Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy.

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• Kevin McCarthy has failed to secure the 218 votes he needs to become speaker after 11 votes.
• Nancy Pelosi said McCarthy might need a “doctor” or a “psychiatrist” after so many losses.
• “It’s really sad. I don’t even understand it,” Pelosi told Politico reporter Meredith Lee Hill on Thursday.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that Rep. Kevin McCarthy might need “a doctor,” after losing so many speakership votes.

“It’s really sad. I don’t even understand it,” Pelosi told Politico reporter Meredith Lee Hill, summing up a day of failed ballots in McCarthy’s bid to be speaker.

“Given any version of it. I think you would need a doctor or a psychiatrist,” Pelosi added, per Hill.

As of Thursday, McCarthy had lost 11 consecutive votes in his attempt to become speaker. This was even after he agreed to some procedural demands from rebelling Republicans who objected to his leadership. 

Pelosi’s team also sent out a fundraising email on Thursday evening following McCarthy’s multiple failed votes. Insider saw a message from the “Nancy Pelosi for Congress” team, sent with the subject line: “RE: Kevin McCarthy.”

“We’re mere days into the new Republican House, and one thing has never been clearer: Republicans have already proven that they have no interest in governing For the People,” the email from Pelosi’s fundraising team received by Insider. 

“While Democrats are unified and proud behind our new Leadership Team, ready to get to work protecting Americans’ fundamental freedoms… Republicans have fallen into utter chaos – unable to even vote for a Speaker,” the email continued. “I refuse to let Republicans’ mayhem and extremist plans erase all of the incredible progress that Democrats have made.” 

No love lost between Pelosi and McCarthy

There is no love lost between Pelosi and McCarthy. In July 2021, Pelosi called McCarthy a “moron” for criticizing the congressional mask mandate. Three days after Pelosi’s July 2021 comments, McCarthy joked at a Republican fundraising event that it would be “hard not to hit” Pelosi with the speaker’s gavel if he were to take over her job. 

Meanwhile, McCarthy has been accused by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz — one of the key “Never Kevin” representatives — of squatting in Pelosi’s former office, the speaker’s suite, despite not having landed the job yet. The “Never Kevin” crew is led by right-wing Republicans who remain strongly opposed to McCarthy’s leadership, and include outspoken members like Gaetz, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar.

McCarthy needs 218 votes to take the speaker’s gavel. As of Thursday, the congressman has failed to secure the votes a historic 11 times, with hardline members of the House Freedom Caucus still refusing to back him. 

Representatives for McCarthy and Pelosi did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.

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• Two teachers from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, were among thousands to have Southwest flights canceled.
• Marcus and Andrea Grasenick said they missed their honeymoon cruise after a canceled flight.
• Eleven days later, Andrea Grasenick was still waiting on her two suitcases to be returned.

Two teachers from Wisconsin who missed their honeymoon cruise after Southwest Airlines cancelled their flight were still waiting on some of their luggage 11 days later.

Marcus and Andrea Grasenick of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, told Insider that they were set to take a connecting flight out of Nashville on December 26 to make it to Florida for the Royal Caribbean cruise, which they spent approximately $4,000 on. The 11-day trip through the Western Caribbean included stops in Costa Rica, Panama, and Aruba, as well as activities like a rainforest walk and a tour of the Panama Canal.

After waiting for hours to find out whether or not the flight would take off, the airline told them it had been canceled and that staff could not immediately retrieve and return their luggage to them.

“I could see our bags outside in the snow from inside the airport,” Andrea Grasenick told Insider.

A day later they flew back to Wisconsin, still without their luggage, on a different airline.

As of Thursday morning, Andrea Grasenick was still waiting on her two bags to arrive.

Her two missing suitcases contained everything she packed for the cruise, including medications and snorkeling gear. Because she has trackers in her bags, she said she’s able to see that they have been sitting at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago since Sunday.

