The equation is still impossible to solve. One of the leading Republican Trumpists, Jim Jordan, was named his party’s candidate for the presidency of the House of Representatives on Friday. But while he will need the support of almost all of his party’s elected officials to be confirmed, he has recorded 55 defections. Faced with a chasm that still seems as yawning, the elected officials returned home for the weekend. The impasse could last.
The House, controlled by the Republicans unlike the Senate with a Democratic majority, has been almost paralyzed since the surprise dismissal on October 3 of its “speaker” Kevin McCarthy, following an internal rebellion which exposed the gaping fractures of the party , one year before the 2024 presidential election. Thursday, the elected Steve Scalise, who had beaten Jordan in a first vote to become the official candidate, threw in the towel in the face of divisions.
Congress paralyzed
The United States is currently unable to vote for any new aid to Israel, a historic ally engaged in a war with Palestinian Hamas. Nor even an additional envelope for Ukraine invaded by Russia, under discussion for weeks.
Jim Jordan, who beat Austin Scott in a secret ballot on Friday, another member of the conservative wing of the party, elected from Georgia (southeast), could find himself in a comparable situation, given the short Republican majority (217 votes against 212 Democrats), according to political commentators.
Reinforced powers for the temporary Speaker?
He received 124 votes against 81 for his opponent, American media report. Then during a second vote to find out how many Republican elected officials would actually give him their vote in front of the entire House of Representatives, he obtained 152 for and 55 against, a deficit of 65 votes, according to the same sources. . And Jordan can only afford to lose 4 votes if he wants to be confirmed in an at-large vote with the Democrats.
Faced with this blockage, a handful of centrist Democrats proposed Friday evening to strengthen the powers of temporary Speaker Patrick McHenry so that the most urgent texts can be examined.