USA: Kevin McCarthy’s election failed again eleven times. – Politics

Concerned US Army veterans demonstrate outside as the rebels regroup in the Capitol. “Honour your oath,” reads their posters in front of the Capitol, and “Put an end to political violence.” The former soldiers on the meadow are reminiscent of January 6, 2021, when hooligans from Donald Trump’s fan club stormed Congress and wanted to devastate American democracy. Now veterans fear the building may be brewing again on that spring-like winter day in Washington DC, when the full moon will illuminate the Capitol dome in the evening.

Inside, a power struggle rages on the likes of which the United States has not seen since the Civil War. Since Tuesday, 434 MPs (currently there are 433 due to an absence) have been trying to elect the Speaker of the House of Representatives. But Republican Kevin McCarthy is failing ballot after ballot, even though his party has regained a majority, 222 seats, since the midterm elections in November. There have now been eleven rounds of voting, and McCarthy did not manage to collect the necessary 218 votes in any of them. This is due to people from whom not only the former military fear bad things on the National Mall in front of the Capitol.

Moderate Republicans call the dissenters “Kamikaze” or “Taliban 20”

This includes elected politicians who deny Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, didn’t think so badly or partially supported the attack on Congress, despise the establishment and love firearms more than climate protection and public health programs. There are currently 20 dissenters, although the word dissenter may be too weak, because their hard core in particular apparently wants to blackmail, ridicule an institution and, above all, attract attention. So far, this has been successful in the eleven rounds up to this Friday. Such delays were last documented 164 years ago.

So which representatives of the people find pleasure in paralyzing the parliamentary USA and embarrassing it as a world power? Moderate Republicans give them names like “Kamikaze” or “Taliban 20”. Even Sean Hannity from FoxNews asks if this is a game show. If you look at the semicircle in the plenary session from the press gallery, then these elected officials are sitting pretty much exactly in the middle on the brown leather armchairs, in rows seven and eight, nicely together. You can’t miss them here or on TV, because they jump up, bawl and clap like crazy whenever one of them makes another bizarre appearance.

Take Lauren Boebert, who recently defended her constituency in Colorado by a tiny margin, but is now taking the mic. The Republican recommends her provisional third rival of McCarthy for round nine, this time the unknown Kevin Hern from Oklahoma. “We can have a lucky warrior to lead us,” she says, knowing full well that this Mr. Hern doesn’t stand a chance. Like Jim Jordan and Byron Douglas before her, she only sets him up to hurt McCarthy. “Kevin McCarthy doesn’t have the voices,” she announces, beaming. “It’s not going to happen.” Chaos is that, “I love it.” “Congress is broken and needs a fundamental turnaround.”

Lauren Boebert during her speech.

(Photo: WIN MCNAMEE/Getty Images via AFP)

Boebert is 36 years old, sees herself as a born-again Christian and rejects the separation of church and state. So far, the woman has mainly attracted attention because she prefers to show herself with a rifle or pistol and promotes being able to carry them openly wherever possible. Until last summer, she and her husband owned a restaurant called Shooters Grill, where armed personnel were explicitly allowed. She also once posted a video of herself stowing a Glock on her belt and walking around Capitol Hill. Visible weapons are banned for civilians in the capital, but Boebert also wanted to bring theirs into the parliamentary office. She is now very pleased that the metal detector for MPs that was installed under Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also dismantled because of her.

Then, Republicans have just nominated McCarthy again for the eleventh vote and Democrats Hakeem Jeffries, Republican Matt Gaetz reports beaming. “I’m nominating President Donald Trump because we need to make America great again, and he can start making the House of Representatives great again.” Small joke. Make America Great Again, Maga for short, Gaetz is there.

This 40-year-old hardliner describes McCarthy as a “lobbyist’s vessel,” even though he’s close to lobbyists back in Florida. He says the city of Washington needs to change, “and we’re going to change it one way or another.” Gaetz has been a loyal Trump friend for years, also knows a lot of legal problems and is reluctant to dodge intriguing actions. He has previously caused joy in the revolutionary circle when asked for his election, he jumps up and shouts “Donald John Trump”. It doesn’t matter that Trump is not a member of parliament and is arranging his papers in Mar-a-Lago. “Trump,” the secretary repeats, distraught, noting the voice, you can actually vote for strangers.

That’s how it goes on day three of this event. These adversaries reject the overall conservative McCarthy because he comes across as too stately and conformist, because they can’t stand him and because they simply want to be a disruptive factor. Most of them do not come from the hated capital and belong to the Republican fundamentalist gang “Freedom Caucus”. The right-wing team also includes 33-year-old MP Anna Paulina Luna, who admitted in her podcast that she had no idea what conservative was. There are also older men like Andrew Clyde and Bon Good, another face of the revolt. “We have an opportunity to make history,” Good yells. In fact, they already have.

It is about ten percent of the Republican faction and five percent of the deputies. Enough to block the honorable House of Representatives, the 118th Congress. “No spokesman was elected,” it says after each ballot when the gavel falls. It is possible that after the renewed postponement to Friday there will still be an agreement at the weekend, a deal. But one suspects that a victory for Kevin McCarthy would be expensive. He has to promise his enemies jobs, influence, more money for the wall on the border with Mexico and more influence against abortion, even more toughness on the Democrats and so on. He would be a weak speaker from the start.

“They prove to the country that they are only destroyers”

Trump spoke late and softly in favor of McCarthy. As then, late and half aloud against the storming of the Capitol. The Republicans are so divided that Trumpists and Trumpists are now fighting each other. “If my friends in the Freedom Caucus, Matt Gaetz and others, don’t accept victory when they have it, they’re showing the country that they don’t care about doing what’s right for America,” she said Tuesday right Marjorie Taylor Greene, who worships Trump and votes for McCarthy. “They’re proving to the country that they’re just destroyers. That’s why the Republicans are failing and I’m really tired of it.”

She is standing in the catacombs of this democratic center of the USA, which Trumpists wanted to raze exactly two years ago. Now it is besieged by Trumpists who have become self-employed.

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