Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the US House of Representatives in the night from Friday to Saturday, ending a process that was marked by very strong tensions in the ranks of the Republicans until the very end.
• Also read: Two years after storming the Capitol, Biden condemns ‘political violence’
• Also read: House of Representatives: A never-ending election to the US Congress
In negotiations, the group of Trumpists finally gave in, paralyzing the nomination of the 50-year-old Californian. They ended a congressional turmoil unprecedented in more than 160 years that foreshadows very heated debates in the US Congress over the next two years.
These free electrons kept the audience in suspense until the very end, blocking the candidate’s candidacy for the 14th vote one last time and causing a real mess.
Kevin McCarthy then walked towards the group of Trumpists while pointing fingers accusingly. Amid the hubbub, the congressional secretary urged elected officials to remain calm.
All week this hard-core elected conservative, who accuse the elected official of bowing to Washington establishment interests, used the razor-thin Republican majority won in November’s midterm elections to play spoilsport.
They only eased the pressure after receiving substantive guarantees — including a trial designed precisely to facilitate a possible ouster of the House Speaker.
Kevin McCarthy, who was eventually elected, succeeds Democrat Nancy Pelosi. And emerges weakened from this election, which promises a very difficult mandate.
On the agenda for the next few months are negotiations about raising the US government debt ceiling, financing the state and possibly releasing additional envelopes for the war in Ukraine.
With their new control of the House of Representatives, Republicans have also promised to launch a series of inquiries into Joe Biden’s handling of the pandemic or the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But after they unearth their divisions, will their investigations have the same echo?
Confronting a hostile but disorderly 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.
With the US President failing to control the two chambers – which has been the case since his inauguration in January 2021, albeit with a very narrow majority in the Senate – the US President can no longer hope to pass important legislation.
But with a Senate in the hands of Democrats, neither are Republicans.
anniversary of the attack
Throughout the nomination process, Joe Biden’s party has not failed to denounce the stranglehold of Donald Trump’s supporters — many of whom still refuse to acknowledge his defeat in 2020 — on the Republican Party, day after day for two years the storming of the Capitol.
But the Democrats, who lost control of the House after November’s election, didn’t have enough votes to end that paralysis.
Marathon negotiation sessions on the galleries next to the hemicycle, a horde of journalists picking up on every statement made by this group of free spirits… That choice sometimes seemed endless.
And with good reason, members of the House of Representatives had no choice but to keep voting until a simple majority president was elected.
A Republican voting with her dog under her arm, Democrats sharing a newspaper to pass the time… The cameras of the American Parliamentary Channel, usually subject to very strict rules on authorized shooting, have many moments of life this atypical procedure captured the delight of viewers and social networks.
However, this paralysis of the US Congress had very concrete consequences: without the President of the House of Representatives, the third most important figure in American politics after the President and Vice President, elected officials could not take the oath. It is therefore impossible to vote for any bill, participate in parliamentary committees or access confidential information.