Status: 04.01.2023 3:40 p.m
Republican candidate McCarthy failed three times in the election to the presidency of the US House of Representatives – because MPs from his own ranks did not vote for him. Now he’s getting support from ex-President Trump.
US Republican Kevin McCarthy is getting support from ex-President Donald Trump in his bid for the presidency of the House of Representatives. “Now is the time for all of our great Republicans to vote for Kevin, close the deal, take the win,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social media platform today.
“Don’t turn a great triumph into a huge and embarrassing defeat. It’s time to celebrate, you deserve it. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job and maybe even a great job – just wait and see,” Trump wrote.
20 votes against in the third ballot
McCarthy failed in three rounds of voting yesterday due to opposition from several ultra-conservative members of his own party. 19 dissenters from his own ranks, more than expected, refused to vote for him in the first and second ballot. In the third ballot, the number of dissenting votes rose to 20. Many MPs from former President Donald Trump’s camp reject McCarthy as too moderate.
There hasn’t been a defeat like this in the House of Representatives for 100 years. The first session of the newly elected Congress was a miserable start for the Republicans, who had just won a majority in the chamber in the midterm elections in November. Last resort: adjournment of the session, for which the deputies finally voted in the early evening. This afternoon (local time) it should continue.
Republicans now control the US House of Representatives with 222 seats. 218 votes are required for a majority in the election of the “speaker”.
How things will continue is open. One thing is certain: the Republicans are torn. For the rebels on the right fringe of the party, McCarthy is not making a firm enough stand against President Joe Biden’s Democrat front. McCarthy’s opponent, Matt Gaetz, said on PBS: “If you want to drain the swamp, you can’t hire the biggest alligator to do it.”
Trump is very influential on the right wing
Trump’s support may be just in time for McCarthy. The ex-president continues to be influential, especially on the right wing of the Republicans. The ultra-conservatives accuse the 57-year-old of not being aggressive enough in his time as a minority leader in the House of Representatives to defy the Democrats under the previous Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
“It’s a disgrace,” Klaus Scherer, former US correspondent, on McCarthy’s defeat
tagesschau24 10:00 a.m., 4.1.2023
Several alternative candidates
Former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent told CNN that McCarthy would have to make way for another Republican: “It has to come from his supporters. They have to convince him to back down. But that could take a few days.”
Jim Jordan, a hardliner and supporter of former President Donald Trump, is under discussion as an alternative candidate. Steve Scalise, previously number two in the group behind McCarthy, is considered to be a little more promising.
“It’s just chaos”
The future Speaker of the House of Representatives is formally number three in the hierarchy of power in the United States, after the President and Vice President. Without a new speaker, the House of Representatives cannot function; MPs can only be sworn in and committee chairs named after a successful election.
Democratic MP Daniel Goldman describes the situation on MSNBC as follows: “It’s just chaos. It speaks against the Republicans’ ability to compromise and govern. They will be driven by the extremists in their party in the next Congress.”
With information from Ralf Borchard, ARD Studio Washington
US House of Representatives: McCarthy initially failed in election of speaker
Ralf Borchard, ARD Washington, January 4th, 2023 5:34 am