It hasn’t happened for 100 years: elected members of the US House of Representatives closed their session on Tuesday without being able to elect a president. Strong tensions in the Republican ranks have plunged Congress into uncertainty.
Great favorite to replace Nancy Pelosi, the fifty-year-old Kevin McCarthy had failed after three consecutive votes to appease the revolt emanating from a group of Trumpists who judged the chosen one too moderate. Elected officials have agreed to hold off their votes until Wednesday morning, time for behind-the-scenes negotiations.
The Republicans, who had seized the majority in the lower house in the November elections, had promised to use their new counterpower by opening a series of investigations into US President Joe Biden.
But the initiation of such hostilities is paralyzed by these internal conflicts: elected members of the House of Representatives cannot officially take the oath, and therefore open any investigation, until a president has been appointed. Donald Trump ultimately criticized an “unnecessary agitation” within a party whose nomination he would like to win back to the White House in 2024.
218 votes
The election of the ‘speaker’, the third most important figure in American politics after the president and the vice president, requires a majority of 218 votes. A threshold that Kevin McCarthy could not reach, twenty elected Trumpists having decided to be a spoilsport.
“It shouldn’t be taken personally, but the future of our country depends on it,” assured Chip Roy, a rowdy elected representative from Texas. However, McCarthy’s candidacy finds broad support within his party: the announcement of his nomination in the hemicycle on Tuesday was greeted by a great standing ovation in the Republican ranks.
At the beginning of the third round, a certain annoyance was beginning to be felt, with the more moderate Republicans inviting their colleagues to take sides around Kevin McCarthy. “We came here to accomplish things,” pleaded Republican group leader Steve Scalise, to which Democrats balked with laughter.
Throughout this process, Joe Biden’s party has since united around Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries’ candidacy, regularly cheering the New York elected official to the sounds of “Hakeem, Hakeem, Hakeem!” But not even the chosen one has enough votes to access the perch.
The election of a Speaker of the House of Representatives could be a matter of a few hours… or several weeks: in 1856, elected members of Congress agreed after only two months and 133 rounds.
Kevin McCarthy seems to want to give commitments to this conservative fringe to avoid stammering history: in 2015 he already narrowly missed becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives in the face of a slingshot from the right wing of the party.
But it cannot afford to overdo it and alienate moderate Republicans. Although its leeway is small, it currently does not have a credible competitor. Only the name of Ohio elected official Jim Jordan is circulating as a possible alternative, without his chances appearing serious.
An advantage for Biden?
With the Republicans in the majority in the House, Joe Biden and the Democrats will not be able to advance new big projects. But with a Senate in Democrat hands, neither will their rivals.
Will they entrench themselves in systematic opposition? That would require them to convene, while some of their elected officials — such as during the budget vote before Christmas — voted with the Democrats.
The election of the ‘speaker’ therefore also serves to measure their ability to harm the president. Facing a hostile House could prove to be a political boon for Joe Biden if he confirms his intention to run again in 2024, a decision he is expected to announce earlier this year.
The president was also careful not to comment on Republican dissents, his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre assuring that the Democratic leader would not “meddle in this process”. In the event of legislative paralysis, he will no doubt blame the weakened Republicans of the bloc, hoping to turn the situation to his advantage.
/ATS
