The conservative president of the House of Representatives could be overthrown by radical elected representatives from his own party this Tuesday, October 3, amid ideological and budgetary disputes.
Branded by Donald Trump for almost a decade, political history continues to be made in the United States before the eyes of astonished observers. While the former President in New York appeared for the second day in a row this Tuesday, October 3rd, in a Manhattan court where his civil trial for fraud is taking place, in Washington the Republican Party in Congress is tearing itself apart.
This time the target is not the Democrat Joe Biden, but the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Californian Kevin McCarthy, who could be ousted from his position as “Speaker” due to fratricidal infighting within the Conservative Party. The request for dismissal submitted by a representative of the hard right, Matt Gaetz, must be examined in the evening.
“Secret Agreement”
This elected official from Florida particularly criticizes Kevin McCarthy for negotiating a preliminary budget with elected Democrats to finance the federal government, which many conservatives rejected. He also accuses the Republican tenor of having made a “secret agreement” with President Joe Biden about a possible envelope for Ukraine. However, the right wing of the Republican Party strongly opposes releasing additional funds to Kyiv and believes that these funds should instead be used to combat the migration crisis at the US-Mexico border.
This procedural impeachment maneuver, rare in American legislative history and last used more than a century ago, will trigger a dangerous showdown in the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority. More threatened than ever, the President of the House of Representatives wanted to appear confident on Tuesday: “I think I will hold out,” he told the press a few hours before the censorship proposal was examined.
The latter requires a majority vote in the House of Representatives for its adoption. It doesn’t matter that the overwhelming majority of elected Republicans support Kevin McCarthy: the radical Trumpists are numerous enough to bring him down, given the very small Republican majority in this institution. Unless the Democrats come to the aid of the “Speaker” with their votes.
Unprecedented impeachment
The latter met on Tuesday morning (afternoon in Paris) to decide whether Kevin McCarthy – who less than a month ago launched an impeachment inquiry against the American president, succumbing to pressure from the most elected officials of the radical majority of his majority – deserves , or not, to be saved. “We have real trust issues with Republican leaders and with Republicans in general,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on MSNBC shortly before the meeting. According to several American media outlets, all elected Democrats intend to vote to overthrow Kevin McCarthy.
Such a dismissal would be completely unprecedented: no “Speaker” has ever been removed from office in the history of the United States. To get out of this impasse, the fifty-year-old will try to use a series of procedural maneuvers, probably requesting a postponement of consideration of the impeachment motion. The 58-year-old McCarthy had already been forcibly elected in January after fifteen rounds due to the very thin Republican majority that resulted from the midterm elections last November.
To get to the top, he had to make huge concessions to around twenty Trumpists, including the possibility that each elected official individually would have the power to call a vote on his dismissal. A promise that still haunts him today.