She also said they’ve called Southwest every day this week, and have even offered to drive to O’Hare to pick up the bags, but have been told they have to wait because they initially selected the delivery option.

Her husband’s bag finally arrived on Wednesday via FedEx, which she said was also strange because she filled out the missing luggage form before he did. 

“The only communication I’ve received from Southwest has been to confirm that they received my reimbursement request,” Andrea Grasenick said in an email to Insider on Thursday, adding she also received an offer from the airline for 25,000 points but has not yet redeemed them.

“It continues to be so frustrating and I just can’t seem to get any answers or help,” she said.

A spokesperson for Southwest told Insider in an email the airline was making significant progress on reuniting customers with their bags: “Teams are in the process of scanning bags and contacting those Customers to work out logistics to get their luggage back to them using a variety of methods – whether it’s picking it up at a nearby airport or shipping it to them.”

“Additionally, we are making great progress by processing tens of thousands of refunds and reimbursements a day and will not let up until we have responded to every impacted Customer,” the spokesperson said, adding that affected customers could request refunds and report missing luggage at their travel disruptions page.

The couple, who got married in October, had purchased travel insurance and are still working on getting refunded from the cruise line as well.

“Best case scenario we get back the money we spent. But worst case scenario we can’t get anything back,” Andrea Grasenick said, adding: “You can’t put a price on the memories we would’ve made.”

The Grasenicks were among thousands of Americans impacted after Southwest had an operational meltdown last week. Airlines canceled thousands of flights after severe winter storms struck around Christmas, but Southwest passengers experienced the bulk of the disruptions.

The airline canceled over 2,900 flights on December 26, accounting for about half of all canceled flights across the world that day. The disruptions were felt throughout the travel industry, leading to rental-car shortages and higher flight prices.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has said that airlines are required to issue refunds to passengers whose flights were delayed if they do not decide to rebook.

“This means Southwest must provide refunds within seven business days if a passenger paid by credit card, and within 20 days if a passenger paid by cash, check, or other means,” Buttigieg said in a letter sent last week to Southwest CEO Robert Jordan.

He also called on the airline to cover ground transportation, hotels, and meals for stranded passengers.

Have a news tip or a travel story to share? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.

Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) promised on Thursday a thorough review of an operational collapse that stranded thousands of passengers at the end of the year after a union leader said the carrier had not identified how to avoid a repeat.

Tom Nekouei, vice president of the airlines’ pilots association, told Reuters he was among union leaders in a conference call with Chief Executive Bob Jordan on Monday to discuss the disruption after a winter storm forced cancellation of nearly 16,000 flights.

On the call, details of which have not been reported before, Nekouei said Jordan told them the company had not yet identified a corrective plan of action to avoid a repeat of a cascade of flight cancellations.

“They don’t know what it is that they’re going do in terms of corrective action because they haven’t sat down and run the post-mortem on it,” he told Reuters.

Later on Thursday, Jordan posted a video to the company’s website inviting the union to participate in a thorough review of the disruption that he said would be completed “swiftly.”

The pilots union, which represents almost 10,000 Southwest pilots, estimates the flight cancellations could cost up to $1 billion in lost revenue, Nekouei told Reuters.

Brokerage Raymond James estimated the meltdown could cut Southwest’s projected revenue growth by more than half in the fourth quarter, equivalent to a hit of about $515 million in lost revenue.

Southwest is also facing regulatory scrutiny and a lawsuit.

The White House has said Southwest “failed its customers”. Citing the carrier’s meltdown, lawmakers have been pressing the Biden administration to hold airlines accountable for mass flight cancellations.

The pilots union, which is in heated contract negotiations with Southwest, on Dec. 31 published a letter signed by Nekouei, denouncing company leadership as a “cult” that has spent the last 15 years destroying the airline’s legacy. Before the recent crisis, Southwest had cultivated a reputation for reliable customer service, humorous flight crews and low-cost flights.

