On Capitol Hill, we haven’t seen that in a century. The parliamentary work of the House of Representatives has been blocked since Tuesday, as the 435 elected officials failed to choose the new president of the lower house of the US Parliament. A situation that plunges Washington into uncertainty, the Assembly having closed its day without electing its new “spokesperson.”
However, Republican Kevin McCarthy was a strong favorite to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi. His party, which had obtained a narrow majority during the November midterms, had designated him in an internal vote as the future number 1 in the House of Representatives.
no majority
But the health walk turned into a nightmare for the 50-year-old. In the first round, Kevin McCarthy got just 203 votes, 19 Republicans failing him. Joe Biden’s opponent even came in second, behind Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and his 212 votes.
Blame it on a group of Trumpists who consider McCarthy too moderate. After a second and then a third round, elected officials agreed to suspend their voting until Wednesday morning, the time to negotiate behind the scenes.
The election of the “speaker”, the third most important figure in US politics after the president and vice president, requires a majority of 218 votes. As long as this majority is not reached, the elected members vote again: there is no relative majority in the third round provided for by the regulations of the French National Assembly.
The election of a president of the House of Representatives could therefore be a matter of a few hours… or several weeks: in 1856, the elected deputies only agreed after two months and 133 towers, recalls AFP.
“Unnecessary fuss”
Kevin McCarthy seems to want to give promises to this conservative fringe to prevent history from faltering: in 2015, he had already narrowly failed to become speaker of the House of Representatives before being stoned from the right wing of the party.
Donald Trump criticized at the end of the day a “superfluous agitation” within a party that wants to obtain the candidacy to reconquer the White House in 2024.
A solution, Issued by former Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, would be for the “moderates” of the two parties to form an alliance to appoint another speaker and find a majority. An option for the moment whimsical.
Source: BFM TV
