UPDATE: The Hill retracted its report with an editor’s note about Kevin McCarthy talking to Democrats.
Editor’s note: Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said some Republicans had begun “preliminary” discussions with Democrats about deal to support consensus candidate. A previous version of this story contained incorrect information. We regret the error.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who has now lost four rounds of votes for Speaker of the House, is reportedly talking to Democrats about a “consensus candidate.”
The following report is from The Hill:
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has begun talks with Democrats about a deal to support a “consensus candidate” for Speaker or hold out from voting to ensure he needs to reach a lower threshold to lead the chamber, according to Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.)
Bacon told CNN on Wednesday morning that McCarthy was in “preliminary talks” with lawmakers to reach a deal, but said he wanted to hold back on the details of the conversations to not get ahead of the negotiations.
“There are preliminary talks, but we don’t want to go too fast on this because that then highjacks what Kevin is trying to do, and we want to support Kevin, he’s worked hard to get this,” Bacon said.
The Hill’s story was updated to read as the following:
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) on Wednesday said “preliminary talks” had begun with Democrats about supporting a “consensus candidate” for Speaker.
Bacon told CNN, however, he wanted to hold back on the details of the conversations so as to not get ahead of the negotiations.
“There are preliminary talks, but we don’t want to go too fast on this because that then highjacks what Kevin is trying to do, and we want to support Kevin, he’s worked hard to get this,” Bacon said.
This comes as 20 conservative members of the House have voted against McCarthy, picking Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) in the fourth round as their pick.
McCarthy’s initial loss for speakership was the first time in 100 years the speaker was not elected in the first round by the majority party.
Fox News Channel went after Republicans for failing to support McCarthy.
This is a developing story.
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