The president of the United States, Joe Biden, called this Tuesday for a quick election of the next leader of the House of Representatives, after the dismissal of Republican Kevin McCarthy, an unprecedented scenario in the history of the North American Congress.
“Since our country’s urgent challenges cannot wait, [o Presidente] hopes that the House [dos Representantes] quickly elect a new leader,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
After a tense debate among conservatives in the lower house, 216 elected congressmen voted in favor of impeaching McCarthy, including eight Republicans, compared to 210.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced the motion to remove the House leader, rallying conservative Republican critics and many Democrats who say McCarthy is unworthy of leadership.
Although McCarthy announced this Tuesday that he was confident he had enough support to continue leading, his ‘luck’ changed after the Democratic minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, instructed members of his caucus to vote to remove him.
Immediately after this unprecedented result, a smiling Kevin McCarthy was surrounded by members of his party, who hugged him and shook his hand.
The Republicans had planned a meeting at 6:30 p.m. (11:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Lisbon), to reach an agreement on a new candidate, who could even be McCarthy himself.
But the Republican indicated this Tuesday night to members of his party that he will not run again for the leadership of the House of Representatives, according to the Associated Press (AP).
“It is in this country’s interest that we have a better speaker than Kevin McCarthy,” said Matt Gaetz, adding that no one trusted the previous leader and pointing to “many contradictory promises.”
Gaetz, who opposed McCarthy’s nomination as leader from the beginning, had threatened for months to activate the process to remove him from office, and that threat accelerated last weekend after McCarthy relied on Democratic votes to avoid a government shutdown, with the approval of a Law that extends funding for fundamental issues for 45 days.
McCarthy is also accused by the radical right of having closed a “secret agreement” with President Joe Biden on possible aid to Ukraine.
The right wing of the Republican Party strongly opposes the delivery of additional funds to kyiv, considering that this money should be used to combat the migration crisis on the border between the United States and Mexico.
Infighting in the Republican Party led former President Donald Trump to react: “Why do Republicans spend their time arguing with each other, why don’t they fight the radical left Democrats who are destroying our country?” he asked in his The Truth social network. Social.
The interim presidency is now in the hands of Congressman Patrick McHenry, representative of North Carolina’s 10th district and known for having been one of the main conservative negotiators of the increase in the national debt ceiling.
Only two other House leaders have been the subject of such a motion in the last century, both without success: Republicans Joseph Cannon in 1910 and John Boehner in 2015.
Source: TSF
