Congress has 'no positive messages' as Republicans struggle to elect new speaker, GOP lawmaker warns

WASHINGTON — As the House marks 12 days without a speaker due to Republican infighting, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, acknowledged that the situation is “not good.”

But he also responded to criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, saying the lower chamber is not in a “giant crisis.”

“It’s not good, there’s no positive messages here,” Crenshaw said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I don’t want to give everybody the impression that it’s a giant crisis either. I know it sometimes feels that way.”

“This is democracy. Democracy is always pretty messy,” Crenshaw added.

After just a handful of House Republicans, along with all House Democrats, voted to oust former speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the House has been in a state of paralysis, unable to take any legislative action. The chamber is frozen ahead of a mid-November government funding deadline and an urgency from lawmakers to approve U.S. aid to allies, such as Ukraine and Israel. 

“I think what the real problem is that we've allowed a different process of democracy to take hold within our own conference which is that majority doesn’t rule,” Crenshaw said, noting that just eight GOP lawmakers voted to remove McCarthy, compared to the 210 GOP lawmakers who voted to retain McCarthy earlier this month. 

House Republicans formally nominated House Judiciary chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to be speaker on Friday, but it later became clear that Jordan did not have the support necessary to be elected speaker on the House floor if his Republican critics and all Democratic lawmakers support other options. 

Lawmakers adjourned for the weekend, giving time for Jordan and his allies to attempt to convince skeptical House Republicans to fall behind the Ohio Republican, but it's not clear whether Jordan can ever get the near-unanimous support he needs to become speaker.

Crenshaw, who is supporting Jordan, urged his fellow Jordan-allies to avoid “pissing off” the holdouts to avoid alienating them and warned against holding a floor vote to elect a new speaker unless it is clear Jordan has the 217 votes – the magic number to be crowned leader.

“Everybody’s gotta grow up, get it together. If there’s differences, let's sort it out,” Crenshaw said. “We need to have cool heads prevail, talk about it, see what people want, see what has made people angry.”