Republican Kevin McCarthy managed to convince some Donald Trump supporters on Friday to vote for him to run for president of the United States House of Representatives, but that support was not enough for him to be elected.
The Capitol, attacked exactly two years ago by Trump supporters, is paralyzed by the rebellion of very conservative Republican congressmen aligned with the former president.
McCarthy, favorite to replace Nancy Pelosi as House speaker, said he had advanced on his candidacy for the first time in four days of negotiations and after 13 rounds of voting.
“It just reminds me of what my father always told me,” McCarthy told reporters. “It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you end. And now we have to finish for the American public.”
The Lower House meets again to resume debates in a session scheduled for 10:00 p.m. local time (03:00 GMT on Saturday) for a 14th vote.
In the end, this was not favorable for McCarthy either, who fell two votes short of achieving the necessary 218 votes.
Radicals still do not give in
“We are going to surprise them,” he had told journalists on Tuesday morning who asked him about the feasibility of his candidacy. However, he has yet to rank Republicans who have vowed never to vote for him.
Third most important political figure in the United States after the president and vice president, the “speaker” or head of the lower house needs 218 votes to be elected. He currently has 213.
To impose conditions, the tough group of Trump legislators is taking advantage of the tight Republican majority in the House achieved in the November midterm elections.
As the lower house lacks a “speaker”, the representatives cannot assume their positions and consequently cannot vote on bills.
The 434 members of the House will continue to vote until the president emerges. That can take hours, days, or weeks. In 1856, an agreement was reached after two months and 133 votes.
Anger was palpable among members of the Grand Old Party, as the Republican Party is called, who overwhelmingly support McCarthy’s candidacy, leading to lively debates. Many left the compound in protest at the speech by Matt Gaetz, one of the elected representatives leading the rebellion.
Among the Democrats, whose elected representatives all stand up en bloc on every ballot, as if to further underscore Republican divisions, they are also somewhat busy. Joe Biden’s party may show unity around its leader, Hakeem Jeffries, but it lacks enough votes to make him party chairman.
The Democrats also denounced on Friday the dominance of Trumpists – many of whom still refuse to concede their defeat in 2020 – over the Republican Party, two years after their supporters stormed the headquarters of Congress with the result of five deaths.
“The chaos in the House of Representatives is just another example of how an extreme fringe … prevents you from governing,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
The anniversary of the attack on the Capitol “should serve as a signal to Trumpism, which is taking it from failure to failure,” he said in a statement. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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