Kevin McCarthy
Tugs in the US Congress – power struggle keeps Washington in suspense
Kevin McCarthy speaks to reporters after several unsuccessful ballots. photo
© Jose Luis Magana/AP/dpa
The election in Congress descends into chaos. Republican McCarthy failed in six ballots. Now he seems to want to sell the silverware. Whether that impresses his opponents remains to be seen.
With new concessions from Republican Kevin McCarthy to his opponents, the power struggle for the highest office in the US Parliament has entered the next round. The House of Representatives met Thursday for another round of voting on the chair of the House of Representatives.
Previously, there had been negotiations behind the scenes. However, it did not appear that McCarthy would have succeeded in uniting his opponents in the party behind him. Another defeat was imminent. In the votes, he was opposed primarily by ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump – although he supports McCarthy.
According to reports, McCarthy has once again taken a big step towards his party opponents in order to secure their votes and break the deadlock. The 57-year-old is said to have even agreed to further lower the hurdles for removing a chairman from the House of Representatives. He offers his opponents a means of pressure to chase him out of office at will. This could have serious consequences and create even more instability when important decisions are due in Congress. The right-wing MPs could hold the Chamber hostage. McCarthy had already come a long way to accommodate the renegades on this point – but without success. He is now showing a new level of “despair,” judged the broadcaster CNN.
Two days of disgrace
McCarthy had previously failed six ballots. For two days he failed to obtain the required majority for the election of the head of the parliamentary chamber and was embarrassed. If McCarthy cannot come to terms with opponents in his party, he may attempt to negotiate with the Democrats. They could help him win the elections by abstaining in their ranks, for example, because that would reduce the number of votes needed. It would also be possible for a new candidate to be put forward that the Republicans could agree on. But talks with the Democrats about a consensus candidate that they would support would also be conceivable.
The fact that the Democrats currently seem to have great friends in seeing McCarthy fail was shown on Wednesday evening (local time). After a break, MPs met again. McCarthy had previously said that another vote that evening would not be successful – so one of his confidants asked for the meeting to be adjourned. However, the Democrats opposed the project. Only at the last moment was the motion passed by a razor-thin Republican majority.
Depends on every vote
On Tuesday and Wednesday, several Republicans refused to support their party colleague McCarthy and voted for other candidates in the election for the presidency. 20 Republicans rallied behind opposition candidate Byron Donalds in Wednesday’s ballot. McCarthy’s opponents had nominated the Republican. With Republicans holding a narrow majority in the House of Commons, McCarthy needs almost every vote in his party to be elected leader.
Even an appeal by ex-President Trump did not change the situation. He had previously supported McCarthy – but gave him backing after the voting debacle. But the ardent Trump fans continued to block McCarthy. The party responded with a “shrug,” wrote the Washington Post. There are other names circulating for the speaker’s post, Congressman Lauren Boebert said on US television. The 36-year-old is one of the most bitter and loudest opponents of McCarthy. “Maybe I should nominate President Donald J. Trump,” she said after the six ballots without a result.
For McCarthy, the series of defeats is a historic defeat and a public embarrassment. It is the first time in a hundred years that the election has required more than one attempt and that a parliamentary group has not elected its candidate to office in the first round. The power struggle also shows the inner turmoil of Republicans. They had regained a majority in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections in November and actually wanted to drive President Joe Biden in front of them. Now many are wondering whether the dysfunctional party is even capable of handling the important tasks in the parliamentary chamber.