Fox of CNN wrote on X on Thursday that “it’s been 9 days since McCarthy was ousted. GOP conference has gathered every day this week. Members joke Jesus couldn’t get the 217 votes to be their speaker. The amount of shrug emojis I’ve gotten from sources when asking what happens next? Too many to count”.

After Republican Steve Scalise ended his bid to become House speaker, Democrats expressed exasperation with New York representative Hakeem Jeffries saying that “the House Republicans need to end the GOP Civil War, now”.

He said: “The House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” and urged that the House reopen and change GOP-led rules that allowed a single lawmaker to put in motion the process to remove the speaker.

Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said the meetings had been marked by “emotional” objections to voting for Scalise.“It’s not for your personal grievances, but that’s unfortunately what I keep seeing.”

“Stop dragging it out,” Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga, said on her social media. “If Kevin McCarthy had to go 15 rounds then the next Speaker should be able to do the same or more if they have to.”

Steve Scalise told GOP colleagues at a closed-door meeting late yesterday of his decision to withdraw his candidacy.

“I just shared with my colleagues that I’m withdrawing my name as a candidate for speaker-designee,” Mr Scalise told reporters soon after.

He said the Republican majority “still has to come together and is not there”.

Mr Scalise continued: “There are still some people that have their own agendas. And I was very clear, we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs.”

The GOP has been criticised after the chaos within the House Republicans caused the chamber to go into recess after two minutes on Thursday.

“Dems put #peopleoverpolitics and are focused on lowering costs and supporting allies. What are Republicans focused on? Nothing. They’ve shut down the House for another day. Dems are ready to work on a bipartisan path forward. We need partners willing to abandon MAGA extremism,” California Democrat Ted Lieu wrote on X.

Fred Wellman, the host of the On Democracy podcast, added: “Republicans are blanketing media and social media attacking Biden for not doing enough for Israel. Meanwhile, these incompetent idiots can’t even hold a session of Congress. Journalists do your damn jobs. Call them out for their failure.”

After going into recess after two minutes on Thursday, Kristin Wilson of CNN noted that the House has “been in session a total of 8 hours and 39 minutes since McCarthy cancelled recess two weeks ago tomorrow”.

Republicans offered little clarity on Thursday evening about next steps following the shock announcement that Steve Scalise would withdraw his nomination to be the next Speaker of the House, just a day after his colleagues voted to support him for the role.

The party has yet to coalesce around another candidate for the top House role.

Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana, for his part, said he’d throw his support behind Jim Jordan of Ohio, who competed against Mr Scalise for the party’s nomination during Wednesday’s original behind-the-scenes vote.

“I voted for Jim Jordan in the conference election yesterday and I remain committed to doing everything I can to help elect him the next Speaker of the House,” Mr Banks told NBC News. “He is a conservative fighter and a leader who can unite our party.”

Mr Scalise has said he’ll continue to serve as Majority Leader and will not get involved in endorsing who should be the GOP’s next pick for speaker.

White House Press Secretary said on Thursday that “it is not for us to fix the chaos in the House Republicans … it is for them to fix”.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise withdrew his name from the running to become speaker of the House of Representatives after he failed to secure enough votes.

Mr Scalise’s decision came after he had failed to convince 217 of the 221 members of the House Republican conference required to win the gavel to vote for him for speaker.

“If you look at where our conference is, there’s still work to be done,” he said. “Our conference still has to come together. And it’s not there.”

The House Republican conference had nominated Mr Scalise on Wednesday to replace former speaker Kevin McCarthy after an hours-long bull session. Mr Scalise beat out Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH), a hardliner conservative whom former preisdent Donald Trump endorsed.

Eric Garcia is following all the details from Washington.

Read his full story for more.

Scandal-ridden Rep George Santos, who faces a litany of federal fraud charges, said on Thursday he wouldn’t support Steve Scalise for speaker.

“I’m not voting for someone who lacks fundamental leadership skills,” he said.

“I’ve reached out numerous times to Scalise and me reaching out and asking him for his guidance and leadership and him not reaching back out, that’s a dereliction of duty,” he added.