What next for the deadlocked US House Speaker race?
Despite winning a majority in the House of Representatives in last year’s midterm elections, the Republican Party has found itself so far unable to elect a speaker.
Riven by internecine warfare between Trump supporters and more establishment members, there have so far been six rounds of votes that have all seen the Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, fail to get the required 218 votes.
The election of the speaker is normally a formality, with leader of the largest party in the House normally a shoo-in for the job, however the splits in the party have led to the first defeat of a nominee in a century.
Here are the possible outcomes to break the historic stalemate on Capitol Hill.
1. Kevin McCarthy wins
There remains the possibility that Kevin McCarthy could finally win-round the dissenting Republicans and get his bid across the line.
The California congressman insists he will persist until he gets enough votes, telling reporters on Wednesday: “We stay until we win”.
But given that there are only 222 Republicans in the chamber following a worse than expected performance in November’s midterms, and 20 of them are currently refusing to back McCarthy, he finds himself in an uphill battle for the gavel.
Kevin McCarthy has found himself struggling to secure the post despite the Republican majority
2. An alternative candidate is found
There are several alternative candidates who might be able to win over enough of the Trump supporting hardliners to take the post ahead of Mr McCarthy.
Steve Scalise
Republican whip Steve Scalise, currently Mr McCarthy’s number 2 in the House, has been discussed as a potential alternative. The Louisiana congressman is entering his eighth term in the house and is widely respected after surviving being shot by a left-wing extremist during a practice for the annual congressional baseball game in 2017.
In an internal Republican Party poll in November, he was elected unopposed to the position of majority leader, the second highest rank in the House after the Speaker. However, he has so far remained resolute in his support for Mr McCarthy and urged colleagues to unite and support him, meaning rebels may be unlikely to accept him as an alternative.
Elise Stefanik
The third ranking Republican in the House is New York representative Elise Stefanik. Having started out as a centrist candidate following her election in 2014, she has drifted further to the right in recent years and been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump.
Last year, she was elected to replace Liz Cheney as the chair of the House Republican Conference after the former vice president’s daughter was ousted over her criticism of President Trump.
This could make her an attractive proposition for the Trumpian rebels. However, some hard-line dissenters, such as Montana congressman Matt Rosendale, have suggested that no one involved in House Republican leadership for the past decade would be acceptable.
The previous Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Byron Donalds
The 20 Republican rebels all voted for second term Florida congressman Byron Donalds on Wednesday, making him a potential but unlikely candidate for the roll.
Were he to win, he would be the first black American to lead the lower house.
However, Mr Donalds has so far voted for Mr McCarthy in two of the six ballots and his relative inexperience makes it improbable the 44-year-old will take the gavel.
Jim Jordan
Ohio Representative Jim Jordan has also at one point received the support of all the rebels in one of the six ballots so far held for the roll.
However, he has himself said there is virtually no chance of him becoming Speaker, telling reporters after the third round of voting “I’m being clear, I want to chair the Judiciary Committee. I like this ability to cross-examine witnesses and get the truth for the country.”
He then went on to urge the rebels to vote for Mr McCarthy.
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Mark Stone has the latest on the election of a new speaker of the House of Representative, where Republicans hardliners are blocking proceedings.
Hakeem Jeffries
So far, the candidate to receive the greatest number of votes, though not the required 218 to win, has been the Democratic nominee Hakeem Jeffries.
The New York congressman has received 212 in all the rounds of ballots so far held with the entire Democratic Party uniting behind him. However, six Republicans are unlikely to cross the aisle to vote for him, making his election virtually impossible.
3. Wild card
Though the Speaker has always been a member of the House, they do not actually have to be an elected member of the chamber according to the constitution. This theoretically means the Republican rebels could nominate Donald Trump for the post as some democrats did with Joe Biden in 2019. However, this too remains highly unlikely.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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