Ahead of a third day of deadlocked votes for House speaker, Rep. Jim McGovern, a Worcester Democrat, said he worried a small group of Republican elected officials would continue to stymie legislation for the rest of their terms.
“The drama that you see unfolding now will be unfolding on every single bill that comes to the House floor,” McGovern told GBH Morning Edition co-hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel Thursday morning. “And again, that's not the way this place should run.”
California Republican Kevin McCarthy has failed to reach the required 218 votes to become speaker of the House. Members and members-elect of the U.S. House held six votes Tuesday and Wednesday, and were unable to reach consensus as all 212 Democrats chose New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, and a group of 20 Republicans declined to vote for McCarthy.
“While this is going on, we do not have a functioning Congress,” McGovern said. “So if there is an emergency that occurs, we don't have the ability to do anything because technically we haven't been sworn in yet.”
McGovern, a former leader of the House Rules Committee, said he did not believe it was likely that members would cross party lines on either side. He was open to some compromise, saying he’d like to discuss things like committee ratios, agreements on the debt ceiling and averting a government shutdown.
But he said McCarthy’s values did not align with his.
“This is a man who, you know, wants to make abortion a federal crime in this country,” he said. “This is somebody who has cheered on the insurrectionists and has visited Donald Trump on bended knee to tell them how fabulous he is. This is a guy who, quite frankly, is willing to default on our financial obligations. What he stands for, quite frankly, is the most extreme elements of his party.”
"The drama that you see unfolding now will be unfolding on every single bill that comes to the House floor."-Rep. Jim McGovern
Nor did he think it was likely that Republicans will line up behind a Democrat.
“It's, to me, highly unlikely that Republicans, even moderate Republicans, will feel comfortable going against their party establishment,” McGovern said. “And unfortunately, their party has moved so far to the right that any effort to try to be conciliatory, any effort to try to compromise with Democrats, would probably result in a primary challenge for them in the next election. That is one of the reasons why a lot of very thoughtful Republicans have been silent.”
Members and members-elect of the U.S. House, who have not yet been sworn in and started their session, are expected to return to speaker deliberations on Thursday.
"Kevin McCarthy has gone through six votes. He's lost all six of them," McGovern said. "He's trying to make deals. And I don't know what's left for him to give away. He's given away everything, including his dignity, in trying to appeal to the so-called Freedom Caucus."
