No speaker for more than two weeks. No cohesion in the ranks, but resentment everywhere. No outcome in sight, no providential figure. Even by the standards of the Republican Party – those of a long drift spread over years – the political crisis shaking the House of Representatives is beyond comprehension. On Wednesday October 18, for the second time in twenty-four hours, Jim Jordan (Ohio) failed to be nominated president by the elected officials of his own group. He lost ground compared to his initial attempt.
Supported by Donald Trump, the extremist candidate obtained only 199 votes, compared to 212 for Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats. A new vote is expected to be held on Thursday. Jim Jordan was therefore 22 votes short in the Republican ranks to succeed Kevin McCarthy, the speaker removed from office on October 3 due to a motion of censure filed by Matt Gaetz (Florida). This internal parliamentary coup within the Grand Old Party plunged the House into an unprecedented crisis, at a crucial moment. The threat of a shutdown (closure of non-essential government activities due to lack of funding) is approaching in mid-November. Two allies of the United States, Ukraine and Israel, are awaiting the adoption in Congress of a massive new military aid package for their benefit. But without a speaker, everything is blocked.
For now, discussions and mutual accusations continue between Republicans. One of the exit routes envisaged would be temporary. It would consist of voting to grant full powers to the interim president, Patrick McHenry (North Carolina), who is serving his tenth term and knows the institution perfectly. Such an unprecedented step would allow the speaker to fully exercise his authority over the agenda and the holding of the sessions. But Jim Jordan’s supporters know that the promotion of this classic elected official would risk definitively compromising their campaign of conquest.
An “honorable man”
Their result is already astonishing. Two hundred Republican elected officials, in the first round, voted in favor of Jim Jordan, who was still an extremist and marginal figure a few years ago. Their reasons do not matter: by conviction, by calculations, by interests after promises extracted for their district or simply by weariness in the face of the psychodrama which overwhelms the party. Less than three years after the assault on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump, a representative of this insurrectionist movement, an ally of the former president, found himself in a position to claim the speaker’s gavel. This says everything about the slump of the Republican Party, the centrality of Trumpism, the surge of an illiberal current, ready to twist institutions to submit them to its will.
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