Moulton On U.S. House Chaos: 'This Is Getting Increasingly Serious'

SALEM, MA — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Salem) called the implications of the U.S. House of Representatives failure to elect a new Speaker of the House "increasingly serious" Thursday afternoon after the 10th failed attempt over three days to elect a leader under a Republican majority.

An 11th vote was underway early Thursday night.

The Republicans, who gained control of the House of Representatives in the November election, remained divided after nearly a dozen attempts to reach a resolution on the new leadership. While the situation provided bizarre and historically rare theater at Capitol Hill this week, Moulton said it could have a practical effect on his and other representatives' ability to perform constituent services.

"Now this chaos is causing unnecessary confusion about some of the most fundamental duties of congressional offices, like casework and oversight," Moulton said. "My colleagues who claim to be strong on defense are also jeopardizing our national security at home and credibility abroad."

Moulton called the impasse between supporters of U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the relatively small, yet decisive, group of conservative Republicans opposing his candidacy "a slap in the face to every American."

In a statement to Patch, Moulton decried the lack of outreach to Democrats to help resolve the repeated stalemates.

McCarthy routinely received about 200 of the 218 votes needed to become the Speaker through the first 10 votes with about 20 Republicans voting for alternative candidates. All 212 Democrats voted for the new House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) each time but he could only become the House Speaker in the highly unlikely scenario where he gets a handful of Republican support in subsequent votes.

"However and whenever this gets resolved, the implications will be long-lasting," Moulton said. "We will get back to the business of legislating, but I hope that every American remembers that Republicans would rather play games than govern."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)