2023-10-24 23:47:16
His candidacy will be remembered for its ephemeral nature. The Republican elected to the American Congress Tom Emmer, designated earlier Tuesday by his peers as a candidate to become “speaker”, threw in the towel after only a few hours, several American media reported.
The elected representative from Minnesota in the House of Representatives faced opposition from Trumpist elected officials in particular, and preferred to give up even before a vote in plenary session, with the United States Congress sinking further into crisis.
After weeks of trying to find a new speaker for the House of Representatives, American Republicans agreed to nominate Tom Emmer as their candidate for the roost.
Lack of support
But the candidacy of this elected representative from Minnesota, voice of the party establishment, seemed doomed to failure from the outset. The number three Republican in the House, whose talent for raising funds is recognized, emerged victorious in a series of internal ballots against eight other candidates.
Alas, more than twenty elected officials from his own camp had already indicated that they would not support him during the vote in plenary session, even though the Republicans only have a very slim majority in the House of Representatives. . Donald Trump’s allies are in fact opposed to him, because he is one of the two men out of the nine candidates to have voted in favor of certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. They therefore consider Tom Emmer as lacking loyalty to the ex-president.
The abandonment of Tom Emmer delighted former President Donald Trump. “Voting for a globalist RINO (in French “Republican in name only”, a derogatory term to designate members suspected of social liberalism, Editor’s note) like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake! », he exclaimed on X (formerly Twitter).
I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors. RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA—MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! He…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) October 24, 2023
The stakes in finding a new “speaker” are high. Without him, it is impossible to hold a vote on a bill; and in the absence of a vote on the budget, the threat of a paralysis of the federal administration in mid-November is real. Without a speaker, the House is also unable to grant President Joe Biden’s request to send emergency aid to Israel and Ukraine.
“One of the most embarrassing things I’ve seen”
Nearly three weeks after the impeachment of former Speaker of the Lower House Kevin McCarthy, Republicans’ infighting continues to come to light. “It’s probably one of the most embarrassing things I’ve seen,” the Republican head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, told ABC News on Sunday. “Because if we don’t have a Speaker of the House, we can’t govern.” And every day that goes by, we are basically shut down as a government,” he added.
Last week, Judiciary Committee head Jim Jordan, an ally of former President Donald Trump, appeared poised to put an end to this increasingly troublesome quest for the party. He ended up suffering three failures in as many votes. Then the Republicans withdrew their support, announcing that they would meet on Monday to nominate a new candidate for the post of “speaker”.
Donald Trump, who endorsed Jim Jordan, told reporters before a campaign event in New Hampshire that he had spoken to Tom Emmer over the weekend but had no plans to endorse him. saying he prefers to “hold back for a while”. These dysfunctions within the Republican Party are preventing Congress from responding to Joe Biden’s demand for more than $100 billion in emergency funds, primarily military aid for Ukraine and Israel in their wars against, respectively , Russia and Hamas.
As for three weeks, confusion now reigns in Congress on the procedure to follow. Will the Republicans pull a name out of their hat on which they can find consensus? Unlikely hypothesis, will the Democrats reach an agreement with a few moderate Republicans? Nothing is less certain, and the parliamentary soap opera promises new twists and turns in the days and weeks to come.
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