US House Speaker nominee Steve Scalise drops out of race, deepening crisis

WASHINGTON – Representative Steve Scalise, whom

Republicans picked

to be the

next Speaker of the US House of Representatives

, dropped out of the race on Thursday as his party failed to resolve its divisions, sending the Chamber

into its 10th day without leadership

.

Mr Scalise, the House Majority Leader, had secured his party’s nomination to

replace ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy,

but was still short of the 217 votes needed to be elected on the House floor, as several of his fellow

Republicans said they would not support him

.

Republicans could

afford no more than four defections,

as they control the House by a narrow 221-212 margin, if they wanted to end the House’s leaderless bout.

“I just shared with my colleagues that I was withdrawing my name as a candidate for our Speaker designee,” Mr Scalise told reporters.

“If you look at over the last few weeks, if you look at where our conference is, there is still work to be done... There are still some people who have their own agendas.”

The Republican infighting has left the Chamber unable to act to support

Israel’s war against the Palestinian militants of Hamas

and pass government spending Bills before

funding runs out on Nov 17

.

Republicans concluded a meeting on Thursday night without coming to an agreement on who would be their nominee. They will meet again at 10am local time on Friday.

Republicans had hoped to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing spectacle that occurred in January, when hardline conservatives forced

Mr McCarthy to endure 15 floor votes

over four days before winning the gavel.

At a standstill

Several Republicans earlier said that they would stick with

Mr Scalise’s rival Jim Jordan

, who lost out in a secret ballot vote on Wednesday.

Mr Jordan has encouraged his supporters to vote for Mr Scalise, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Representative Greg Murphy said it was not clear that Mr Jordan could win enough support to succeed on the floor.

“It’s going to be hard,” Mr Murphy told reporters. “Personally, I think it may end up being a compromise candidate.”

Representative Patrick McHenry, who was named as temporary Speaker after Mr McCarthy’s ouster, is seen as a possible fallback candidate if no one else has enough votes.

Some Republicans have also suggested that to work around the paralysis caused by the lack of a permanent Speaker, Mr McHenry’s temporary powers could be enhanced.

Although

Mr McCarthy was the first Speaker to be removed

in a formal vote, the last two Republicans to hold the job wound up leaving under pressure from party hardliners.

Mr Scalise, 58, gained near-legendary status within Republican circles by surviving a severe gunshot wound, after a gunman opened fire during practice for a charity baseball game in 2017.

He also commands widespread respect as a veteran legislator, who has spent years in party leadership positions.

But Mr Scalise also faces new health concerns as he undergoes treatment for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, which was cited by some of Mr Jordan’s supporters as a reason not to vote for him.

Mr Jordan was endorsed by

former president Donald Trump

and appeared to be the favourite of populist-minded hardliners.

On Thursday, Trump said in an interview with Fox News Radio that he did not object to Mr Scalise as Speaker.

“Steve is a man who is in serious trouble from the standpoint of his cancer. I mean, he’s got to get better for himself,” he said. REUTERS