Republican Kevin McCarty (C) in US Congress, January 3, 2023 (AFP / Mandel NGAN)
It hadn’t happened in 100 years: The elected members of the US House of Representatives were unable to elect a president during a session of Congress, brought down by high tensions in the Republican ranks, and voting was suspended until Wednesday.
The big favorite to replace Nancy Pelosi in the 1950s Kevin McCarthy, after three consecutive votes, had failed to calm the revolt emanating from a group of Trumpists who felt he was too moderate. Elected officials agreed to suspend their voting while they negotiate behind the scenes.
Republicans, who won a majority in the House of Commons in November’s election, had promised to use their new countervailing power by launching a series of investigations into US President Joe Biden.
Composition of the United States House of Representatives and Senate, which will take office on January 3, and how they compare to the composition of the two outgoing assemblies (AFP / )
But the initiation of such hostilities is paralyzed by these internal squabbles: the elected members of the House of Representatives cannot officially take the oath and therefore cannot investigate until a president has been appointed.
At the end of the day, Donald Trump criticized “unnecessary agitation” within a party that he is aiming for the nomination to retake the White House in 2024.
– 218 votes –
The election of the “Speaker”, the third most important figure in American politics after the President and Vice President, requires a majority of 218 votes. A threshold Kevin McCarthy failed to reach after twenty elected Trumpists decided to play spoilsport.
“It shouldn’t be taken personally, but the future of our country depends on it,” assured Chip Roy, a tumultuous Texas elected official.
However, Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy has broad support from his party: the announcement of his nomination in the Chamber on Tuesday was met with great applause from the Republican ranks.
Some anger emerged early in the third round as the more moderate Republicans urged their peers to line up around Kevin McCarthy. “We came here to get things done,” said Republican leader Steve Scalise, to which the Democrats laughed.
During this process, Joe Biden’s party has since united around Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries’ candidacy and regularly applauds the New York City official-elect to the strains of “Hakeem, Hakeem, Hakeem!”
But the chosen one also doesn’t have enough votes to get on the pole.
The election of a Speaker of the House of Representatives can be a matter of a few hours…or several weeks: in 1856, the elected members of Congress took two months and 133 ballots to reach an agreement.
Kevin McCarthy seems to want to make promises to this conservative fringe group so that history doesn’t stutter: in 2015 he narrowly failed in a slingshot from the party’s right wing as speaker of the House of Representatives.
But he can’t afford to go overboard and alienate moderate Republicans.
Although its room for maneuver is limited, it currently has no credible competitor. Only the name of the officer elected in Ohio, Jim Jordan, is circulating as a possible alternative, without his chances appearing serious.
– Boon for Biden? –
Since the Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives, Joe Biden and the Democrats will not be able to push through any major new projects.
But with a Senate in the hands of the Democrats, neither will their rivals.
US President Joe Biden in Washington in early October (AFP/Nicholas Kamm)
Will they entrench themselves in a systematic opposition? To do that, they would have to get together while some of their elected officials are voting with Democrats, as they did in the budget vote before Christmas.
The choice of “speaker” therefore also serves to gauge their ability to harm the President.
Confronting a hostile House could prove a political boon for Joe Biden if he confirms his intention to run again in 2024 – a decision he is scheduled to announce earlier this year.
The president was also careful not to comment on Republican disagreements, and his spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, assured that the Democratic leader would not “interfere in this process.”
In the event of legislative paralysis, he will no doubt blame the deadlock on weakened Republicans in hopes of turning the situation to his advantage.