GOP Chaos Over Speaker Vote Brings CNN, Fox News, MSNBC Rare Unity; Kevin McCarthy fails on the third ballot to take office

“We still have absolutely no idea how this is going to end,” CNN’s Jake Tapper said Tuesday when the House of Representatives failed to elect a speaker for the third time.

GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suffered humiliation after humiliation as 20 far-right members of his embattled faction backed their third vote behind another top Republican. With business frozen for the new 118th Congress until a speaker is chosen, McCarthy won 202 votes to 212 for the House Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, had and 20 votes for the Republican Rep. Jim Jordan – the latter was a top McCarthy ally who has members. asked to vote for California Republican.

“This is a complete, unqualified disaster,” Karl Rove exclaimed on Fox News Channel today as Republicans cannibalize themselves. “Chaos tends to create chaos until it stops creating chaos,” the former White House chief of staff and George W. Bush operative added to Fox’s John Roberts. “We are still a long way from chaos stopping causing more chaos.”

While the outcome of the speakership is uncertain, one thing is clear: the chaos was like a second Christmas for the news channels. The trinity of CNN, MSNBC and FNC had a rare programming deal with everyone covering the live events on Capitol Hill this first business day of the new year. As political divisions in America have deepened in recent years, the cable news echo chamber has seen CNN and MSNBC go toe-to-toe with, say, the committee hearings on January 6, while basically ignoring FNC parts of the proceedings.

Not today, when more and more Republicans have jumped on board with everyone but Kevin.

In fact, the only notable element of their trio’s coverage that differed for most of the day was FNC, which referred to “others” except that Jeffries and McCarthy had votes.

Along with GOP Representative Andy Biggs, who received peer support on the first ballot, CNN and MSNBC had Jordan by name on screen. Fox News had all the votes except for Jefferies and McCarthy as Others all day, even when hosts like Neil Cavuto noted on air that Rep. It was Jordan who got the rebels votes.

At the request of Republican Tom Cole, the House of Representatives has now been adjourned until tomorrow afternoon. As announcers and reporters from all cable news organizations pointed out repeatedly today, this is the first time in 100 years that a vote on a new speaker has gone beyond a first ballot.

The vote will no doubt bring joy to President Joe Biden and Democrats as the nation ends another period of divided government with the GOP holding a slim Houser majority and Democrats barely controlling the Senate. Voting will move to a fourth ballot on Wednesday.

“Actually, nothing’s changing … it’s going in the wrong direction,” Jake Sherman told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace from the hallways of the Capitol as the third vote concluded just before 5:30 p.m. ET Tuesday. “The definition of insanity, Nicole, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It won’t be different, I don’t care how many times they do it,” the Punchbowl News co-founder and MSNBC contributor continued.

“Insanity is a good word when talking about this group,” former GOP operative Wallace Sherman said of her former party members and the ever-growing demands on McCarthy, including from the Freedom Caucus.

As members left the floor Tuesday, the horse-trading that has characterized McCarthy’s last run for the speakership since last year’s midterm results will now begin again, as Republicans try to minimize the damage to their House before it even officially begins. Of course, in an already badly compromised situation, the malleable McCarthy could read the writing on the wall and step aside for a compromise candidate.

As Anderson Cooper spent hours Tuesday inquiring about the fiasco, “I keep asking the same question, what’s next here?”