DESPITE DONALD TRUMP'S APPEAL

REPUBLICANS STILL HAVE NOT ELECTED

THEIR SPEAKER

Republican Kevin McCarthy, favorite to replace Nancy Pelosi in this position, was still clinging to his candidacy at the start of a fourth day of negotiations. The debates must resume at 12:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. GMT) in the hemicycle of the House of Representatives.

The first eleven rounds of voting have indeed ended in as many failures: while Kevin McCarthy needs 218 votes to be elected, he did not manage to exceed 203 in the best of cases. This blockade by Congress is leading the United States to a "historic impasse", according to the New York Times. A first since 1923, when it took nine ballots in the House to elect a president.

"Extreme Fringe"

The Congress is completely paralyzed by the revolt of about twenty elected Trumpists, who are blocking the election of a "speaker". "They are blocking because they are part of the Freedom Caucus (the most conservative and far-right electoral committee of the Republican Party, editor's note) and they consider Kevin McCarthy too moderate", explains Anne Deysine, university professor and author of The United States and Democracy (ed. L'Harmattan, 2019).

Kevin McCarthy has yet reached out to the free electrons blocking his election, offering them sizeable concessions in behind-the-scenes negotiations. In vain.

The justifications are not lacking to block Kevin McCarthy. “We should not take it personally, but the future of our country depends on it”, assured, during the debates, the representative of Texas, the trumpist Chip Roy.

Kevin McCarthy has been a member of the Republican staff for more than ten years, a status denounced by the most conservatives in his party, for whom Kevin McCarthy is not a 'real' conservative, but is part of the system.

Above all, these conservative representatives are in a position of strength because they benefit from the very thin Republican majority won in the mid-term elections – 222 seats in the House of Representatives, the majority being at 218. It is therefore enough that five of them continue in their refusal to choose Kevin McCarthy for the block to continue.

Third most important figure in American politics after the president and the vice-president, the "speaker" needs a majority of 218 votes to be elected. Mr McCarthy was currently capping at 201.

But how long will his candidacy remain viable ?

A member of the Republican staff for more than ten years, the elected official does not currently have a credible competitor. Only the name of group leader Steve Scalise is circulating as a possible alternative, without his chances seeming serious.

What is generally only a matter of a few hours could extend over several weeks: in 1856, the elected members of Congress only agreed after two months and 133 turns.

The annoyance was also palpable in the members of the "Grand Old Party", who largely support the candidacy of Kevin McCarthy, giving rise to very lively debates in the hemicycle. The Republican leadership also knows that it cannot afford to go overboard and alienate moderate Republicans.

Former President Donald Trump himself, on Wednesday morning, called on his social network to do everything to "avoid an embarrassing defeat": "Now is the time for our great elected Republicans in the House to vote for Kevin" McCarthy, who will do "a good job, and maybe even a great job".

Very concrete repercussions

This blocking has very concrete repercussions: without a "speaker", elected officials can neither take an oath nor therefore vote on a bill. But the 434 members of the House of Representatives, the scene of this singular spectacle, will continue to vote until a president is elected.

The occasion also, for the Democrats, to denounce the stranglehold of the faithful of Donald Trump - many of whom still refuse to recognize his defeat in 2020 - on the Republican Party, two years after the attack led by his supporters against the seat of Congress. .

“The chaos in the House of Representatives is just another illustration of how an extreme fringe (…) prevents them from governing,” assured the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer. Among the Democrats, the atmosphere is therefore one of unity… and exploitation of the current divisions of the opposing camp.

But Joe Biden's party may show unity around its leader Hakeem Jeffries, but neither does the camp have enough votes to end this paralysis.