McCarthy still fails to get elected ‘speaker’

The 14th round of voting on Friday in the House of Representatives was particularly tense, as a handful of elected Trumpists blocked the election of the President of the Lower House for the 4th day.

The US House of Representatives again failed Friday, January 6 to elect its new president, remaining completely paralyzed by dissension in the Republican ranks. Favorite Kevin McCarthy has still not managed to reach the perch after a fourth day of negotiations and 14 rounds of an election which still seems hopeless. This last round of voting was marred by tensions in the hemicycle. In live footage, the California lawmaker walked up to the group of Trumpists crippling his access to the roost, calling them out in an overt attempt to get them to change their vote. The Clerk of Congress called on elected officials to remain calm.

A fifteenth ballot was to be held in stride.

Lively debates

The hard core of very conservative elected officials are taking advantage of the very thin Republican majority won in the November mid-term elections to play spoilsport. And camped on its positions for four days, a scenario not seen for more than 160 years. This paralysis of the American Congress has very concrete repercussions: without a “speaker”, the third most important figure in American politics after the president and the vice-president, elected officials cannot take the oath or therefore vote on a bill. It is also impossible to participate in parliamentary committees or to receive information classified as defense secret.

Member of the Republican staff for ten years, Kevin McCarthy has no credible competitor. Only the name of group leader Steve Scalise has circulated as a possible alternative, without his chances seeming serious. The impatience was palpable among members of the “Grand Old Party”, who largely support McCarthy’s candidacy, giving rise to very heated debates within this parliamentary group.

Many of them also left the hemicycle on Friday in protest during the speech by Matt Gaetz, one of the elected leaders of the Trumpist revolt.

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