Calling the failed three votes for the next Speaker of the House “absolutely amazing,” Atlanta Councilwoman Karen Rene Tuesday, January 3, 2023, said it shows that the Republican Party is in “shambles.”
Reached in Washington, D.C., Rene, who is also an attorney, said the Republicans inability to unite shows “they are not coordinating their efforts together. It shows they are not working together as a team.
“Even though the majority says it doesn’t want” Rep. Jim Jordan (D-OH), “he has not said out loud don’t for me. Rather, he is saying to vote for McCarthy. “It is interesting how this is playing out,” Rene said.
She was referring to the three votes for Speaker where 19 Republicans voted for Jordan rather than McCarthy and on the third vote they cast 20 votes for Jordan with the 20th vote coming from Rep. Bryan Duncan (R-FL). McCarthy failed three times to become Speaker of the House.
“What is of greater interest is how the Democrats are sticking together on one accord and are trying to govern the best they can,” Rene told the Chicago Crusader.
But she said few people know that because of the three failed votes, “there is no Congress unless the Speaker of the House swears them in. Right now we have no Congress and that means the business of the people will not get done until Congress is sworn in. There can be no policies made, no legislation, no appropriations, nothing until this Congress is sworn in.”
Rene said the Republicans are behind closed doors in an effort to arrive at a consensus candidate, but if she were in control, she would have “made sure they remained on the floor and hammered it out…wear them down. People’s bladders are full, their heads are hurting. I guarantee you they would have pushed the vote, but it was not up to the Democrat’s to decide that.”
“Right now, we don’t have a sworn-in Congress, and we don’t know when they will be sworn in,” Rene said.
