The Republican candidate for speaker (president) of the American House of Representatives, Steve Scalise, announced on Thursday evening, October 12, that he was withdrawing his candidacy. The elected representative from Louisiana, who is already the leader of the Republican group in the assembly, won an informal election on Wednesday to replace Kevin McCarthy, dismissed on October 3. But he failed to obtain the necessary support due to fratricidal quarrels between moderate elected officials and Trumpist troublemakers within his party.
Aged 58, he had won the support of many party heavyweights and was preferred to Jim Jordan, who chairs the Judiciary Affairs Committee and is known for his skepticism of American aid to Ukraine and was supported by Donald Trump.
But to officially ascend to the perch, Mr. Scalise had to pass the crucial stage of voting in the plenary session of the House of Representatives, narrowly controlled by his peers – 221 seats against 212 for the Democrats –, probably the most difficult moment of this process. He needed 217 votes to be elected. In the end, he did not take the risk of failure.
“Some people have their own agenda”
“I have just informed my colleagues that I am withdrawing my name as a candidate”he told journalists. “If you look at the last few weeks (…)there is always work to be donehe added. There are still some people who have their own agenda. »
Earlier in the day, the Republican elected representatives of the House discussed behind closed doors for several hours, without managing to overcome their differences, which have prevented them for nine days from agreeing on the replacement for the ousted Kevin McCarthy.
Around ten conservatives have indicated that they will oppose at all costs the candidacy of Steve Scalise, known for having survived a shooting in 2017. They invoked, pell-mell, the budgetary positions of the elected official, the the fact that he suffers from cancer, or his speech given twenty years ago at a convention linked to a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, to block him.
Will the blockage last a few more days? A few weeks ? Confusion appears to reign at all levels of the party. “This country is counting on us to come together. The House of Representatives needs a speaker and we need [la] make it work again »insisted Steve Scalise. “But it’s clear that not everyone is there. And that there are always divisions that need to be resolved”he added. “Why don’t we all go home and meet up next week?” »for her part suggested Trumpist elected official Marjorie Taylor Greene Thursday afternoon.
“A transpartisan solution”
Joe Biden’s Democratic Party is in the minority in the House and therefore mainly spectators of the chaotic negotiations in Congress. Unless there is a surprise alliance with moderate Republicans, which could also put an end to this unprecedented situation.
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“The Republican civil war in the House continues to paralyze Congress”deplored the leader of the Democratic representatives Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday, estimating that“a transpartisan solution is the only way out of this.”
The urgency not to leave the speaker’s seat any further vacant was fueled by the crisis in Israel, so that the House could vote on possible measures and approve additional aid to Ukraine, among others.
The rebellion of only eight Republican elected officials was enough last week to cause the fall of Kevin McCarthy, for whom it took fifteen rounds of voting in January to be named speaker – unheard of in the history of the House.