Jordan said the airline had made “great progress” in processing tens of thousands of refunds and reimbursements. It had also delivered the vast majority of bags, which went missing, to customers, he said.

Southwest unions have blamed the company’s “outdated” technology and processes for the biggest operational meltdown in its five-decade history.

Nekouei said the company’s failure to revamp its dated scheduling system that sends crews around the country as passengers for their flying assignments left it vulnerable to “more frequent and more severe” meltdowns. The pilots union has called that so-called “deadheading” practice fatiguing and inefficient.

Nekouei said the same issues led to a major meltdown at Southwest after a thunderstorm in Florida in October 2021 that cost it $75 million.

To be sure, the airline has been upgrading its technology in phases.

In 2017, it replaced its entire reservations system, and four years later it enhanced technology at its maintenance department. Recently, it has made investments in digital scanners to make its baggage handling system more efficient.

Jordan said the company spends about $1 billion a year on technology and will continue to upgrade the tools and processes its employees use to deliver “reliable and low-cost air travel.”

Union officials, however, have called the pace of investment too slow.

“Every meltdown that we’ve had, it’s gotten more severe,” Nekouei said. “It’s become more frequent now and it takes longer and longer to recover from them.”

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Ukraine dismissed as a trick a unilateral order by Russia for a 36-hour ceasefire starting on Friday and the leaders of the United States and Germany said they were sending armoured fighting vehicles in a boost for the Kyiv government. read more

TRUCE OFFER

* President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to cease firing from midday on Friday along the entire front, in response to a call for a Christmas truce from the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, a close Putin ally.

* Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected the ceasefire and called it a trick. His adviser, Mikhailo Podolyak, said Russia “must leave the occupied territories – only then will it have a ‘temporary truce’.”
* U.S. President Joe Biden suggested the ceasefire offer was a sign of desperation. “I think he’s trying to find some oxygen,” he told reporters at the White House.

* Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, responded on Facebook saying: “Washington is set on fighting with us ‘to the last Ukrainian'”.

* A new U.S. weapons package for Ukraine will be worth about $2.8 billion, U.S. officials told Reuters.
* The leaders of the United States and Germany announced they were sending armoured fighting vehicles to Ukraine after a similar move by France this week.

* The Kremlin said Putin told Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan that Russia was ready for peace talks – but only under the condition that Ukraine acknowledge Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory.

* Ukraine’s Podolyak called that demand “fully unacceptable”.
* Erdogan said his government was ready to take on mediation duties to secure a lasting peace. But U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said serious peace negotiations were still far away.

* Ukrainian and Russian troops battled in eastern regions as Kyiv tried to push back occupying forces, Zelenskiy urged the West to provide his army with heavy tanks.

* The Ukrainian military said the Russians were focused on an offensive in the Bakhmut sector of the Donetsk region.
* The United States believes Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the Wagner mercentary group and Putin ally, wants control of salt and gypsum mines near Bakhmut, a White House official said.
* The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said at least 452 children have been killed and 877 injured in the war.

* Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.

* “Look, we had Catholic Christmas, the fighting continued. The fighting never stops, not on holidays, not on weekends. So to trust him? No,” Valerii, 30, said in Kramatorsk, referring to Putin and adding that his town had suffered three or four strikes on New Year’s Eve.

* “We were under such bombing for New Year’s Eve. I think it’s just hypocrisy on Putin’s part,” said Nataliia Shkolka, 52, in Kyiv.

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The foreign and defence ministers of Japan and the United States will hold talks on aspects of security and co-operation in Washington on Wednesday, the Asian nation’s foreign ministry said.

The so-called “2 plus 2” meeting of the allies will discuss security challenges and co-operation on ways to achieve a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, the ministry added on Friday.

The meeting will be held ahead of talks between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Jan. 13.

With China days away from dropping border controls that have effectively shut it off from the rest of the world for three years, countries are lining up to impose curbs on travellers from China to contain its raging COVID-19 outbreak.

