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ByEricaWerner The Associated Press WASHINGTON With no warning, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy withdrew Thursday from the con- test for speaker of the U.S. House, shocking fellow Re- publicans just before voting was to begin and plunging Congress into chaos. Lawmakers said they were thunderstruck and in disbelief following McCar- thy's announcement, which came moments after they had shown up for an elec- tion nearly certain to end with McCarthy as their pick. A mere two weeks ago out- goingSpeakerJohn Boehner announced his plans to re- sign under conservative pressure, also without warn- ing and stunning to all. Boehner, who planned to leave Oct. 30, said in a state- ment that he would stay on "until the House votes to elect a new speaker." McCarthy said, "Over the last week it has become clear to me that our confer- ence is deeply divided and needs to unite behind one leader. I have always put this conference ahead of myself. Therefore I am withdrawing my candidacy for speaker of the House." Speaking to reporters, McCarthy said: "For us to unite, we probably need a fresh face." He said he didn't want to win by ek- ing out victory because the House needs a speaker with strong GOP support. McCar- thy was being opposed by a smallbutdeterminedblocof hardline conservatives. McCarthy said he would stay on as majority leader. The speaker's election was postponed, as may be the scheduled Oct. 29 vote for speaker by the full House, Democrats as well as Re- publicans. What happens next is un- known. McCarthy was by far the heavy favorite to re- place Boehner. Congress is facing major budget dead- lines and fiscal decisions. At the White House, presidential spokesman Josh Earnest said it would be easy for Democrats to poke fun at the Republi- cans' troubles if not for the serious issues Con- gress faces. He said the next speaker will have to tame a small but vocal group of lawmakers with a strong ideological bent or find a way to "buck up" more mainstream House Republicans. The lawmaker most widely seen as a potential speaker in McCarthy's place immediately ruled it out. "Kevin McCarthy is the best person to lead the House, and so I'm disap- pointed in this decision," said Rep. Paul Ryan of Wis- consin, the former vice presidential nominee who now chairs the Ways and Means Committee. "While I am grateful for the encour- agement I've received, I will not be a candidate. One leadership ally, Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, said McCarthy "didn't see a path to 218" — the number of votes needed to prevail on the House floor. McCar- thy faced opposition from a bloc of 30-plus hard- line conservative lawmak- ers who didn't command the numbers to block him in Thursday's secret-ballot elections, but might have prevented him from win- ning a floor vote later on. There was talk among some lawmakers of elevat- ing a "caretaker" speaker who could serve with con- sensus support at least for the short term. Rank-and-file lawmakers seemed unsure how to re- act or what to say as they milled around the lobby of the Longworth Office Build- ing where they had gath- ered to eat barbecue and then — they thought — vote for a new speaker. Instead the meeting was adjourned moments after it began with McCarthy making his jaw-dropping announce- ment as his wife and kids looked on. "Disbelief, from the sur- prise announcement by Boehner to the quick nature of this election to it now be- ing postponed — it's uncer- taintyontopofuncertainty," said freshman Rep. Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania. "I've been here nine months, I've never seen anything like this. I'd bet you most other members who have been here 20 or 30 years would say the same thing." "He was making his plea this morning for speaker and this afternoon he's out of the race. What happened in those four hours, I don't know," said Rep. John Flem- ing of Louisiana. Several Republicans were crying after McCarthy's an- nouncement, lawmakers at the meeting said. The other two announced Republican candidates for speaker — Reps. Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Daniel Webster of Florida — lack widespread support in the House GOP, although Web- ster has the backing of the hardline House Freedom Caucus. CONGRESS McCarthy withdraws candidacy for House speaker JACQUELYNMARTIN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday a er stepping down as a nominee for House Speaker. By Michael Biesecker and Matthew Daly The Associated Press WASHINGTON Volkswa- gen's top U.S. executive of- fered deep apologies yet sought to distance himself Thursday from the emis- sions scandal enveloping the world's largest auto- maker, asserting top corpo- rate officials had no knowl- edge of the cheating soft- ware installed in 11 million diesel cars. Though he said he hadn't been briefed on the prelimi- nary findings of the ongoing internal investigation, Volk- swagen of America CEO Mi- chael Horn told a congres- sional subcommittee that a tiny group of software de- velopers in Germany was responsible for the com- puter code that enabled the cars to trick U.S. gov- ernment emissions tests. Three lower-level manag- ers have been suspended. "To my understanding this was not a corporate de- cision, this was something individuals did," Horn said, adding that he felt person- ally deceived. That explanation left members of the House panel investigating the scheme incredulous. Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., was among the lawmakers who said he couldn't accept VW's characterization that "this was the work of a cou- ple of rogue engineers." Col- lins, an engineer, suggested that such a far-reaching cheating strategy couldn't be pulled off without the complicity of high-ranking supervisors across several parts of the company. "What I've picked up here and I hope you can relay back to your board, the folks run- ning Volk- swagen back in Germany, is that the response so far is inade- quate," Col- lins said. "It's asignofarrogance.It'sasign of not admitting yet the se- verity of your problem." For more than two hours, Horn sat calmly, occasion- ally sipping from a cup of water as news photog- raphers' camera shutters clicked away. As the elected officials expressed anger, disappointment and skepti- cism at the company where he has worked for nearly half his life, the 51-year- old German executive apol- ogized but provided little new information. More than a month after the company first confessed the emissions-rigging to U.S. regulators, Horn said it doesn't yet have a detailed plan for fixing the nearly 500,000 "clean diesel" cars sold in the U.S. with the suspect software since the 2009 model year. Such a so- lution will likely take up to two years, he said, adding that each car might require between 5 and 10 hours' work by a mechanic to meet clean air standards. The cars are safe to drive, the government says, but Horn suggested Volkswa- gen could compensate some owners, possibly by paying them for the lost value of their vehicles. So far, the company has set aside more than $7 billion to address the scandal, which Horn said may not be enough. Shortly before Horn be- gan his testimony, German police and prosecutors raided VW's global head- quarters in Wolfsburg and other locations seeking ma- terial that would help clar- ify who was responsible for the cheating. The searches were intended to "secure documents and data stor- age devices" that could identify those involved in the alleged manipulation and explain how it was car- ried out, prosecutors said. In the U.S., the Environ- mental Protection Agency and the Justice Department are conducting a criminal investigation. VW also po- tentially faces billions in fines for violating the Clean Air Act, as well as a raft of state investigations and class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of customers. Horn said VW plans to withdraw applications seek- ing U.S. emissions certifica- tions for its 2016 model Jet- tas, Golfs, Passats and Bee- tles with diesel engines. 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