Kevin McCarthy loses 6th House speaker vote

AUSTIN, Texas - The Freedom Caucus is causing quite a ruckus in the U.S. House of Representatives. It is coming at the expense of leader Kevin McCarthy. 

McCarthy has been the House GOP leader for years, but Wednesday, the California Rep. failed, yet again, to win the speaker's gavel in the fourth round of voting. 

Some Republicans backed Byron Donalds of Florida after backing Jim Jordan on Tuesday. 

Matt Mackowiak, chair of the Travis County Republican Party, and Democratic analyst Ed Espinoza, joined FOX 7 Austin's Mike Warren to discuss.

MIKE WARREN: Matt Mackowiak, what is happening in the House right now?

MATT MACKOWIAK: Yeah. What's happening is today you've seen both sides get more dug in, and the dynamic hasn't changed much. And so I don't know what it's going to take to break the logjam. The. The 20 or so holdouts want. Want to see someone other than McCarthy to be speaker. Clearly, because they've gotten most of what they've asked for in terms of the rules changes. It's not clear to me that anyone has more support than McCarthy has at the moment. But of course, McCarthy doesn't have enough support to become speaker. So I'm I guess as this goes on, a few more days, perhaps the weekend can be a motivator to try to get to a resolution. You might even have a resolution overnight. But, you know, they're losing legislative time. You know, you have a limited number of legislative days each calendar year, and they got to get going.

MIKE WARREN: And Espinoza, Democrats are saying that Republicans are in disarray. Would you agree with that?

ED ESPINOZA: It's hard to argue with that. I mean, you've got somebody who is a presumptive speaker who doesn't have the votes to be speaker. And I agree with Matt in that they're losing legislative time. They're also losing the media cycle on this. The headlines are really embarrassing for Kevin McCarthy. And here's something that's really interesting. Let's get away from the bean counting here in the voting and look at the larger picture here. The only viable contender Republicans have is Kevin McCarthy. There is no other alternative. So this is a race between Kevin McCarthy and Kevin McCarthy, and he's not able to get over the hump. And right now, the Democratic leader is getting more votes than the Republican leader. This is a bad sign for somebody who's coming in and about to be speaker, presumptively about to be speaker.

MIKE WARREN: Matt, Texas representative Chip Roy told Fox News that he is going to stand firm against McCarthy as speaker. Is there a path forward for McCarthy, and what is the end game here? How do you think this eventually plays out?

MATT MACKOWIAK: Yeah. It's not clear that the 20 or so that have been opposing McCarthy have a specific endgame in mind except denying McCarthy from being speaker. I agree with many of the things that Congressman Chip Roy is seeking changes to the way the institution runs, allowing members to offer amendments on the floor, single issue bills having at least 72 hours to read bills. These are all reasonable rules changes. But at some point, if someone else doesn't emerge that can demonstrate they have more support than McCarthy, then I think the holdouts need to take yes for an answer. They've gotten most of what they asked for far more than probably most thought they would get. It's time to get to work.

MIKE WARREN: And Espinoza, does all this infighting help Democrats, or at least the perception that Republicans are in chaos?

ED ESPINOZA: Yes. And I mean, again, this is what we see not only playing out in the headlines, but you see it playing out in the Twitter news feeds and Facebook news feeds right now as well. Republicans are not helping themselves by this. You have some people like Chip Roy who are digging in their heels and many of them are getting what they want, and they're still not coming around to this. That's a problem. Eventually, they're either going to have to come around to Kevin McCarthy or they're going to have to find somebody else. And here's a twist. That person, the speaker of the House, does not have to be a member of Congress. I saw earlier today former Representative Mick Mulvaney is someone who is mentioned as a potential speaker of the House, bringing in somebody from the outside to be speaker. Does Congress need a babysitter? They might.

MIKE WARREN: Okay.We got to wrap it up. Ed, Matt, thank you both very much.