From Sunday, Jan. 8, China will drop a requirement for inbound travellers to quarantine, the latest dismantling of its “zero-COVID” regime that began last month following historic protests against a suffocating series of mass lockdowns.

But the abrupt changes have exposed many of China’s 1.4 billion population to the virus for the first time, triggering an infection wave that is overwhelming some hospitals, emptying pharmacy shelves of medication and causing international alarm.

Greece, Germany and Sweden on Thursday joined more than a dozen countries to demand COVID tests from Chinese travellers, as the World Health Organisation said China’s official virus data was under-reporting the true extent of its outbreak.

Chinese officials and state media have struck a defiant tone, defending the handling of the outbreak, playing down the severity of the surge and denouncing foreign travel requirements on its residents.

“No matter how China decides to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic, some Western media and some Western politicians will never be satisfied,” the state-run Global Times wrote in an editorial late on Thursday.

The aviation industry, battered by years of pandemic curbs, has also been critical of the decisions to impose testing on travellers from China. China will still require pre-departure testing for inbound travellers after Jan. 8.

Some Chinese citizens think that the reopening has been too hasty.

“They should have taken a series of actions before opening up, like advising what precautions people of a certain age should take … and at the very least ensure that the pharmacies were well stocked,” a 70-year-old man who gave his surname as Zhao told Reuters in Shanghai.

“By not doing this it got very messy.”

China reported five new COVID deaths in the mainland for Thursday, bringing its official virus death toll to 5,264, one of the lowest in the world.

But that is at odds with the situation on the ground where funeral parlours and crematoriums are overwhelmed, and some hospitals are packed with elderly patients on respirators.

International health experts believe Beijing’s limited definition for COVID deaths does not reflect the true toll that could rise to more than a million fatalities this year.

With the big Lunar New Year holidays late this month, the mainland is also set to open the border with its special administrative region of Hong Kong on Sunday, for the first time in three years.

Ferry services between the city and the gambling hub of Macau will resume on the same day.

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways (0293.HK) said on Thursday it would more than double flights to mainland China. Flights to and from China remain at a tiny fraction of pre-COVID levels.

The WHO has warned that the holiday, which starts on Jan. 21 and usually brings the biggest human migration on the planet as people head home from cities to see families in the countryside, could generate another wave of infections without higher vaccination rates and other precautions.

Authorities expect 2.1 billion passenger trips, by road, rail, water and air, over the holiday, double last year’s 1.05 billion during the same period.

The transport ministry has urged people to be cautious to minimise the risk of infection to elderly relatives, pregnant women and infants.

One region that could be a major beneficiary of China’s opening is Southeast Asia, which has steered clear of demanding COVID tests from Chinese visitors.

Except for airplane wastewater testing by Malaysia and Thailand for the virus, the region’s 11 nations will treat Chinese travellers like any others.

As many as 76% of Chinese travel agencies ranked Southeast Asia as the top destination when outbound travel resumed, according to a survey released in December by trade show ITB China.

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A US Capitol Police Officer holds a program during a memorial for Brian Sicknick, a Capitol police officer who died after the January 6, 2021, riot.

Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via AP

• Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was injured on the day of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
• A medical examiner said Sicknick died of natural causes, but the events contributed to his condition.
• The complaint also names two Capitol rioters, one of whom pepper-sprayed Sicknick.

The partner and estate of a US Capitol police officer who died shortly after the January 6 riot is suing Donald Trump and two rioters in a civil lawsuit that was filed on Thursday.

Damages are being sought by the estate and longtime partner of Officer Brian Sicknick, who was injured in the line of duty at the Capitol building.

He died a day later due to “natural causes” after suffering two strokes, according to the District’s chief medical examiner Francisco Diaz. In an interview with The Washington Post, Diaz said that the events from the day before “transpired played a role in his condition.”

