House rejects McCarthy for Speaker a sixth time, prompting Republicans to negotiate a deal

In a once-in-century political stalemate, the House rejected Rep. Kevin McCarthy for Speaker over six consecutive votes, prompting frustrated Republicans to break into negotiating teams Wednesday night to find a potential resolution.

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., confirmed to Just the News that the party's competing wings have entered negotiations to reach a compromise on choosing the next Speaker of the House. Twenty GOP lawmakers have consistently opposed McCarthy's nomination, thwarting him from reaching the required total.

"Every hour in every day that we sit up here, negotiating this and these 20 members holding out on who the mass majority of the conference voted to be speaker is the day we're not working for the American people and fighting against the Biden agenda," Steube told the Just the News, No Noise television show.

McCarthy, the party's lead contender for the post, has failed six times thus far to secure the support of a majority of lawmakers. The House voted three times on Wednesday and no candidate received the necessary 218 votes. 

A stalwart group of 20 House Republicans remain directly opposed to McCarthy's leadership during the votes on Tuesday and Wednesday. That bloc backed Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds all three times on Wednesday. Donalds voted for McCarthy before defecting in later votes.

The House adjourned until 8 p.m. Wednesday, at which time it will hold yet another vote for speaker.

Steube confirmed that the adjournment was designed to provide time for the opposing groups to negotiate.

"Yeah, so we broke on the floor so that some individuals on team McCarthy and some individuals with the 20 individuals that aren't voting for him can have some negotiations behind closed doors," he said. "There's been a number of concessions on the rules that have been made up to this point. So the real issue that has been amongst members is what is it exactly that you want?"

"Is it just you're not going to vote for Kevin no matter what or is it really the rules?" he continued. "And if it's the rules, what are we going to negotiate on? Try to get there... that meeting is happening today, as we speak, and at eight o'clock, we come back on? So we'll just have to see if there's any logjam that comes out of that. And we're able to break free from some of this."

Steube remained adamant that McCarthy represented the majority of the caucus and that his detractors were undermining Democratic principles by hog-tying the party with their opposition.

"So you you have 9%, like 10% of the entire conference that is dictating the will of the entire conference. We live in a democratic republic where the majority rules, certainly in conferences and caucuses, and for the American people, and the majority should hold sway and everybody else support the candidate, whether it's the person you want there or not, and work together for the best of the American people," he said.

"[E]very hour in every day that we sit up here, negotiating this and these 20 members holding out on who the mass majority of the conference voted to be speaker is the day we're not working for the American people and fighting against the Biden agenda," he concluded.

McCarthy is the first speaker candidate to fail on the first vote in more than 100 years.