The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Speaker Still Unknown, President Biden Weighs in On Speaker Vote, Who is Rep. Byron Donalds? | Jan. 4

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: The next speaker of the House is still unknown  Who is Rep. Byron Donalds? President Joe Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez weigh in on the speaker vote President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell discuss the  An investigation into a Virginia school is announced Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Samantha Chiris. I'm Virginia Allen. And this is the Daily Signal top news for Wednesday, January 4th. Here are today's headlines. The next speaker of the House is still up in the year after the fifth round of voting on Wednesday failed to produce a clear winner. Republican Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio nominated Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, Democrat Representative Pete Aguilar of California, once again nominated Representative Hakeem Jeffreys of New York,

and Representative Lauren Bobert of Colorado, also a Republican, nominated Representative Byron Donalds of Florida to the House speakership position. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed to secure the majority of votes in the fourth round of voting. He received 201 votes in both the fourth and the fifth rounds. He needs 218 votes to win the speakership. House Democrats already had nominated Representative Jeffreys of New York to be the minority leader. Jeffrey succeeds House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California in leading Democrats as Republicans take a slim majority in the House, following the results of the November 8th midterm elections.

Jeffreys received 212 votes for the House Speaker during the fourth round of voting on Wednesday. He received the same amount during the fifth round. The New York Democrat received 212 votes for the House Speaker. speaker during the first round on Monday, which was nine more than Kevin McCarthy. Representative Victoria Sparts, a Republican from Indiana, voted present in the fourth and fifth round of voting today. So who is Representative Byron Donald's? Donalds grew up in a single-parent household in Brooklyn and says his mom made sacrifices to

make the American dream possible for him. He's a second-term congressman who was first elected in 2020. and was re-elected in November with nearly 70% of the vote. Donald's grew up in a household of registered Democrats and later decided that he was a Republican. Representative Chip Roy of Texas also nominated Donald's to the speakership position in the fourth round. Let's take a listen to some of Roy's comments per his Twitter. When we're sitting here today and we continue this debate and when them have a vote, I just ask my friends on this side of the aisle,

Do you think that the American people support the status quo? Yes or no? Do you think that the American people want us to continue down the road of what we've been doing? Do they want us to continue to do the things since the leadership that's currently in place have been in place? Do you think they want us to continue down that path? And the argument that I would make is that they want a new face, new vision, new leadership. And I believe that face vision and new leadership is Byron Donald's, and I'm proud to put his name into nomination. And I yield back.

Donald's was also involved at the local level on the Herman King campaign in 2012. He ran for Congress and lost. Then he ran for Florida State House and won. McCarthy didn't win the fifth round of voting either. President Joe Biden discussed the House Speaker vote on Wednesday morning. He said, with regard to the fight over the speaker, that's not my problem. I just think that it is embarrassing the way it has taken so long and the way they are treating one another. He also said, as the rest of the world looking, looking at, you know, can we get our act together?

And what I focus on is getting things done. It's not a good thing. It's the United States of America. And I hope they get their act together, Biden said. Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has also weighed in on the speaker race. Let's listen to some of her interview on MSNBC. I do not believe that Kevin McCarthy has the votes. I believe that a lot of the opposition to him is very personal.

I believe his leadership style is incompatible with a lot of Republican members and certainly the Democratic caucus. And so I think that is the central question. If not him, then who? You have certain members of Freedom Caucus who have, of course, nominated other people, but the rest of Republican Party will not rally, I believe. They will not coalesce under Jim Jordan. Jim Jordan himself doesn't want it.

They will not coalesce under someone like Andy Biggs. And so the question is, is there anyone in their caucus that can build that consensus? If there isn't, McCarthy's team may have to come to the Democratic Party. And if that's the case, then what would that even look like? It's rather unprecedented. Could it result in a potential coalition government? President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined forces earlier today in Kentucky to celebrate the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Following months of negotiations, 19 Republicans and all 50 Democrats, supported the package. The bill was signed into law in 2021. Heritage Foundation's David Ditch writes that the bill gives big wins to the left on a variety of fronts. Let's take a listen to some of Biden's remarks per NBC. I wanted to start off the new year that this historic project here in Ohio and Kentucky with the bipartisan group of officials because I believe it sends an important message, an important message to the entire country. We can't work together. We can get things done. We can move the nation forward. We just drop a little bit of our egos and focus on what is needed in the country. McConnell also shared his thoughts earlier today. Let's take a listen to his comments via NBC.

This is a day I think many people in northern Kentucky thought might never happen. For those of us who've run for public office in Kentucky over the years, every time you came to Northern Kentucky, the issue was how we're going to get the bridge built. And as all the Kentucky politicians can tell you, the issue of possibly tolling the bridges was very, very toxic. and so today we sit in this wonderful clear day with sun shining down on literally a legislative miracle. How did it come together? Virginia Attorney General Jason Mayores announced Wednesday that prosecutors will investigate one of the state's richest school districts and its celebrated science and tech school for unlawful discrimination in violation of state law.

Our colleagues, Tony Kinnett and Tyler O'Neill Report. The move from Miores, a Republican, follows concerns that Fairfax County Public Schools and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, locally dubbed T.J., engaged in unlawful discrimination both by withholding national merit scholarship honors from students and implementing equitable admissions policy. The high school claims the honors were delayed as a result of human error. In announcing that his office of civil rights would conduct the probe, Miorres said no student should be treated differently because of their race. Students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology are amongst the brightest in the nation. Yet, some have been punished in the name of equity. Racism and race-based government decision-making in any form is wrong,

and unlawful under Virginia's Human Rights Act. A federal judge ruled almost a year ago that Fairfax County's school admission practices discriminated against Asian students by limiting their number in an effort to racially balance the student body at T.J., the top-rated STEM school in the country. Asian student enrollment at T.J.

declined from 73% to 54% before the judge ruled against the Fairfax school system last February, finding that the school's racial balancing practice is unlawful and discriminatory. Following a Fairfax County School Board resolution to provide equal outcomes for every student, without exceptions, T.J. administrators decided to delay informing students of their National Merit Scholarship Awards so as to focus on students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements. Brandon Cassata, the school's director of student services, said. The school has reportedly

withheld award recognition for years, affecting over 1,200 students and often keeping them from being able to list honors achievements on university and scholarship applications. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to the Daily Signals Top News. If you haven't had the chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in your

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Thanks again for listening. Have a great night, and we'll be back with you all tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Blewey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen, Samantha Asheris, and Jillian Richards. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Guiney and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com. Thank you.