memeorandum: GOP debates: Who could take McCarthy's place? (Politico)

3:20 AM ET, January 5, 2023

Top Items:

Erin Doherty / Axios:

House adjourns after tense vote as McCarthy plays for more time — The House voted Wednesday to adjourn for the second time of the day — as Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said he wanted more time to negotiate after six rounds of voting on the speakership resulted in deadlock.

Washington Post:

The House hard-liners blocking McCarthy aren't listening to Trump — In another sign of the former president's waning influence, his efforts to bolster McCarthy's bid as House speaker have not persuaded 20 Republicans to drop their opposition — For the first time in recent memory …

Politico:

GOP debates: Who could take McCarthy's place? — If not Kevin McCarthy, then who? — It's the all-consuming question that has started openly percolating among the House GOP, as McCarthy's speaker bid stalls. — So far, though, Justin Amash — a former congressman who switched from Republican …

Discussion: Fox News, Raw Story and Bloomberg

Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg:

Democrats' Sherman Floats Possible Deal to Make McCarthy Speaker — House Democrat Brad Sherman floated a potential deal Wednesday that would trade Democratic votes to make beleaguered Republican Kevin McCarthy the speaker of the House in return for rules aimed at preventing a US government shutdown or a debt limit crisis.

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Insider, HotAir, Breitbart, New Republic, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Hill, Raw Story, The Daily Caller and Political Wire

Molly Jong-Fast / Vanity Fair:

The Kevin McCarthy Mess Is Peak Trumpism — The GOP's failure to get the 118th Congress going shows how the performative nature of today's Trumpified party is making it incapable of governing. — Despite his best efforts, the leopards have finally come for Kevin McCarthy's face.

Discussion: Washington Post, Fox News, New Republic, The Hill, New York Post, Washington Times, USA Today and New York Times

Dan Balz / Washington Post:

House Republicans' dysfunction points to more chaos ahead — After six votes for speaker, Republicans appear no closer to a resolution. Will the new speaker, whoever that is, be able to lead effectively? — The roots run deep that brought House Republicans to this week's demonstration of chaos and dysfunction.

Discussion: Balkinization and Wall Street Journal

Ryan Grim / The Intercept:
Kevin McCarthy Must Commit to Government Shutdown Over Raising Debt Ceiling, Says Freedom Caucus Holdout

Discussion: Breitbart

Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
Hannity presses Boebert on Speaker chaos: ‘Is this a game show?’

Discussion: Washington Examiner, HuffPost, The Daily Beast, The Western Journal, Fox News, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite, Denver Post and Breitbart

Billy House / Bloomberg:
GOP Hard-Liners Angle for Plum Posts as Price of McCarthy Votes

Discussion: Puck, Mediaite, National Review, Everything's Broken, Fox News, Vox, New York Times, National Review, Mediaite and Insider

Alexandra Petri / Washington Post:
The House speaker election is so embarrassing (for you)

Discussion: Florida Politics, Leland's Newsletter, Balloon Juice, Gideon's Substack, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Axios and CBS News

BDD / Brooklyn Dad Defiant: Republican Ructions: McCarthy Falls Short

Joe Perticone / The Bulwark:

House Is Paralyzed Without a Speaker—Creating National Security Risks and a Shadow Shutdown — Imagine if this impasse were occurring in a presidential inaugural year. — As Kevin McCarthy repeatedly fails to secure enough votes to become speaker and the House of Representatives sits in limbo …

Discussion: Roll Call, WPRI-TV, New York Times, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Insider, Fox News, 77 WABC and Washington Examiner

Washington Post:

Does the House even exist right now? — A chamber full of representatives-elect is failing to install Kevin McCarthy (or anyone else) as speaker, so they can't be sworn in yet — Just before noon Wednesday, a Democrat from Washington state climbed the stairs to the House side of the Capitol building …

Discussion: Florida Politics, PolitiFact, Insider and CBS News

Tal Kopan / The Boston Globe:
'There isn't any House': Speaker drama ripples throughout basic congressional function

Discussion: New York Daily News, Letters from an American, Insider, Fox News, National Review, Reason, Washington Post and CNN

Justin Sink / Bloomberg:

Biden-McConnell Comity Is Sharp Contrast to GOP's Speaker Mayhem — As Republican leader Kevin McCarthy fought party hardliners in a faltering bid to become US House speaker, his GOP counterpart in the Senate was almost 500 miles away from Washington — celebrating a landmark bipartisan accomplishment with the Democratic president.

Alexander Nazaryan / Yahoo News:

In bipartisan event with McConnell, Biden shows contrast with House Republicans — The White House will seek to highlight the contrast between with the House GOP's dysfunction, as Biden did on Wednesday — President of the United States since 2021 — WASHINGTON — “Total chaos.”

