The tension remains. The United States House of Representatives remains unable to begin its new term due to rebellion from the hard wing of the Republican Party. The candidate for the presidency of the chamber, Kevin McCarthy, has made new concessions to ultra-conservative MPs, but his support is still not guaranteed. Choosing the speaker is the first essential step for MPs to be sworn in and the chamber underway, but Ultra MPs have boycotted McCarthy’s election in seven consecutive votes in a spectacle not seen in the past 100 years has given.
The Chamber closed Wednesday’s session until midday this Thursday in Washington (6:00 p.m. in mainland Spain). McCarthy and his allies have used the pauses to negotiate with the recalcitrant, but as the meeting begins this Thursday, they still don’t have a clear path. Ultras lawmakers have once again put forward an alternate candidate who, by the time voting began, had already garnered enough support to once again defeat the Republican leader’s election. In the end, McCarthy closed the seventh ballot with 201 votes, far from the 218 he needs, and 21 Republicans turned his back on him again.
The new concessions he has offered will further weaken McCarthy’s position even if he is elected and give more power to the party’s right wing, which is using a slim Republican majority (222 of 435 seats) to impose its terms.
Even calls by former President Donald Trump to support McCarthy have had no effect in a party that lacks effective leadership. The authority Trump once held over himself has faded, and Republicans paint a picture of division and chaos that challenges their ability to manage the majority achieved in the House of Representatives. Trump-led Republicans often proclaim that their goal is to clean up “the swamp,” as Washington is known in a double sense: because it’s partly built on one and because of the politics, power, and corruption. But now they’re up to their necks in the mud.
A weakened McCarthy
Among the new concessions McCarthy is willing to make is that if a single representative of the 435 asks to be presented with a motion of no confidence to remove him, as by the so-called Freedom Caucus (Freedom faction), the most right-wing faction, it is enough Republican and used to being free. The sword of Damocles above his head weakens McCarthy in exercising his leadership position. In addition, the nominee is poised to give the Freedom Caucus representation far beyond its share on one of the most powerful committees in the House of Representatives, the one that directs the procedures and on which depends which laws are put to the vote and other relevant decisions are made.
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In parallel, the Political Action Committee, which is dependent on congressional leaders, announced that it would not interfere in the Republican primary. In last year’s election, this committee funded moderate candidates who it thought would be the most likely to beat the Democrats, which was perceived as an affront by hardliners. The obligation not to intervene was another demand of the wayward. In last Sunday’s letter rejecting McCarthy’s latest offer, nine members of the Freedom Caucus complained that the matter had not been raised at all.
However, for now, these concessions have not been enough to resolve the situation. McCarthy would like to postpone new votes until negotiations progress, but a group of Republican rebels won’t even do that trick to him, preferring to humiliate him with defeat after defeat.
Republican Representative John James (elected from Michigan) was responsible for presenting McCarthy’s seventh-round nomination Thursday. He recalled that in 1855 Nathaniel Banks needed a total of 133 votes (the record) to be narrowly elected. He has said his family has since transitioned from slavery to having him in Congress. But in the end, in 1855, “the leader nominated by the Republican majority won, and now the leader nominated by the Republican majority will win again,” he noted.
However, opposition Republican Dan Bishop followed suit and nominated Byron Donalds, also an African American, as an alternative: “Yesterday we could have elected the first black speaker to the United States House of Representatives.” Democrats have taken the gauntlet and started chanting, “Hakeeem! hakeem! Hakeeem!”, in a nod to Hakeem Jeffries, their own candidate, also an African American, who earned the most votes (212 endorsements) for now on the Republican split. The circus continues in the Capitol.
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