By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Maureen Chowdhury and Elise Hammond, CNN
From CNN's Annie Grayer, Kristin Wilson and Clare Foran
Rep. Kevin McCarthy was defeated for an eighth time in his bid for speakership after multiple Republicans voted for Florida Rep. Byron Donalds.
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries had the unanimous support of his caucus.
No member of the new Congress can be sworn in to office without a Speaker of the House voted in.
Here's a look at the vote tally:
From CNN's Annie Grayer
Another example of how not swearing in a speaker practically implicates the business of the House —GOP Rep. Don Bacon tweeted how not electing a speaker is preventing work from happening.
"My office was informed by an agency today that they cannot communicate with my staff regarding active casework because we are not yet sworn in! The handful holding up the speaker election is not helping Americans but directly hurting them. @GOPLeader," Bacon tweeted.
New members of Congress cannot be sworn in until a speaker is elected.
From CNN's Morgan Rimmer
Former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says that the stalemate over speaker shows that "the Republican Party continues to be a deeply divided party."
He added, "With some very willful members who would rather obstruct than create or be constructive."
On the rules changes being proposed, he added, "They are designed by the promoters of those changes to prevent the House from acting in a constructive, positive, effective way."
From CNN's Jeff Zeleny
A normally restrained and reliably conservative member of Congress from a red state summed up the predicament to CNN as: “We’re frustrated as hell."
The member continued, "This should not be mistaken for overwhelming love for Kevin, but we can’t cave into demands from people who have no interest in governing or any clue how to do it.”
This Republican, who is supporting McCarthy but losing patience, said that with each passing ballot, it becomes even more difficult for an alternative to successfully emerge.
A Republican donor and longtime friend of McCarthy, who is watching this drama unfold from the West Coast, offered a similar sentiment, telling CNN: “It’s ironic McCarthy is still standing — not because of any great love for him, but because of burning hatred for [Rep. Matt] Gaetz and his gang.”
From CNN's Jennifer Hansler
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday that concerns about the national security impact of the House speaker impasse will only become more heightened as it drags on.
“The first few days of any congressional term usually is spent on procedural elements like this,” Price said at a department briefing Thursday. “But of course, if this continues on, there will be additional concerns. I'm sure we will hear additional concerns from the Hill.”
“The Hill has indispensable functions – an oversight role, an appropriations role, an authorization role. We want to hear their voice in our foreign policy. We want to ensure that our foreign policy has bipartisan support wherever we can. We want to ensure that in the formulation of our policy we're taking into account the prerogatives and the perspectives of members of both chambers of Congress. It is much more difficult to do that when there is not a seated House of Representatives,” he said.
Price noted that “the process is playing out” and said he expected “that at some point before too long, the process will conclude.”
Effects on national security: At a minimum, House members are not staying informed of day-to-day national security developments because they cannot receive a security clearance until they are sworn in. But at its most extreme, the impasse also means that the current Congress is not in a position to either authorize or stop a war, staffers and experts told CNN.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he is concerned about the national security implications.
“It’s bad. It’s really bad,” Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t have access to the SCIF right now, because I’m not sworn in. I can’t get my China briefing, my Ukraine briefing, my Iran briefing.”
Fitzpatrick added, “A third of our government’s offline right now. It’s very dangerous.”
Not only are those members barred from briefings, the key national security committees they would normally sit on cannot even be formed yet – including the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees, which oversee the intelligence community and the Pentagon, respectively.
Analysis by CNN's Zachary B. Wolf
Not even giving in to GOP hardliners on their "motion to vacate the chair" demand can get Rep. Kevin McCarthy the votes to become House speaker — at least not yet.
He seemed to agree Wednesday night to a main sticking point for some of the GOP hardliners — restoring an individual member's ability to force a vote on removing a House speaker. But in a vote Thursday afternoon, McCarthy still came up short.
There's reason for McCarthy to fear the "motion to vacate the chair."
The tactic was used by the House Freedom Caucus to frustrate and push out former House Speaker John Boehner.
Democrats, under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, changed the rules to make it more difficult to force a vote on vacating the chair. The Pelosi rules require a majority of either party to sign on before a vote can be taken.
Now, GOP hardliners want a single member to be able to force a vote. Sensing it would be used to gum up the work of the House by the House Freedom Caucus, McCarthy had heretofore opposed changing the rules back, although he has now relented on that.
Why not just let a single member force a vote? Here's Rep. Dan Crenshaw, the Texas Republican, as quoted in a previous CNN story on the subject: “There’s a reason [the motion to vacate] already got debated. You can’t govern with a gun to your head and that is what they are asking for. It makes us highly unstable, and it lays out the potential too for Democrats to take advantage of this and create absolute chaos.”
A lot of this is theoretical. A motion to vacate hasn't actually been tried since 1910 — and even then it was unsuccessful. The threat of a motion to vacate the chair did lead to Boehner's resignation in 2015.
The lack of literature on how exactly it would play out is telling. It's a rarely used and not-very-effective tool, but in the hands of these all-or-nothing hardliners, could lead to some frustrating moments for whoever becomes speaker.
From CNN's Morgan Rimmer
GOP Rep. Scott Perry, who is opposing Rep. Kevin McCarthy for House speaker, said he will keep voting for Rep. Byron Donalds.
Asked if he would vote to adjourn at some point, he said, "I'm not going to discuss my votes," other than for Donalds.
As he went back into Rep. Tom Emmer's office, Perry was asked if they could get to a deal today. He replied, "We're not even really talking about a deal."
From CNN's Lauren Fox
Unlike Rep. Jim Jordan, who vehemently was publicly opposed to being speaker, a source close to Rep. Kevin Hern told CNN me that he wouldn't be opposed to being speaker if McCarthy couldn't get the votes.
"If McCarthy can’t get the votes, Hern won’t turn down a challenge. People his entire life have been telling him he can’t do something and look where he is now," the source said.
Hern, who is the head of the Republican Study Committee, has received a couple of anti-McCarthy protest votes in the eighth round of voting, but it unclear if he, or anyone, could earn a winning number of votes.
From CNN Digital's Photo Team
Thursday’s speakership votes have so far gone the same way as the votes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is still struggling to find the support he needs to secure the speaker job.
Here are some of the scenes today from the standoff, both on the House floor and outside the chamber. For a full look at the week so far, check out this photo gallery of the stalemate.
