GOP Congressman Couldn’t Be at Wife’s Side During Medical Treatment Due to Speaker Saga

Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) couldn’t be at his wife’s side during a medical treatment due to the ongoing Speaker saga.

Kevin McCarthy failed to get the necessary 218 votes to get the gavel on 11 ballots between Tuesday and Thursday. With only 222 Republicans in the House, McCarthy could not afford to lose more than four of them. A 12th ballot is set to occur on Friday at noon.

According to the Politico Playbook newsletter on Friday morning:

Around Christmas, Texas Republican Rep. ROGER WILLIAMS’ wife suffered a medical emergency. This week, as she underwent treatment, her husband was eager to be by her side.

Instead, he has been stuck in Washington taking failed vote after failed vote in KEVIN McCARTHY’s quest to become speaker.

“This is killing him,” one of Williams’ GOP lawmaker friends told us late Thursday night. “I’ve never seen Roger as down as he was yesterday.”

A deal was reportedly reached on Friday between McCarthy and his opponents, and did net him some additional votes, but not enough to claim the majority.

On a House GOP conference call on Friday, McCarthy announced the deal between him and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, according to Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman. McCarthy said he’d put Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and have the threshold of the number of members to file a motion to vacate the Speaker chair at one. Roy denied there was a deal and tweeted that “any agreement will take us ALL. We are making progress… but don’t let the sharks confuse the ongoing engagement.”

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