The Republican nominee to lead the US House of Representatives, Steve Scalise, announced he was dropping out on Thursday after failing to garner enough support to win the election, deepening the crisis surrounding the paralyzed lower chamber of Congress.

The Louisiana congressman narrowly won a secret internal Republican ballot on Wednesday to replace ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Scalise announced his decision at a closed-door meeting where he also refused to announce his support for anyone else.

"I just shared with my colleagues that I'm withdrawing my name as a candidate for speaker-designee," Scalise said as he came out of the meeting at the Capitol.

Republican skepticism

After McCarthy's departure, Scalise was nominated to become the house speaker but he was still short of the 217 votes that are needed for the election of a House speaker, as many of his party members refused to support him.

The course of action remains unclear now that the Republicans have failed to elect a speaker after McCarthy's removal from the job in a right-wing revolt.

Scalise's decision to drop out of the election has given a big blow to the GOP's hope for leadership. The Republicans can only afford four defections as they lead the chamber by a slim majority of 221-212.

The chaos within the Republicans has also left them unable to act and support Israel after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel.
 

mfi/jsi (AFP, AP, Reuters)