Discussion: Politico, WKYT-TV, CNN, NBC News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Washington Times, CBS News, Twitchy, Washington Post, USA Today and Washington Examiner

Wall Street Journal:

Biden Plans to Visit U.S.-Mexico Border — The White House adds a long-debated border visit to the president's planned Mexico City summit trip — Migrants in Border Cities Weigh Options After Title 42 Ruling — Created with sketchtool. … 1x — WASHINGTON—President Biden …

Washington Post:

U.S. edges closer to sending armored weaponry to Ukraine — President Biden acknowledges that Bradley fighting vehicles are under consideration for delivery to Kyiv, as France pledges light tanks — After months of resisting Kyiv's pleas for tanks to face increasingly dug-in Russian forces along …

Discussion: France 24

Financial Times:
France to send ‘tank killer’ armoured vehicles to Ukraine

Discussion: Bloomberg, UPI, France 24, The Guardian, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Washington Examiner and Politico

The Guardian:

Iran warns France over ‘insulting’ cartoons depicting supreme leader Ali Khamenei — Publication by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ‘will not go without effective response’, says Tehran foreign minister — Iran has summoned the French ambassador over publication of caricatures …

Discussion: Ministry of Foreign Affairs …, Semafor, New York Post, The Hill, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg and Politico

Natasha Bertrand / CNN:

CNN Exclusive: A single Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more than a dozen US companies — Parts made by more than a dozen US and Western companies were found inside a single Iranian drone downed in Ukraine last fall, according to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment obtained exclusively by CNN.

Discussion: Politico, CBS News, New York Post, Middle East Forum and Washington Examiner

Associated Press:

The U.S. is reopening visa and consular services at embassy in Cuba — HAVANA — The United States Embassy in Cuba is reopening visa and consular services Wednesday, the first time it has done so since a spate of unexplained health incidents among diplomatic staff in 2017 slashed the American presence in Havana.

Discussion: Reuters, The Daily Caller, Associated Press, WPRI-TV, Al Jazeera and New York Daily News

Maya Oppenheim / The Independent:

Romanian authorities seize Andrew Tate's car collection as investigation continues — Online misogynist boasted about his cars in a tweet to Greta Thunberg that earned a viral rebuke — Influencer Andrew Tate detained amid human trafficking probe … Romanian authorities have seized …

Discussion: Vox, Insider, HTTPS addict, New York Post, HotAir, Jezebel and Metro.co.uk

Matt Shea / VICE:
Exclusive: Andrew Tate Was Arrested on Suspicion of Rape in the UK in 2015

Discussion: Rolling Stone

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:

Prince Harry details physical attack by brother William in new book — Exclusive: Harry writes in new autobiography Spare that William ‘knocked me to the floor’ during confrontation in London in 2019 — In his highly anticipated autobiography, Spare, Prince Harry recounts …

Discussion: Page Six, Bloomberg, New York Post, Jezebel, Insider, TMZ.com, Rolling Stone, The Hill and The Daily Beast

Dong Cao / Bloomberg:

Battered by Covid, China Hits Pause on Giant Chip Spending Aimed at Rivaling US — China is pausing massive investments aimed at building a chip industry to compete with the US, as a nationwide Covid resurgence strains the world's No. 2 economy and Beijing's finances.

Discussion: One America News Network, RWL Newsletter, Washington Examiner and The Register

CNN:

Brazilian clerk allegedly defrauded by George Santos calls him ‘a professional liar’ — A Brazilian former shop clerk allegedly defrauded out of more than $1,300 by George Santos has a message to voters who cast ballots for the Republican congressman-elect: “Don't feel guilty, he does that really well.

Discussion: Raw Story, The Hill and New York Post

Zach Schonfeld / The Hill:

Court rules First Amendment protected teacher who brought MAGA hat to training — A federal appeals court panel ruled in favor of a teacher who brought a “Make America Great Again” hat to teacher trainings, determining it was protected under the First Amendment.

Discussion: Columbian, The Western Journal, Fox News, Oregonian, Washington Examiner, UPI, FL1 News Now, IJR, The Guardian, National Review and JONATHAN TURLEY

AJ McDougall / The Daily Beast:

Ex-Funeral Home Owner Gets 20 Years for Selling 500 Victims' Body Parts — ‘HORRIFIC AND MORBID’ — A former funeral home operator in Colorado was sentenced to two decades behind bars on Tuesday for illegally dissecting 560 corpses and selling the parts without relatives' consent.

Discussion: HotAir, New York Daily News, Raw Story, New York Post, Washington Post, CBS News and Metro.co.uk

David Zipper / The Atlantic:

Electric Vehicles Are Bringing Out the Worst in Us — American car executives keep insisting that there is no trade-off between saving the planet and having a hell of a good time behind the wheel. “What I find particularly gratifying,” Ford's executive chair, Bill Ford …

Pocharapon Neammanee / BuzzFeed News:

A New Member Of Congress Explained Why He'll Swear His Oath Of Office On The US Constitution With A First-Edition Superman Comic — “I learned to read and write English reading comics as a kid. Never stopped reading,” Rep.-elect Robert Garcia told BuzzFeed News.

Discussion: Breitbart, New York Daily News, Louder With Crowder, HotAir, Washington Times, Washington Post, Raw Story, Bleeding Cool, TheBlaze, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, The Hill, The Daily Caller and New York Post

Joseph Menn / Washington Post:

Hackers leak email addresses tied to 235 million Twitter accounts — The records, probably compiled in late 2021, were published on a popular underground marketplace, researchers said — Records of 235 million Twitter accounts and the email addresses used to register them have been posted …

Discussion: The Information, more at Techmeme »

Ellie Silverman / Washington Post:

A ‘hate castle’ or welcome neighbor? VDare divides a West Virginia town. — In Berkeley Springs, the purchase of an iconic castle by VDare, which some consider a hate group, has led to angst and ugliness — BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — The little town was sparkling.