Four hours. That’s how long Tom Emmer’s candidacy for speaker lasted. Remember that in November 2024

OPINION: The Republicans’ inability to elect a speaker of the House, leaving the seat vacant for three weeks, is a national disgrace and an international embarrassment.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect that Tom Emmer’s candidacy for speaker of the House ended shortly after it began.

The divided and dysfunctional Republican majority in the House of Representatives failed again Tuesday in its quest to elect a new speaker. While a majority of House Republicans voted to nominate Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota to become speaker, he withdrew from the race four hours later after he was unable to nail down the 217 votes needed to be elected by the full House.

Former President Donald Trump, who commands the loyalty of many House Republicans, helped torpedo Emmer’s speaker candidacy when Trump blasted him in a social media post soon after Emmer was nominated by House Republicans.

“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House and some are truly Great Warriors,” Trump wrote on the social media platform he owns. “RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them.” RINO stands for “Republican in Name Only” and is a term Republicans use to criticize members of the party for being too moderate.

Trump wrote that Emmer “never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement … He fought me all the way … He is totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters.” 

The Republican civil war that has left the House without a speaker for three weeks is a national disgrace and an international embarrassment. House Republicans have shown themselves to be more interested in fighting with each other than fighting to build better lives for the American people. They were elected to govern – not to attack each other in a circular firing squad.

Emmer, 62, is the House majority whip — the third-ranking Republican in the chamber. First elected to the House in 2014, he is the former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the House. He was endorsed by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who was ousted Oct. 3.

Trump supporters circulated a 216-page document criticizing Emmer for a long list of his past actions, including his refusal to vote to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, his failure to endorse Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and his support for same-sex marriage. Trump supporters also criticized Emmer for recently voting to prevent a default on the national debt and voting to avert a government shutdown. 

The Republican internal feud has left the House unable to vote on anything except the selection of a new speaker. This includes passing a federal budget to avert a partial government shutdown on Nov. 18, as well as approving badly needed assistance to Israel and Ukraine to defend themselves in their wars. 

Seven men sought the nomination for speaker in a closed-door meeting of House Republicans. Two additional candidates dropped out before voting began Tuesday morning. 

Five rounds of voting were held, with the lowest vote-getter eliminated in each round. Emmer finally captured a majority of 117 votes. His last challenger standing – Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana  –  received 97 votes, according to Republican House members. Johnson endorsed the more moderate Emmer after the vote.

One of the unsuccessful speaker candidates was far-right Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a strong Trump supporter. Donalds would have been the first Black speaker of the House in American history if elected to the powerful position.   

What happens now? No one really knows. But America can’t continue indefinitely without a functioning House.

House Democrats have repeatedly voted unanimously to elect their minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, as speaker. In the extremely unlikely event Jeffries can pick up five Republican votes he would become the chamber’s first Black speaker.

Republicans could nominate a moderate who would seek Democratic votes to become speaker, but that is also a longshot prospect.  

Republicans have been unable to line up behind a single candidate for speaker since eight of their members voted Oct. 3 to remove McCarthy from the position in a remarkable act of self-sabotage. 

Republicans subsequently nominated Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and next voted to nominate Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio for the post, but a small number voted for other candidates when the entire House voted. That forced Scalise and Jordan out of the race, leading to the Tuesday meeting that nominated Emmer.

Voters need to remember the Republican inability to govern when elections are held in November 2024. 

Putting Republicans in charge of the House for yet another two years would be like putting arsonists in charge of the fire department, or putting criminals in charge of the police force. Many Republicans wrongly see government as an evil “deep state,” rather than a positive force for good. They are incompetent, irresponsible and unable carry out the most basic duties of governing they were elected to perform.

Donna Brazile is a veteran political strategist, Senior Advisor at Purple Strategies, New York Times bestselling author, Chair of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, and sought-after Emmy- and Peabody-award-winning media contributor to such outlets as ABC News, USA Today and TheGrio. She previously served as interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee and of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. Donna was the first Black American to serve as the manager of a major-party presidential campaign, running the campaign of Vice President Al Gore in 2000. She serves as an adjunct professor in the Women and Gender Studies Department at Georgetown University and served as the King Endowed Chair in Public Policy at Howard University and as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. She has lectured at nearly 250 colleges and universities on diversity, equity and inclusion; women in leadership; and restoring civility in American politics.

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