Republicans snub Donald Trump, opting for moderate Steve Scalise to assume Speaker’s chair

Republicans have snubbed Donald Trump to back Steve Scalise by a slim majority after the historic removal of Kevin McCarthy last week.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise stands next to his wife Jennifer after the House Republican conference nominated him to be Speaker of the House. Picture: Getty Images

In a snub to the party’s leading presidential candidate Donald Trump a slim majority of the Republican members of the House of Representatives have settled on Louisiana congressman Steve Scalise as the party’s replacement for Speaker after the historic ousting of Kevin McCarthy last week.

Mr Scalise, who made global news in 2017 after being shot and badly injured by an extremist Bernie Sanders supporter at a softball practice, edged out fellow congressman Jim Jordan, whom Mr Trump had endorsed publicly, 113 to 99 votes excluding 8 members who voted ‘present’.

Mr Scalise, elected to the House in 2007 and elevated to a leadership position in 2014, isn’t guaranteed the Speakership unless he can obtain 217 votes on the floor of the House of Representatives in coming days, requiring almost all Republican members to vote for him given Democratic party members will likely vote against him.

At least six GOP members said they wouldn’t support Mr Scalise on the House floor, enough to thwart his ascendancy, although Mr Jordan himself has said he would oppose Mr Scalise, who could yet convince some of the holdouts to support him before the as yet unscheduled final vote.

Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan leaves after a closed-door vote meeting to nominate the US Speaker of the House candidate. Picture: AFP

“What needs to happen is we need to get 217 votes, and we ain’t got ‘em,” said Republican Scott Perry, chairman of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, after the intraparty ballot.

In January, after Republicans took control of the House with a narrow majority, it took former Speaker McCarthy 15 rounds of voting before he assumed the powerful constitutional role, second in line to the presidency, by a vote of 216 to 212, amid bitter infighting among Republicans.

“He is STRONG on Crime, Borders.... He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!” Mr Trump said of Mr Jordan last week on Truth Social, after initially entertaining the idea of becoming Speaker himself.

Mr Scalise, 58, who was majority leader under Mr McCarthy, was considered a natural successor to Mr McCarthy with whom he allegedly differed little in political terms, prompting grassroots Republican who were disappointed with the outcome to refer to him as ‘McCarthy 2.0.’

Based on his voting record, Mr McCarthy has a ‘liberty score’ of 54 per cent according to Conservative Review, which periodically scores all members of congress, and Mr Scalise has a score of 58 per cent, compared with Mr Jordan’s rating of 94 per cent.

“We see how dangerous of a world it is and how things can change so quickly, we need to make sure we‘re sending a message to people all throughout the world, that the House is open and doing the people’s business,” Mr Scalise told reporters on Capitol Hill immediately after the party’s secret ballot on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).

“The first resolution that we pass under speaker Steve Scalise will be to make it clear that we stand with Israel,” he added in remarks a day after President Joe Biden said he would ask congress, which has been paralysed since the removal of Mr McCarthy, for additional support for Israel.

Scalise > McCarthy

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 11, 2023

Mr Scalise is reportedly personally popular among members but has been battling blood cancer, a reason some GOP members have given for not supporting him.

“I like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress,” said congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on social media after the vote.

Last week a group of eight Republicans led by high profile Florida congressman Matt Gaettz voted with Democrats to remove Mr McCarthy, the first time in US history a Speaker has been removed by a floor vote of the House, ostensibly because he was insufficiently insistent on cutting federal spending.

In a promising sign for Mr Scalise, Mr Gaettz issued a short statement on X, — “Scalise > McCarthy” — suggesting he might support Mr Scalise in the coming floor vote.

Tim Burchett, one of the eight who voted to oust Mr McCarthy, told CNN after the vote that Mr Scalise was “ a proven leader who could raise the money, and understands negotiations”.

“He’s fiscally conservative, he’s strong on border, all those things that republicans rally around, and he understands when you take in five trillion you can’t spend seven,” he added, referring to the US government’s chronic budget deficit.