USA
Republican revolt? – McCarthy targeted by the rebels
Kevin McCarthy is criticized by Republicans. photo
© J. Scott Applewhite/AP/dpa
In January, Kevin McCarthy became leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. But the road there was rocky. The right-wing fringe of his party made life difficult for him – and is now attacking again.
Extraordinary step
The Republicans only have a very narrow majority in the House of Representatives. The result is that a smaller circle of extreme MPs can push Chairman McCarthy ahead of them. Gaetz has been one of McCarthy’s bitterest opponents for some time. The 41-year-old lawyer from Florida is an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2017. In the dispute over the new interim budget, McCarthy alienated the right-wing fringe of his group in order to be able to reach an agreement with the Democrats at the last minute.
If the hardliner Gaetz actually submits a historic proposal to remove McCarthy, this does not automatically mean that he will lose his position. A vote can be prevented with motions. No House leader has ever been removed from office by such a move. Such a request is extremely unusual and very rare in US history. In any case, McCarthy was confident of victory at the weekend, challenged his opponents and said: “I will survive.”
A flag in the wind
McCarthy has never made a secret of his desire to become Speaker of the House of Representatives. In January, the California representative finally replaced Democrat Nancy Pelosi in the post. However, it took 15 rounds of voting because parts of his party refused to support him – including Gaetz. It was a disgrace of historic proportions. At that time, many people no longer believed that McCarthy would get enough votes. But the 58-year-old made major concessions to the hardliners in his party.
In fact, McCarthy has repeatedly managed to maneuver his way out of seemingly hopeless political situations in the past. Opponents accuse him of having no principles. This makes it easy for him to throw political beliefs overboard when it benefits him. After the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Republican is said to have planned to call on then US President Trump to resign. When it became clear that a significant portion of the party continued to support Trump, McCarthy abandoned his plans and aggressively stood behind Trump.
McCarthy controversial within his own party
Other hardliners also criticized McCarthy and his bipartisan budget bill over the weekend, which, contrary to what they had demanded, does not contain any extensive savings. Republican Ken Buck accused McCarthy of breaking promises. “McCarthy and others in the House constantly wait until the last minute to crush lawmakers with bad budget legislation.”
It remains unclear how many of the radicals would ultimately join Gaetz and vote against McCarthy – or whether Gaetz miscalculated. So far there is no opposing candidate that the different wings of the party could agree on. But dissatisfaction with McCarthy is not new. After the debt dispute was reached in the summer, it faced headwinds from the right. Back then, too, he ultimately worked with the Democrats to prevent the US from going bankrupt.
His opponents often seem primarily concerned with pushing the political system in the USA to its limits. There is no willingness to compromise – it is more about asserting the most extreme positions. However, these cannot be enforced in Congress, where US President Joe Biden’s Democrats have the majority in the Senate. Only in Ukraine have the ultra-radical Republicans now had their way.
Biden assures Kyiv of support
The interim budget that has now been passed does not provide for any further aid for the country attacked by Russia. That doesn’t mean that the US will stop supporting Ukraine from now on. However, the money approved so far is running out – new funds are needed. Biden also made this clear on Sunday. However, he assured that the USA would continue to stand by Ukraine – but that there was not much time left to vote on new support.
Biden indicated that he had agreed on new aid with McCarthy. It will now become clear how trustworthy the Republican is, said Biden. The fact is that McCarthy could still need the Democrats. If there were to be a vote for the top job, McCarthy would probably need their votes to stay in office. The left-wing Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made it clear that this does not exist “for free”. Because it is not the job of the Democrats to keep the Republicans in office.