Republican Tom Emmer is throwing in the towel, now Mike Johnson wants to try his luck.
The crisis in the US House of Representatives, blocked for three weeks, continues to worsen. The third candidate chosen by the Republicans for the presidency of the House, Tom Emmer, threw in the towel on Tuesday, just hours after his nomination, as the American media consistently reported. Previously, it had become clear that the leader of the Republican parliamentary group had little chance of winning the third highest state office in the USA, given the party’s internal resistance.
Shortly after Emmer’s failure, US Republicans nominated their fourth candidate, Mike Johnson, within two weeks. The representative from the US state of Louisiana won an internal party vote, as Republican Representative Elise Stefanik explained on Tuesday (local time).
26 deputies had already signaled that they did not want to support Emmer in the election as president in the plenary session. Given the narrow majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives, the representative of the party establishment had no chance of being elected president of the plenary session.
Right-wing hardliners accused Emmer of not sufficiently supporting former President Donald Trump. They are also upset that the Minnesota state representative has spoken out in favor of aid to Ukraine and gay marriage.
A majority of 217 deputies is required to be elected president. Republicans currently have just a slim majority in the House of Congress, with 221 representatives, while President Joe Biden’s Democrats have 212 representatives.
US House of Representatives paralyzed for three weeks
The House of Representatives has been paralyzed for three weeks and is therefore unable to pass any laws or new military aid to Israel and Ukraine. The previous president, McCarthy, was deposed on October 3 by a revolt by right-wing radicals within his own ranks. The search for a successor is extremely chaotic.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise, initially nominated by the Republicans, withdrew his candidacy after it became clear that he would not achieve the necessary majority. Right-wing hardliner Jim Jordan, then nominated, clearly failed in three attempts in the plenary session. The group then withdrew the nomination of Trump’s confidant last Friday. Now Emmer, 62, a member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2015, has also failed.
The chaos among Republicans that has been dragging on for weeks has far-reaching consequences: without a president, the House of Representatives is unable to pass legislation. This means, among other things, that Congress cannot decide on more military aid to Israel, which has been attacked by the Palestinian radical Islamic organization Hamas, or to Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia, which President Biden has asked Parliament to provide. The US is also threatened with a so-called shutdown in mid-November without a resolution to the budget dispute. (APA/AFP)