WASHINGTON — More than 24 hours after Republicans nominated Rep. Steve Scalise to be the next House speaker, they remained mired in divisions and no closer to electing him as deep angst persisted after an hours-long meeting.
Exiting the meeting before it ended, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., openly fretted that his party’s narrow majority may never find the 217 votes necessary to elect a speaker.
He blasted eight Republican “traitors” — a word he used four times in a hallway interview — who voted with Democrats to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and “put us in this situation.” And if those eight decide to back Scalise, Rogers warned, “then there’s just another eight like them” who could create further trouble.
“The bottom line is we have a very fractured conference, and to limit ourselves to just getting 217 out of our conference, I think, is not a wise path,” Rogers told NBC News, adding that Republicans may “absolutely” need some Democratic votes to elect a speaker.
Rogers, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said it should be up to Democrats to come to them and make an offer, and currently “they haven’t offered jack.” Democrats say the GOP — who control the