For the first time in the history of the American Congress, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, was removed from office on Tuesday, the victim of fratricidal quarrels within his party, according to AFP.
Kevin McCarthyPhoto: Michael Brochstein / Zuma Press / Profimedia Images
This procedural maneuver, very rarely used in American parliamentary history, comes after Congress passed a provisional budget for the administration on Saturday, which was opposed by many conservatives.
After a tense debate between conservatives in the House, 216 elected voted for his removal, including 8 Republicans.
Immediately after this unprecedented result, a smiling Kevin McCarthy was surrounded by members of his party, who hugged and shook his hand.
The vote opens a period of great turmoil in the lower house, where a replacement must be chosen, which promises to be very complicated.
The vote came after Matt Gaetz, a member of the American hard right, filed a motion to impeach the Speaker of the House, despite the fact that he is a member of his party.
This Florida elected chief blamed Kevin McCarthy for negotiating with Democrats a tentative budget to fund the federal administration, which many conservatives opposed.
He also accused the Republican leader of making a “secret deal” with President Joe Biden on a possible package of measures for Ukraine.
But the right wing of the Republican Party is vehemently opposed to unlocking additional funds for Kiev, arguing that the money should instead be used to solve the migration crisis at the US-Mexico border.
And it doesn’t matter that the vast majority of Kevin McCarthy’s caucus publicly supported him: Trump’s cronies had a de facto veto in the House, given the very thin Republican majority in that institution.
Democratic support did not come
For a while, McCarthy seemed to think he would save his seat, hoping that political calculations would prevail and that he could get Democrats to support him, if only that, in exchange for concessions.
It was a lost cause.
“It’s up to the Republican Party to end the internal war in the House of Representatives,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said after a lengthy meeting with his caucus.
“There are countless reasons to let the Republicans handle their own problems. Let’s let them wallow in the mire of their incompetence and inability to govern,” said implacable Progressive MP Pramila Jayapal.
In a sign of the disagreements tearing Republicans apart, conservative lawmakers took turns arguing for and against Kevin McCarthy.
“We are on the edge of the precipice. We only have a few minutes left to recover and realize the grave danger,” urged Republican Tom McClintock before the vote.
If the impeachment motion passes, “the House will be paralyzed,” “Democrats will revel in Republican dysfunction, and the public will be outraged, and rightfully so,” he said.
His colleague, Tom Cole, warned of the “chaos” the House and Republicans would be thrown into if McCarthy was impeached.
“Chaos is President McCarthy,” countered Matt Gaetz. “Chaos is someone you can’t trust.”
