2023-10-03 22:03:59
Republican Kevin McCarthy (center) leaves the Capitol after his ouster from the post of speaker of the House of Representatives, in Washington, October 3, 2023. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP
Republican Kevin McCarthy was removed on Tuesday, October 3, from the post of speaker of the United States House of Representatives after the vote on a motion of censure from his party, tabled by the Trumpist elected official of the American hard right , Matt Gaetz. During a debate followed by an unprecedented vote in more than a century in American parliamentary history, 216 elected officials, including 208 Democrats and 8 Republicans, voted for the ouster of Mr. McCarthy – 208 Republicans voted against .
Immediately after this unprecedented result, a smiling Kevin McCarthy was surrounded by members of his party, who hugged him and shook his hand.
“And now what happens?” », shouted a Republican elected official in the room when the result was announced. An administrator announced that Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina was named acting speaker under a law passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks to provide a procedure in the event of a vacancy in the position in the House. The parliamentary session was then suspended.
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President Joe Biden called in the evening on the elected representatives of the House to quickly elect a new leader, in the face of “urgent challenges” facing the United States.
Kevin McCarthy already announced Tuesday evening that he would not run again, even if parliamentary rules allow him to do so. “I was the 55th leader of the House, one of the highest honors. I loved every moment of it”he declared during a press conference, while saying to himself ” optimistic “ despite this debacle.
An unprecedented dismissal
“It is in the interest of this country that we have a better speaker than Kevin McCarthy”launched, for his part, Matt Gaetz, the elected official at the origin of this dismissal. ” No one [lui] trustedhe added. Kevin McCarthy had made many contradictory promises”.
This elected official from Florida mainly criticizes Kevin McCarthy for having negotiated with elected Democrats a provisional budget to finance the federal administration, which many conservatives opposed. He also accuses the Republican tenor of having concluded a « accord secret » with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, on a possible future package for Ukraine. However, the right wing of the Republican Party is strongly opposed to the release of additional funds for kyiv, believing that this money should instead be used to fight the migration crisis on the border between the United States and Mexico.
It doesn’t matter that the immense majority of Kevin McCarthy’s parliamentary group publicly supported it: the Trumpists had a de facto veto in the House given the very thin Republican majority in this institution.
To get out of this impasse, Kevin McCarthy attempted to use a series of procedural maneuvers, calling, among other things, to postpone consideration of the impeachment motion. But these attempts all failed. In the end, his dismissal is unprecedented: no speaker has ever been ousted from his post in the history of the United States.
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He couldn’t count on Democrats coming to his rescue with their votes. “It’s up to the Republican Party to end the Republican civil war in the House”, decided the leader of the Democrats in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, in a letter at the end of a long meeting with his parliamentary group. He had urged members of his party to vote in favor of the impeachment motion and was heard.
“There are countless reasons to let Republicans handle their own problems. Let them wallow in the mire of their incompetence and inability to govern.”had for her part launched, implacably, the progressive elected official Pramila Jayapal.
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« Why do Republicans spend their time arguing among themselves? », asks Trump
A sign of the disagreements tearing the Republicans apart, conservative elected officials took turns in the chamber to argue for and against Kevin McCarthy. “We are on the edge of the precipice. We only have a few minutes left to come to our senses and realize the serious danger”, had urged Republican elected official Tom McClintock before the vote. If the impeachment motion passes, “the House will be paralyzed”, “the Democrats will delight in Republican dysfunctions and the population will be revulsed, rightly so”he said.
His colleague Tom Cole had warned against « chaos » into which the House and Republicans would be plunged if Mr. McCarthy were impeached. “The chaos is President McCarthy”and replied Matt Gaetz.
These internal struggles exposed in broad daylight made former Republican President Donald Trump react. “Why do Republicans spend their time arguing among themselves, why don’t they fight the radical left Democrats who are destroying our country? » he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Kevin McCarthy, 58, was elected by force in January, due to the very slim Republican majority. To gain his position, he had to make important concessions with around twenty Trumpists, including the possibility that any elected official would have the power to call a vote to dismiss him. The threat came true on Tuesday.
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