Two men, Julian Khater and George Tanios, were later charged and pled guilty to assaulting Capitol officers, including Sicknick, with a chemical irritant. The civil lawsuit names Khater and Tanios as defendants.

“In his factual proffer, Defendant Tanios admitted to accompanying Defendant Khater to the January 6th rally in D.C. and admitted to purchasing and carrying the bear spray Defendant Khater used on Officer Sicknick,” the suit states.

The lawsuit also names Trump as a defendant, arguing that violence on January 6 was incited through the former president’s rhetoric.

“If it were not for Donald Trump, the coup attempt on January 6th would never have occurred. This lawsuit is designed to further hold him accountable for that day and the events that led to the death of Officer Sicknick,” Mark Zaid, an attorney for Sicknic’s estate, said in a statement to Insider.

The suit seeks at least $10,000,000 in damages from each defendant. Any money received through the complaint will be donated to charity, Zaid said.

“Although civil lawsuits by their nature are for monetary remedies that does not mean that is the ultimate objective,” Zaid told Insider. “Therefore, when accountability is achieved by Officer Sicknick’s estate the recovery will be donated to charity.”

Attorneys for Tanios and Khater did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

Donald Trump speaking at the NRA convention in Houston, TX, on May 27, 2022. New York Attorney General Letitia James, right, speaks in Washington, DC on Nov. 12, 2019.

Left, Brandon Bell/Getty Images. Right, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

• A Manhattan judge is threatening to sanction Donald Trump’s lawyers over ‘frivolous litigation’.
• Justice Arthur Engoron is presiding over the NY attorney general’s case against Trump’s business. 
• Last spring, Engoron hit Trump with a $10,000-a-day fine for flouting subpoenas in the same case.

A Manhattan judge is threatening to sanction Donald Trump’s lawyers for filing “frivolous litigation” in the New York attorney general’s $250 million lawsuit against the former president and his New York-based business empire.

The threat against three Trump-defending law firms by New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron was revealed in court filings Thursday night.

“This court is considering imposing sanctions for frivolous litigation against attorneys from Habba Madaio & Associates LLP; Continental PLLC; and Robert & Robert PLLC,” the judge said in a January 4 email to all parties in the attorney general’s lawsuit. 

The unspecified penalties would punish the three firms for filing motions to dismiss the lawsuit that set forth “the same legal arguments that this court previously rejected,” Engoron wrote. That rejection had come in November, in his denial of Trump’s request for a preliminary injunction halting the attorney general’s lawsuit.

The judge said Trump’s repetitive arguments for dismissal include that New York Attorney General Letitia James does not have legal standing to sue, that her lawsuit is part of a political “witch-hunt,” and that a simple disclaimer — essentially warning lenders to check Trump’s math — gives the former president immunity from James’ fraud claims.

In a response filed Thursday night, the three law firms countered that Engoron’s November rejection of their arguments was “a preliminary finding” and does not preclude them from raising the same arguments now. 

The three law firms also said that the judge’s email “provides troublingly little notice and time for counsel to respond.” Engoron had asked the attorney general’s office and Trump’s defense lawyers to respond to his “frivolous litigation” accusation within one day.

In their own response, lawyers for James agreed with the judge, calling Trump’s current dismissal arguments  “rehashed” and “calculated to delay the proceedings and needlessly divert the parties’ and the court’s resources.”

Engoron’s email — subject-lined “POTENTIAL SANCTIONS FOR FRIVOLOUS LITIGATION — did not indicate when he will decide on whether to impose sanctions or detail what those sanctions might be. 

Engoron has presided since 2021 over James’ probe of Trump’s real-estate and golf-resort empire and her 200-plus-page September lawsuit, which seeks to bar the Trump Organization from doing business in New York due to what she calls a pattern of financial fraud.

The judge has set what he has said is a firm October 2 trial date for the lawsuit.  

Engoron is the same judge who, in April, found Trump in contempt of court in the lead up to the lawsuit being filed, for failing to fully comply with the attorney general’s subpoenas for a decade-worth of his personal business documents.

