The United States House of Representatives failed for the sixth time in the attempt to appoint its president, despite the fact that former president Donald Trump asked his followers to put an end to the divisions in the Republican ranks when choosing the so-called “speaker”. The American President, Joe Bidendescribed as “shameful” the blocking of the election of the new leader of the Lower House. Between shouts, the Republican and Democratic congressmen decided to suspend the seventh round of voting until Thursday.
Like Tuesday Republican Kevin McCarthy could not guarantee the 218 votes needed to preside over the Lower House on the sixth ballotsince a group of wayward Republicans put forward the alternative candidacy of Byron Donalds. For their part, Democratic Party lawmakers kept their candidate, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who also does not have the numbers to take office.
Moments before the sixth ballot, the leader of the ultra-conservative Republicans united under the so-called Freedom Caucus, Scott Perry, asked for the vote to Donald in an impassioned speech in which he encouraged his peers to “fix Washington.” According to Perry, the fact that a hundred years have passed since it took more than one vote to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives is a sign that turning things around “is going to be very difficult.”
The United States House of Representatives finally decided to postpone until noon on Thursday the seventh vote for its new president. The decision came just a few hours after the chamber itself agreed to postpone until Wednesday night the process to choose the successor to Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
What did Trump and Biden say?
Not even the intervention of Trump he changed the minds of congressional Republicans. “Some really good conversations took place on Tuesday and now it’s time for all of our great Republican members of the House vote for kevin, close the deal and take victory“, Trump pointed out through a message on the Truth Social network, in which he trusted that McCarthy “can do a great job” replacing Pelosi.
The President of the United States, Joe Bidenwho called the blockade of the House of Representatives “shameful” by divisions among Republicans. Before embarking on a trip to Kentucky, the president told reporters on the White House grounds that the blockade of Congress is not his “problem,” but he warned Republicans that “the rest of the world is watching”.
On Tuesday, at the opening of the 118th legislature, McCarthy had already lost three votes to become speaker of the House of Representatives, despite the fact that his party has a sufficient parliamentary majority to do so, thanks to the results of the midterm elections. mandate last November. The regulation does not contemplate any other alternative to continuing to repeat votes until someone achieves the necessary majority.
The Republican Hard-Wing’s Objections
Part of the right wing of the Republicans considers that McCarthy is not loyal enough to Trumpwho will run again for the presidential election after losing to Biden in 2020. Sin embargo McCarthy challenged a quote from the parliamentary committee that investigated the assault by Trump supporters on the Capitol in 2021, and promised to open investigations into Biden’s family and government.
The last time more than one round of voting was needed to elect this president, known as speaker, it was a century ago in 1923. Earlier, in 1855, it took 133 turns over two months. The Speaker of the House of Representatives wields a lot of influence in Washington and is the third most important political personality after the Vice President and the President.
Now that they control the Lower House, the Republicans seek to use their counterpower to open a series of investigations into Biden, for example, into the way he managed the covid-19 pandemic. But everything is paralyzed until the representatives appoint a new president, since the elected members cannot officially be sworn in.