Pa. congressman decides to withdraw from list of potential House speakers

• By Paul Vigna/PennLive.com

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, who represents Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District, has decided that he’s not interested in the House speaker vacancy.

The 59-year-old legislator from Luzerne County said Monday that he has decided to withdraw his name from consideration, according to The Associated Press.

Earlier, on Fox News, Meuser said that Kevin McCarthy was “unfairly treated” and that any of the other eight candidates “will make a good speaker.” Now there are just eight left to vie for the position.

According to an Associated Press story, Republicans gathered late into Monday evening to hear quick speeches from the congressmen seeking the gavel as they made their pitches to become House speaker ahead of internal party voting.

Senior-most among the hopefuls is Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, but neither he nor the other lower-level Republican lawmakers appear to have any clear shot for the gavel. Instead, he and others are reaching out to Donald Trump for backing ahead of internal party elections to choose a nominee, the AP said.

McCarthy himself called the whole spectacle “embarrassing” for the House Republicans, who are wasting their majority and leaving the government rudderless and unable to function.

Trump said Monday that “they all called asking for support, adding that “there’s only one person who can do it all the way: Jesus Christ.”

Twenty days have passed since McCarthy was removed as speaker. The House Republicans dropped Jim Jordan as their nominee Friday.

WITF editor’s note: U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R, PA-9) is among the 146 members of Congress who voted against certifying Pennsylvania’s 2020 election result, which would have invalidated the legal votes of millions of Pennsylvanians. There was no evidence to call the election results into question.