Engoron’s $10,000-a-day non-compliance fine rose to $110,000 by late June when the judge lifted the contempt order.

Ultimately, Trump turned over only 10 personal business documents, though the Trump Organization itself turned over 900,000 documents to James’ probe.

Elon Musk sent Twitter staff a memo on Thursday confirming job cuts would be announced on Friday.

Carina Johansen/Getty Images

• Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted his support for Kevin McCarthy.
• McCarthy has faced 11 unsuccessful votes in his bid to be speaker of the House of Representatives.
• “If not McCarthy, then seriously who?” Musk asked his followers.

Twitter CEO and billionaire Elon Musk weighed in on the House of Representatives speakership drama.

“Kevin McCarthy should be Speaker,” Musk, who considers himself “economically right of center, maybe,” tweeted early Thursday morning.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican is aiming to become the next House speaker — but he has come up short in 11 votes over three days.

Twenty Republicans are withholding their votes. McCarthy has received criticism from Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Lauren Boebert, and others as his bid for Speaker draws on. The House currently has no active member of Congress as the speaker vote is delaying the swearing-in process and pushing back legislation. 

“Subtle, but I am beginning to suspect opinions differ on this matter … If not McCarthy, then seriously who?” Musk said in a follow-up tweet on Thursday.

Hours after his initial tweets, Musk conducted a poll asking Twitter users to choose if he should “Stay out of politics” or “Keep shooting his feet.”

The vote concluded with 595,182 votes, 57.2% of whom said he should “Keep shooting his feet.”

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2023

“Ouch my feet!!” he tweeted Thursday evening quoting the finished poll. 

WASHINGTON — For a long and frustrating third day, divided Republicans kept the speaker’s chair of the U.S. House sitting empty Thursday, as party leader Kevin McCarthy failed again and again in an excruciating string of ballots to win enough GOP votes to seize the chamber’s gavel.

Pressure was building as McCarthy lost seventh, eighth and then historic ninth, 10th and 11th rounds of voting, surpassing the number 100 years ago, in a prolonged fight to choose a speaker in a disputed election. By nightfall, despite raucous protests from Democrats, Republicans voted to adjourn and return Friday to try again.

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With McCarthy’s supporters and foes locked in stalemate, the House could not formally open for the new session of Congress. And feelings of boredom, desperation and annoyance seemed increasingly evident.

Read More: The Chaos Is the Point: The McCarthy Holdouts Are Trolling Democracy

One McCarthy critic, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, cast votes for Donald Trump — a symbolic but pointed sign of the broad divisions over the Republican Party’s future. Then he went further, moving the day from protest toward the absurd in formally nominating the former president to be House speaker on the 11th ballot. Trump got one vote, from Gaetz, drawing laughter.

As night fell before the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election, Democrats said it was time to get serious.

“This sacred House of Representatives needs a leader,” said Democrat Joe Neguse of Colorado, nominating his own party’s leader, Hakeem Jeffries, as speaker.

Read More: What to Expect From the New Divided Congress

McCarthy could be seen talking, one on one, in whispered and animated conversations in the House chamber. His emissaries sidled up to holdouts, and grueling negotiations proceeded in the GOP whip’s office down the hall. McCarthy remained determined to persuade Republicans to end the paralyzing debate that has blighted his new GOP majority.

McCarthy’s leadership team had presented a core group of the Republican holdouts with a deal on paper for rules changes in exchange for their support, said one of the opponents, conservative Republican Ralph Norman of South Carolina, as he exited a late-day meeting. It included mandating 72 hours for bills to be posted before votes, among others, though details were scarce.

Lest hopes get ahead of reality, he added, “This is round one.”

Holdouts led by the chamber’s Freedom Caucus are seeking ways to shrink the power of the speaker’s office and give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence — with seats on key committees and the ability to draft and amend bills in a more open process.

