The U.S. House of Representatives is still in disarray because no speaker was chosen on the second vote day.
The lower chamber of the House of Representatives has been paralysed by a long-running political impasse, which was extended by a vote on Wednesday night to adjourn until midday on Thursday.
Due to intra-party strife, Republican congressman from California Kevin McCarthy was unable to win votes three times earlier in the day.
On Tuesday, the first day of the polarised 118th Congress, House members cast three votes, but McCarthy was unable to secure enough support to become the next speaker.
It was the first time in a century that the speaker of the House, who oversaw its proceedings and conducted business on the floor of the lower chamber, wasn't chosen on the first ballot.
The 435-seat House must vote until a speaker is chosen by a majority of the chamber's members.
Before then, the remainder of the business must be completed before members can be sworn in and committees may be established.
Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan who serves in the U.S. Congress, stated on Twitter that the division "isn't just an embarrassment for Republicans, it's horrible for the entire country."
Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden responded to the political saga surrounding the vote for House speaker on Wednesday morning.
He thinks that the length of time it is taking is embarrassing.
“How do you think this looks to the rest of the world?
“It’s not a good look. It’s not a good thing,” Biden told reporters at the White House before leaving for Hebron, Kentucky.
McCarthy has the support of most House Republicans and former U.S. President, Donald Trump.
But a handful of hardliners have opposed his bid to lead the conference by arguing that he is insufficiently conservative while refusing to decentralise the speaker’s power.
The House has elected a speaker 127 times since 1789.
There have been 14 instances of speaker elections requiring multiple ballots.
Thirteen of 14 multiple-ballot elections occurred before the Civil War, when party divisions were more nebulous, according to Congressional historians.
The last time a speaker election required two or more votes on the floor happened in 1923.
Harvard legal scholar, Laurence Tribe, tweeted on Wednesday that the House of Representatives, unlike the Senate, was not a continuing body.
“It must reassemble itself without full constitutional authority every two years, like someone rebuilding a ship on the open seas.
“But when the voyage is this rough, that’s a sign of dysfunction,” Tribe said.
All House Democrats have voted for Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, to be the speaker.
Though it’s unlikely for Jeffries to attain the position, he is set to become the first African American lawmaker to lead a party in either chamber of the U.S. Congress.
Republicans flipped the House in the 2022 midterm elections while Democrats held onto their majority in the Senate.
The new Congress convened for the first time on Tuesday, with U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris, presiding over the opening of the 100-people upper chamber in which Democrats control 51 seats versus 49 for Republicans.
Chuck Schumer from New York and Mitch McConnell from Kentucky remain the Senate majority leader and minority leader, respectively. (Xinhua/NAN)