Republican Tom Emmer was named by his colleagues as their candidate for Speaker of the US House of Representatives on Tuesday, October 24th and only remained in office for a few hours. He threw in the towel and failed to collect the 217 votes needed to be elected. Without compromise, the American Congress will sink even deeper into the crisis.
After weeks of trying to find a new speaker for the House of Representatives, Republicans finally settled on the name Tom Emmer after a series of internal votes. But the candidacy of this elected representative from Minnesota, the party’s number three in the House of Representatives and the voice of the party establishment, quickly seemed doomed to failure.
More than twenty elected representatives from his own camp announced during the vote in the plenary session that they would never support him, while the Republicans in the House of Representatives only have a very narrow majority. Donald Trump’s allies oppose him because he was among the elected officials who voted to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. They therefore consider Tom Emmer to have a lack of loyalty to the ex-president. Nearly three weeks after the impeachment of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republicans’ infighting continues to come to light.
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However, the challenges of finding a new speaker are high. Without it it is impossible to vote on a bill; And since there is no vote on the budget, there is a real risk that the federal administration will be paralyzed in mid-November.
“It’s probably one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever seen,” Republican Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul told ABC News on Oct. 22. “Because if we don’t have a speaker of the House, we can’t govern. And every day that goes by, we as a government are basically shut down,” he added.
Last week, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, an ally of former President Donald Trump, appeared close to ending this increasingly embarrassing quest for the party. In the end, he had to accept three failures out of as many votes. Then Republicans withdrew their support and announced they would meet Monday to nominate a new candidate for speaker.
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Military aid to Ukraine and Israel blocked
Donald Trump, who endorsed Jim Jordan, told reporters before a campaign rally in New Hampshire that he spoke with Tom Emmer over the weekend but had no plans to endorse him. He said he would rather “hold back for a while.”
This dysfunction within the Republican Party is also preventing Congress from acting on Joe Biden’s request to release more than $100 billion in emergency funding, mostly military aid to Ukraine and Israel in their wars against Russia on the one hand and Hamas on the other.
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“At a critical moment when our allies are counting on us to show leadership (…), Republicans in the House of Representatives are mocking our government and embarrassing the country on the world stage,” denounced Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika. at.
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If elected officials do not approve the 2024 federal budget by November 17, the federal government will be paralyzed and hundreds of thousands of workers will be sent home temporarily without pay.