Washington
Even after two ballots, there is still no new speaker for the US House of Representatives. That’s where Republican McCarthy fails.
Unholy chaos in the plenary hall US House of Representatives, a confusion not seen in 100 years: the determination of the “speaker of the House of Representatives”, usually a routine matter, was not decided on the first ballot.
In the case of the clear republican favorites Kevin McCarthy not even in the second round. For the Republican party, which is more divided than ever before, this is not just another defeat, but an outright embarrassment.
Election of the third most powerful person in the country
It is possible that votes will have to be counted late into the night to decide who will die in the future third most powerful person is in the country.
What is at stake should not be underestimated. If for any reason President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are unable to serve, they would “Speakers of the House” — for the past four years, that has been the powerful Democrat Nancy Pelosi moving into the Oval Office of the White House.
“Speaker” decides on bills almost with his own hands
Even more important in day-to-day political business: the “speaker” is so important because he or she faction leader of the majority party and can therefore decide almost for himself whether bills, which in this case come from a democratic president, have a chance or are buried immediately.
It can be about new aid for Ukraine, immigration reform or, particularly explosively, an increase in the legal debt limitwhich will be necessary to prevent the first national bankruptcy in US history.
Why is McCarthy having such a hard time?
But why is the 57-year-old MP from California having such a hard time? After all, his party had him with him clear majority as the front runner against the left-liberal Democrat Hakeem Jeffries from New York.
Had only 218 of the 222 Republican McCarthy voted in the race against Jeffries, the election would be over long ago. In the first round, 19 Republicans voted for various “MAGA Trumpists”, who, like the former president, claim that the 2022 presidential election was stolen.
Consequently, at the end of first pass even the Democrat had a majority of the votes on the account, namely 212, but not enough to be declared the winner by 218.
Right wing wants to get back at McCarthy for “betrayal”.
They want McCarthy the Mighty refuse office, because in the congressional elections his fundraising committee (PAC) had invested hundreds of millions of dollars dismantling candidates who supported Trump. McCarthy succeeded, and now the right wing of the party wants to pay him back for this “treason”.
They fear too archconservativesthat as a “speaker” he would be willing to compromise with Biden and the Democrats, who are notorious for being “socialist”.
After his stage loss, McCarthy was all smiles, laughed, shook hands with Republican colleagues and still seemed confident of victory. But that could be cleaner purposeful optimism have been. Because how many ballots are still needed and whether McCarthy can hold on at all was still unclear late in the evening.
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