Karine Jean-Pierre schools reporter who blames GOP Speaker mess on Democrats

The U.S. House is currently without a speaker because the chamber’s Republican majority can’t get 217 of its 221 members to agree to vote for the same candidate.

So when a reporter asked out lesbian White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre why President Joe Biden and his administration won’t use their influence to help Republicans reach 217 votes and elect a new Speaker, she had to school him on exactly why.

Related:

Karine Jean-Pierre couldn’t believe Fox reporter’s bizarre question about Joe Biden & beer

“Where is this coming from?” she asked when the reporter suggested Joe Biden is going to make people drink less beer.

“It is not for us to fix. It’s not for us to fix the chaos in the House Republicans,” she replied. “They have the majority, as you know, in the House — it is for them to fix.”

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“We’ve never seen a conference behave this way, or be this chaotic,” she continued, “and it is important for Republicans who have the majority to figure this out. They created this situation and they have to figure it out and elect their speaker so we can move on.”

During now-former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s chaotic election to House Speaker in January, it took 15 votes until 217 Republicans finally elected him. To win, he had to make concessions to his party’s far-right members, one of which included a mechanism making it easier to remove him as Speaker. That very mechanism allowed just 8 Republican representatives to remove him as Speaker on October 3 — making him the first-ever House Speaker to be ousted and throwing the House and its Republicans into chaos.

On Wednesday, it seemed that Rep. Steve Scalise (LA) was posed to become the next Speaker. However, rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), her bigoted bestie Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and their cohorts stated that they wouldn’t support him. Others followed, demonstrating that Scalise didn’t have the votes to win the position.

Now, Republicans are considering Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as a possible alternate candidate, and there are even rumors that they may want to elect the current temporary speaker Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), or even ask McCarthy if he’s still interested in giving the role a second chance. All of these candidates face the same problem: None of them may be able to win 217 votes from their own party.

Although the lack of a speaker has halted House business, making it impossible to pass legislation for ongoing military conflicts or preventing a government shutdown, there’s no reason for to Democrats to vote for a Republican who would just push through anti-LGBTQ+ bills and other legislation that is opposed to Democratic aims.

Meanwhile, the House’s 212 Democrats have unanimously voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) each time a recent vote for Speaker has occurred. Five Republicans could easily join Democrats to elect Jeffries as Speaker — though doing so would be political suicide for those Republicans.