Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Thanks to negotiations, the Trumpist group that stifled the fifty year old man’s candidacy from California finally gave up. They ended chaos in Congress, unprecedented in more than 160 years that defined the highly agitated debate in the American Congress over the next two years. But not without a final last ditch.
US President Joe Biden immediately congratulated Kevin McCarthy, asking him to “govern responsibly and for the benefit of the American people”. “They expect Republicans to also be willing to work with me,” he said in a statement.
Chaos on the hemicycle
These free electrons keep the tension going until the very end, blocking the nomination of the elected official in the 14th ballot for the last time, causing real chaos in the hemicycle. Kevin McCarthy then walked towards the Trumpist group, as his fingers pointed accusingly. Amid the hubbub, the Registrar of Congress asked elected officials to remain calm.
Throughout the week, this hard core of elected conservatives, who accuse elected officials of bowing to the interests of the establishment in Washington, used the razor-thin Republican majority won in the November midterm elections to play the damage. They only relieved pressure after obtaining substantial guarantees – including procedures aimed precisely at facilitating the expulsion of the “speaker”.
Finally elected, Kevin McCarthy replaced Democrat Nancy Pelosi as “speaker”. And coming out weak from this election adds up to a very difficult mandate. On the menu in the next few months, negotiations on increasing America’s public debt ceiling, federal state financing and, possibly, releasing additional envelopes for the war in Ukraine.
With their new control of the House, Republicans have also vowed to launch multiple investigations into Joe Biden’s management of the pandemic or withdrawal from Afghanistan. But after exposing their division to the big day, will their investigations have the same echo?
Facing a hostile but messy House could be a political boon for Joe Biden, if he confirms his intention to run again in 2024 – a decision he is expected to announce earlier this year. Without controlling both chambers – which has been the case since his January 2021 inauguration, despite a razor-thin majority in the Senate – the American president can no longer hope to pass major laws. But with the Senate in Democratic hands, so will Republicans.
Throughout this process of appointing the “speaker,” Joe Biden’s party has never failed to censure the hold of Donald Trump’s loyalists – many of whom still refuse to admit his 2020 defeat – on the Republican Party. , two years after the attack on the capitol building.
Paralysis
But Democrats, who lost control of the House after the November election, don’t have enough votes to end this paralysis. Marathon negotiating sessions in the gallery adjacent to the hemicycle, a mob of journalists taking every statement from this free-spirited group… The election can sometimes feel endless.
And for good reason, representatives of the House have no choice but to continue voting until a “speaker” is elected by a simple majority.
A Republican votes with his dog under his arm, a Democrat shares a newspaper to pass the time… America’s parliamentary channel cameras, usually subject to very strict rules regarding official shooting, capture many of the life moments of this unusual procedure, for fun viewers and social networks.