“We’re having good discussions and I think everyone wants to find a solution,” McCarthy told reporters hours earlier.

Read More: How McCarthy’s Concessions to Far-Right Detractors Could Transform the House

The House, which is one-half of Congress, is essentially at a standstill, unable to launch the new session, swear in elected members and conduct official business.

Yet, despite endless talks, signs of concessions and a public spectacle unlike any other in recent political memory, the path ahead remained highly uncertain. What started as a political novelty, the first time since 1923 a nominee had not won the gavel on the first vote, has devolved into a bitter Republican Party feud and deepening potential crisis.

Jeffries of New York won the most votes on every ballot but also remained short of a majority. McCarthy ran second, gaining no ground.

McCarthy resisted under growing pressure to somehow find the votes he needed or step aside so the House could open fully and get on with the business of governing.

The incoming Republican chairmen of the House’s Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees all said national security was at risk.

“The Biden administration is going unchecked and there is no oversight of the White House,” Republicans Michael McCaul, Mike Rogers and Mike Turner wrote in a joint statement. “We cannot let personal politics place the safety and security of the United States at risk.”

Read More: House Gridlock Continues While Biden and McConnell Join Hands

But McCarthy’s right-flank detractors led by the Freedom Caucus and aligned with Trump, appeared emboldened by the standoff — even though the former president publicly backed McCarthy.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., the leader of the Freedom Caucus and a leader of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election, asserted that McCarthy cannot be trusted, and tweeted his displeasure that negotiations over rule changes and other concessions were being made public.

“When confidences are betrayed and leaks are directed, it’s even more difficult to trust,” he tweeted.

Republican Party holdouts repeatedly put forward the name of Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, assuring the stalemate that increasingly carried undercurrents of race and politics would continue. They also put forward Republican Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, splitting the protest vote.

Donalds, who is Black, is seen as an emerging party leader and a GOP counterpoint to the Democratic leader, Jeffries, who is the first Black leader of a major political party in the U.S. Congress and on track himself to become speaker some day.

Read More: Hakeem Jeffries and the Perils of Being a ‘First’

Another Black Republican, newly elected John James, nominated McCarthy on the seventh ballot as nominators became a roll call of the GOP’s rising stars. For the 10th it was newly elected Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, an immigrant from Mexico whose speech drew chants of “USA! USA!”

A new generation of conservative Republicans, many aligned with Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda, want to upend business as usual in Washington and are committed to stopping McCarthy’s rise without concessions to their priorities.

To win support, McCarthy has already agreed to many of the demands of his opponents.

One of the holdouts’ key asks is to reinstate a rule that would allow a single lawmaker to seek a motion to vacate the chair — essentially to call a House vote to oust the speaker. It’s the same rule a previous era of tea party Republicans used to threaten the removal of GOP Speaker John Boehner, and McCarthy has resisted reinstating it.

But those opposing McCarthy do not all have the same complaints, and he may never be able to win over some of them. Several Republicans appear unwilling to ever vote for McCarthy.

Ballots kept producing almost the same outcome, 20 conservative holdouts still refusing to support McCarthy and leaving him far short of the 218 typically needed to win the gavel.

In fact, McCarthy saw his support slipping to 201, as one fellow Republican switched to vote simply present, and later to 200. With just a 222-seat GOP majority, he could not spare votes.

Read More: Why Kevin McCarthy Is So Bad at This

Thursday was a third long day. Ahead of the Jan. 6 anniversary, a prolonged and divisive speaker’s fight would underscore the fragility of American democracy after the attempted insurrection two years ago.

Colorado Republican Ken Buck sat out several votes after saying Wednesday that he told McCarthy “he needs to figure out how to make a deal to move forward” or eventually step aside for someone else.

The disorganized start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans now in control of the House, much the way that some past Republican speakers, including John Boehner, had trouble leading a rebellious right flank. The result: government shutdowns, standoffs and Boehner’s early retirement.

The longest fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged on for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.