Fresh chaos in House speaker race as Scalise drops out – live updates

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.

Marjorie Taylor Greene went after Steve Scalise on Thursday, referring to his ailing health when she argued “you don’t put an injured player on the field”.

“We elect a speaker, not his staff … I say that as a person concerned about the President probably having dementia,” she said in reference to President Joe Biden. There’s no evidence to back up Ms Greene’s claim.

“I say that as a person concerned about a Senate Minority Leader who looks like he’s having ministrokes,” she added in reference to Mitch McConnell, who has frozen and appeared unable to speak during multiple press conferences this year.

Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz criticised Donald Trump for suggesting that Steve Scalise’s health issues make him unfit to be speaker.

“I like Steve, I like both of them very much, but the problem, you know, Steve is a man that is in serious trouble, from the standpoint of his cancer. I mean, he’s got to get better. For himself. I’m not talking about even country now,” he told Fox radio.

“I feel compelled to say something. I barely know @SteveScalise,” Mr Moskowitz wrote on X. “I lost my dad to pancreatic cancer right before I ran for Congress. My dad worked every day until he died. It gave him purpose, normality. He was no less of a person because he ‘had cancer’. This offensive to survivors.”

Former President Donald Trump appeared on Fox Radio, suggesting that Steve Scalise is unfit to be speaker because of his health issues.

Many Republicans are frustrated at the holdouts.

“My message to them is the same as those who are holding off McCarthy, unify behind our conference candidate,” Rep Ashley Hinson (R-IA), told The Independent. “We need to get back to work because it’s certainly the American people who suffer. It’s not the politicians playing games here.”

The House was set to hold a vote for speaker on Wednesday but members left after it was clear Mr Scalise did not have the votes. But Ms Greene said she was not concerned about the process being drawn out.

“I think we should get to the House floor and do the votes. Kevin McCarthy had to go 15 rounds,” she said. “The next one maybe needs to go 15 or more and I’m all game for it.”

At least Steve Scalise didn’t start measuring the drapes in the speaker’s office.

As of Thursday afternoon, the House Republican conference appears far from picking a speaker of the House, nine days after the motion to vacate that deposed Kevin McCarthy.

Republicans spent much of the first part of Thursday in the basement of the Capitol once again deliberating about whether to promote Mr Scalise from House majority leader to speaker. If that sounds familiar, it’s because they spent much of Wednesday in the Longworth House Office Building before they nominated Mr Scalise.

That did little to assuage frustration, particularly from many supporters of Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH). But all of the discontent – both from opponents and supporters – seems to betray the fact that nobody really knows why they are doing what they are doing or how exactly how to do it. Rather, conversations with members gives the impression that Republicans are winging it.

Perhaps the angriest, and loudest, voice in the House GOP conference right now is Rep Chip Roy (R-TX). A member of the House Freedom Caucus who initially opposed Mr McCarthy before he flipped his vote in January, he had initially proposed an amendment that would require that any nominee receive 217 of the 221 votes in the conference. Republicans tabled the motion, which enraged Mr Roy.

Rep Chip Roy was one of the initial opponents of former speaker Kevin McCarthy who later flipped his vote and opposed a motion to vacate last week.

But even supporters of Mr McCarthy in January – when Mr McCarthy won the speaker’s gavel – now have concerns about Mr Scalise, who serves as House majority leader. Rep Brian Mast, who supported Mr McCarthy and vehemently criticised holdouts in January, said that he shared many of the concerns of his colleagues.

“I wouldn’t vote for any member of our current leadership,” he told The Independent. “Because they’re not leading right now.”

Rep Thomas Massie (R-KY), who also supported Mr McCarthy, said he continues to back Mr Jordan and criticised Mr Scalise.

“He hasn’t given us a plan to get past the spending bills actually,” he told The Independent. House Republicans generally oppose passing an “omnibus” spending bill which puts all 12 spending bills for the fiscal year into a single piece of legislation.

Republicans had hoped to pass single pieces of legislation before the end of the fiscal year last month, but after negotiations failed, Mr McCarthy passed a continuing resolution to keep the government open for 48 days.

Mr Massie said he preferred Mr Jordan’s leadership style.

“It’s more of a meritocracy on these committees instead of fundraising-tocracy are some of the ways this place is broken,” he said. He added that voters back in Kentucky preferred Mr Jordan. “Like 10 to one in my district, they’re for Jordan.”

Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), repeated her concerns to reporters that Mr Scalise has myeloma, a type of cancer in the plasma cells.

“I like him so much, I want to see him beat cancer,” she told The Independent. “My father died from cancer. It’s a serious battle. But our country we have many issues right now and I want the strongest, healthiest Speaker of the House.”

Melanie Zanona of CNN wrote on Thursday that “Scalise failed to move the needle after a 2+ hour meeting”

“Now he’s meeting with holdouts & others in office,” she added, noting that there are “serious doubts about a floor vote today or tomorrow” and that members are beginning to discuss a possible plan B.

She noted that they may need to draft a new candidate or grant more power to the temporary speaker, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina.