Christie calls Speaker race an ‘embarrassment’ as GOP struggles to fill role

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said the House GOP’s struggle to elect a Speaker is “an embarrassment to the party.”

The House has gone three weeks without a Speaker after eight Republicans joined with Democrats to vote out former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Since then, the GOP has been unable to unify around a single candidate. Democrats have remained unified around their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

“We’ve gotten through two nominees of the party since Kevin McCarthy, it’s an embarrassment,” Christie said in an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle. “It’s an embarrassment to the party and to the country. And my view is just pick somebody now.”

House Republicans are set to meet Tuesday morning to vote on a third nominee. Eight candidates are still in the running, which means the internal voting process could be prolonged. Once someone wins a majority conference vote, that candidate will need to go to the floor and not lose more than four GOP votes.  

Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, pointed to issues of foreign policy, including Israel’s war with Hamas, Ukraine’s war with Russia and the southern border, as all needing Congress’s attention.

“We need a House of Representatives to function, to be able to address these problems and they should just pick a Speaker and let’s move on,” Christie said in the Monday interview.

Christie put some blame on House Democrats for the developments. Democrats had “no responsibility to save” McCarthy but “have contributed to the problem” by voting him out, Christie said.

The House GOP’s first nominee, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), withdrew his candidacy a day after being nominated after not receiving enough internal support. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was then nominated by failed to secure 217 votes on three separate floor votes. Republicans then held another internal conference vote that ended his candidacy.

Eight new candidates have stepped forward to be the GOP’s third nomination ahead of the secret ballot vote Tuesday morning.