WASHINGTON — It’s enough to give you Whip-lash.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) exited the race to be the next House speaker Tuesday — just four hours after he was formally nominated — in the face of sharp opposition from dozens of holdouts and criticism from former President Donald Trump.
Emmer, 62, edged out Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) on the fifth ballot of a closed-door conference vote at around 12 p.m., with 117 members pledging their support to the second-ranking House Republican.
By 4:30 p.m., Emmer had withdrawn, leaving more than 200 of his colleagues to discuss a dwindling number of alternatives.
The GOP caucus was due to hold its second candidate forum later Tuesday, lawmakers told The Post, with a fourth nominating vote to follow.
Johnson and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) re-entered the contest while Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), who had tried for the speakership twice before, took himself out of the running.
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) also put his name up for consideration, his spokeswoman confirmed, as did Byron Donalds of Florida, Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, and Roger Williams of Texas.
House Republicans have gone three weeks without a leader since Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted on Oct. 3 by eight of their own members, plunging the caucus into chaos.
Johnson earned support from just 97 members after four earlier rounds of voting eliminated Hern, Scott, Donalds, Jack Bergman of Michigan and Pete Sessions of Texas.
Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) and Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) withdrew before voting commenced at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
But 26 “Never Emmer” holdouts came forward in a subsequent roll call vote to oppose the whip in a ballot to gauge the level of support on the House floor.
Many questioned whether Emmer should be the standard-bearer of their party, citing his voting record and lack of public support for former President Donald Trump.
“I would vote for a conservative,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who was one of the holdouts, told reporters upon exiting the GOP meeting. “Tom Emmer is not a conservative.”
In a subsequent statement, Banks accused the “left-flank of our conference” of having blocked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in his speakership bid last week and selecting “the single most liberal member of leadership to continue business as usual in Washington.”
“They are holding our conference hostage and pushing Republicans to betray our voters and abandon our promises to the American people,” Banks said. “I won’t go along with it.”
Jordan won support from a majority of the Republican conference before falling short in three consecutive rounds of voting on the House floor last week, with at least 20 GOP members casting ballots against the Judiciary Committee chairman on every ballot.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) also received a nominating vote for House speaker Oct. 11, but never went up for a floor vote.
Both needed at least 217 votes to win the gavel, giving each a narrow, four-vote margin of error.
Emmer is the third member of House Republican leadership to be denied or stripped of the speaker’s gavel, as backlash to his effort began soon after the closed-door nominating session concluded.
Trump entered the fray after the conference vote to denounce Emmer as a “Globalist RINO” and claim that electing him speaker “would be a tragic mistake!”
“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors. RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them,” the 77-year-old posted on Truth Social.
“He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA—MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! He fought me all the way, and actually spent more time defending Ilhan Omar, than he did me—He is totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters,” the former president added.
“I believe he has now learned his lesson, because he is saying that he is Pro-Trump all the way, but who can ever be sure? Has he only changed because that’s what it takes to win?
“The Republican Party cannot take that chance, because that’s not where the America First Voters are. Voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake!”
Another House GOP member told The Post that holdouts expressed concerns in their conference meeting about Emmer’s votes to certify the 2020 presidential election results, federally codify same-sex marriage and fund military aid to Ukraine.
Behind the scenes, Trump surrogates worked the phones to tank Emmer, one source told The Post, while others like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called for a new speaker candidate.
“Today I voted against Tom Emmer on all rounds of voting including the spoken roll call vote because he has a voting record I can’t support,” Greene posted on X.
“We need a Republican Speaker that reflects the values of Republican voters that can lead our conference.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) declared that Emmer lacked the “votes to be speaker” and called on Green to “throw his hat in the ring” instead.
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) even reiterated he was prepared to nominate Trump himself from the floor.
Two other sources said that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the charge to oust McCarthy, had tried to insulate Emmer from criticism by the former president but was ultimately unsuccessful.
Tensions have cooled somewhat in the conference since McCarthy’s ouster, but some said the bad blood between leadership and rank-and-file members may lead to “outsider” candidates stepping in to fill the position this week.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said the conference needed to “move on” if Emmer was unable to consolidate support, calling for “fresh eyes” on the situation.
“It’s amazing to me that we’re in a position where you have some people who think that a speaker candidate has to agree with them on every major and most every minor issue of the day,” Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) added.
“It’s going to be hard to ever get anybody elected.”
Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has presided over the House Republican conference in the interim, with calls from moderates growing louder with each failed speakership attempt to temporarily empower him to pass legislation ahead of a government funding deadline Nov. 17.