These hardcore Republicans are refusing to vote for McCarthy

politics

Carl-Philipp Frank / watson.ch

What is currently happening in the US House of Representatives is a veritable spectacle of the century: Republican candidate Kevin McCarthy failed to be elected Speaker of the House in the eleventh ballot. The reason for this lies in our own ranks: Around 20 Republican lawmakers are refusing to vote for him. Who are they, who leads them, what do they want?

Scott Perry: The strategic mind

Scott Perry is chairman of the particularly conservative group “Freedom Caucus”.Image: AP / Julio Cortez

The 60-year-old from Pennsylvania is the chairman of the so-called “Freedom Caucus”. This is a group of fiercely conservative Republicans made up mostly of Tea supporters party has arisen. Donald Trump is not necessarily benevolent towards the group, they have rejected many of his proposals – they are not radical enough.

Iraq veteran Perry, on the other hand, is a close follower of Trump. He is said to have been involved in pitching Donald Trump to annul the 2020 election defeat via the Justice Department, as the NZZ writes. He also actively spread the lie about the stolen election.

But what motivates someone to block their own party member? A few days ago, Perry wrote a letter to McCarthy asking him to vacate the space. Anyone who has been part of the party leadership for so long (14 years) has long been part of the establishment and has lost political clout. McCarthy gives up too easily in the political battle; he does not exhaust the pressure possibilities of the Republicans. In short: too willing to compromise, not radical enough. So nothing can change in the “political swamp” that one wants to drain so urgently.

Chip Roy: The Changemaker

Chip Roy in the House of Representatives.Image: AP / Alex Brandon

The 50-year-old Texan is also politically on the far right and belongs to the “Freedom Caucus”. But unlike his above comrade-in-arms, he is apparently less concerned with McCarthy as a person, and more with the fundamental process in Washington, which he would like to change. With almost missionary zeal (which makes sense, after all, he is a professing and believing Christian), he gave an emotional speech on Tuesday in front of the house about the abuses of American democracy.

He criticized the fact that Congress passes laws that absolutely overshoot the financial bar. For example, December’s gigantic regulation package with a price tag of a whopping $1.7 trillion (!) US dollars. There wasn’t even time to read the whole package.

Roy is also bothered by the fact that there is too little debate in the house and compromises are made too quickly.

Paul Gosar: The Enfant Terrible

Paul Gosar describes those who stormed the Capitol on January 6 as peaceful demonstrators.Image: AP / Alex Brandon

The name of the 64-year-old from Arizona should still be known to some from the “anime affair” involving Alexandria Occasio-Cortez and Joe Biden. Gosar staged himself in an election campaign video as the protagonist of the series “Attack on Titan”, who kills the two titans Occasio and Biden. Tasteless, but the main thing is provocative. He was severely scolded by the House of Representatives for the action and thrown out of the committees on which he sat.

Such provocations are a symbol of Gosar. He denies climate change, calls the 2020 presidential election rigged and says the people who stormed the Capitol on the infamous January 6 were “friendly patriots.” The dental surgeon throws untruths and false statements around to such an extent that even his party colleagues no longer believe them.

Lauren Boebert: The Armed Woman

Lauren Boebert is an advocate for the US gun lobby.Image: AP / Andrew Harnik

Her first act in the Republican majority in the House of Representatives: She had the metal detectors that were set up on the Capitol floor after January 6 removed. So it’s no surprise that the 36-year-old from Colorado is an advocate for the gun lobby.

she even owned a restaurant where the wait staff are armed. She is also a sympathizer of the conspiracy theorist group QAnon. Regarding her blockade in the house, she told Sean Hannity, the conservative political spokesman for “Fox News”: “I have no problem with it [mit der Blockade]. So we don’t squander tax money, we don’t send any money to them Ukraine.” The massive spending in connection with the Ukraine war has long been a thorn in the side of the Freedom Caucus.

She demands that ex-President Trump (who supports McCarthy, albeit surprisingly listlessly) tell him to withdraw his candidacy since he couldn’t get his 218 votes anyway. When Fox presenter Hannity asks her that her group only has 20 votes and that, according to their logic, they have to withdraw, she evades and smiles.

Matt Gaetz: The hothead

Matt Gaetz in the House of Representatives.Image: AP / Alex Brandon

He is considered a hothead and is actually very loud, very extreme and provocative. He was also an opponent of the Corona measures and thinks that anyone can defend their home by force of arms.

The 40-year-old from Florida made himself known to all US media with one sentence about the McCarthy debacle: “If you want to drain the swamp, you can’t make the biggest alligator the leader of the exercise.”

He, too, refers to the conservative narrative that Washington is a political swamp of corruption and rot that needs to be drained. The fact that he describes McCarthy as the largest alligator can be interpreted to mean that Gaetz considers him corrupt. But Gaetz himself, like the “time” writes, another motivation for the blockade: He apparently has his eye on the seat of the subcommittee that decides the defense budget. Gaetz also wants to end support for Ukraine. The blockade is intended to blackmail McCarthy into making concessions such as this seat.