在持续的党内争斗中，共和党人正在“玩火”关于谁应该成为众议院议长据佛罗里达州众议员玛丽亚·萨拉扎说。
100年来第一次，议长的选举没有在第一轮就决定下来。经过五轮单独的投票，众议院共和党领袖加利福尼亚州的凯文·麦卡锡迄今未能获得成为众议院议长所需的218票，因为现在有21名共和党人决定不投票给他。
第二天的投票仍在进行。在选出议长之前，众议院不能处理其他事务。
“他们中的任何一个人都可以举手说‘嘿，我想当演讲人。’因此，如果你这样做了，那么你就出去筹集资金，帮助其他候选人成为多数，”共和党众议员萨拉扎对美国广播公司新闻的林西·戴维斯说。
由于共和党的微弱多数，麦卡锡只能失去四张选票。由佛罗里达州众议员马特·盖兹(Matt Gaetz)领导的新国会前的五名成员的小规模运动，增加到21名共和党人没有投票支持麦卡锡担任议长，萨拉扎表示，此举将耗费共和党人的“政治资本”。
“我担心的是，我们这些玩游戏的共和党人，他们在浪费时间，我们没有向那些选举我们的人发出正确的信息，即我们在这里是为了他们的事业……我认为我们现在走的这条旋转木马对我们或对这个国家都没有好处……我们正在浪费我们的政治资本，这是美国人民在11月份给我们的资本，”萨拉扎告诉美国广播公司新闻。
在第一次议长投票中，投票反对麦卡锡的共和党人选择了一系列候选人，包括亚利桑那州的安迪·比格斯和俄亥俄州的吉姆·乔丹。到了第三轮，所有19名批评者都聚集在麦卡锡的支持者乔丹周围，他还得到了佛罗里达州拜伦·唐纳兹的一票，当唐纳兹将他的票从麦卡锡转向乔丹时，总数达到了20人。
在周三的第四轮和第五轮投票中，麦卡锡失去了另一名成员，众议员维多利亚·斯帕茨(Victoria Spartz)是共和党人。，投票出席。
尽管有诋毁者，萨拉扎继续重申，投票选举麦卡锡为议长是“公平”的。萨拉扎也承认她不是麦卡锡的坚定支持者之一，经常重申“他不是我的朋友”。
“他把我们放在多数。我不是他最好的朋友，但我认为我们应该公平。如果90%的众议院共和党成员想要那个人，那么我们应该和他一起去，”萨拉扎告诉美国广播公司新闻。
Salazar继续批评局外人，说他们占据了会议的大部分时间，并将它比作一场婚姻，在这场婚姻中，你可能不总是同意，但你不会为此申请离婚。
“他想当议长。他四处奔走，筹集资金。他让我们占多数。他创建了工作组。然后，他写了一份名为《对美国的承诺》的大文件。他去参加聚会，去找聚会的其他成员征求意见，”萨拉扎说。
“我认为这家伙已经尽力了。他不是上帝，但他做得最多。我再说一遍，他不是我的朋友，但我认为公平就是公平……就像在婚姻中一样。你真的相信你会100%地和你的丈夫保持一致吗?不。好吧。但这并不意味着你要和他离婚。那么，我们为什么要绕过这个问题呢?”萨拉扎告诉ABCNL Prime。
没有议长，众议院就无法继续日常事务，包括议员宣誓就职、组建委员会或对立法进行投票。
麦卡锡一直不服输，并保证他不会放弃，直到他成为议长，甚至走得更远，搬进议长办公室。
Rep. Salazar says Republicans are 'squandering political capital' amid infighting over speaker of the House
Republicans are “playing with fire” amid ongoing party infighting over who should be the speaker of the House, according to Florida Rep. Maria Salazar.
For the first time in 100 years, the vote for speaker was not decided in the first round. Over five separate rounds, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California has so far failed to secure the 218 votes needed to become speaker of the House, as now 21 Republicans have decided not to vote for him.
The voting, in its second day, is ongoing. The House cannot conduct other business until a speaker is chosen.
“Any of them could have raised their hand and say 'Hey, I want to be speaker.' So if you do, then you go out and you raise money and you help other candidates to make it into the majority,” Rep. Salazar, a Republican, told ABC News' Linsey Davis.
With a razor-thin Republican majority, McCarthy can only afford to lose four votes. What started as a small movement of five members ahead of the new Congress, led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, grew to 21 Republicans not voting for McCarthy as speaker, a move that Salazar said is going to cost Republicans their “political capital.”
“My concern is that we, the Republicans who are playing games, who are wasting time and we're not sending the right message to those people who elected us that we are here to do their business … And this merry-go-round that we're going right now that I think is not good for us or for the country … We're squandering our political capital, the capital that the American people gave us back in November,” Salazar told ABC News.
On the first speaker vote, Republicans who voted against McCarthy instead chose a range of candidates including Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. By the third round, all of the 19 detractors rallied around Jordan, a McCarthy supporter, who also gained a vote from Byron Donalds, R-Fla., when Donalds switched his vote from McCarthy to Jordan, bringing the total to 20.
In the fourth and fifth rounds of voting, on Wednesday, McCarthy lost another member when Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., voted present.
Despite the detractors, Salazar continued to reiterate that it was only “fair” to vote McCarthy in as speaker. Salazar also acknowledged that she is not one of McCarthy's staunch supporters, often reiterating “he is not my friend.”
“He put us in the majority. It's not that I am his best friend, but I think we got to be fair. And if 90% of the conference of the GOP members of the House of Representatives want that guy, then we should go with him,” Salazar told ABC News.
Salazar went on to criticize the outliers, saying they are holding up most of the conference and compared it to a marriage where you may not always agree but you don’t file for divorce over it.
“He wanted to be speaker. He went around, he raised the money. He put us in the majority. He created working groups. He then created this big document called 'Commitment with America.' He went to the party, he went to the other members of the party to ask for advice," Salazar said.
"I think the guy did the most he could do. He's not God, but he did the most. And I repeat, he is not my friend, but I think fair is fair … It's like in a marriage. Do you really believe that you are going to be in accordance with your husband 100% of the time? No. Right. But that doesn't mean that you're going to divorce the guy. So why are we going around this?” Salazar told ABCNL Prime.
Without a speaker, the House cannot continue any of its regular business, including swearing-in members, forming committees or voting on legislation.
McCarthy has remained defiant and pledged that he will not give up until he is speaker, even going so far as to move into the speaker’s office.
