The House of Representatives has adjourned after failing to elect a new Speaker, leaving Kevin McCarthy’s political future hanging by a thread after Republican party infighting threatened to halt lawmaking in Washington.
On Tuesday, McCarthy became the first majority party leader in a century to falter in the first ballot, before he went on to lose two subsequent rounds of voting.
McCarthy secured 203 votes in the first round, 15 short of the 218 required to seize the Speaker’s gavel, after 19 Republicans voted against him. He did not improve his numbers in the second round, with his 19 opponents coming together to support Jim Jordan, the Republican congressman from Ohio who had formally nominated McCarthy for Speaker.
McCarthy lost a third round of voting after Byron Donalds, a congressman from Florida, switched allegiance to Jordan, bringing the votes against McCarthy to 20.
Voting was expected to resume on Wednesday afternoon. It remained unclear whether McCarthy would be able to build support and achieve the simple majority required to become Speaker. The House is constitutionally required to elect a Speaker and cannot start governing until one is selected.
The once-in-a-century gridlock underscored the unprecedented levels of dysfunction in Washington, especially among Republicans. The party is grappling with how to move forward after a disappointing performance in last year’s midterm elections, and whether it should back Donald Trump as its presidential nominee in 2024.
McCarthy, a 57-year-old congressman from California, is the House’s top-ranking Republican, and had long been touted as the most likely successor to Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House who is ceding the gavel after her party lost its majority in the midterms.
But while the GOP won enough seats to take back control of the lower chamber of Congress, the “red wave” McCarthy predicted did not materialise. At the same time, Democrats expanded their majority in the Senate, the upper chamber of Congress, after flipping a seat in Pennsylvania.
All 435 members of the House of Representatives participate in the vote for Speaker, the first order of business for a new Congress. A Speaker needs a simple majority, or at least 218 votes if the entire House is in attendance, to be elected.
Given the razor-thin size of Republicans’ new majority in the House and the outsized influence of a handful of vocal critics, McCarthy has for months struggled to shore up support amid opposition from various factions within the Republican caucus, including ultraconservatives and lawmakers such as Florida’s Matt Gaetz, who are unflinchingly loyal to Trump.
McCarthy’s relationship with Trump has over the years oscillated between unabashed public displays of loyalty — Trump has frequently referred to the congressman as “my Kevin” — and acrimony. McCarthy reportedly said “I’ve had it with this guy” after the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol, before smiling in photos with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort just weeks later. Trump last year endorsed McCarthy’s bid for Speaker.
In recent weeks, McCarthy has sought to bolster his standing within the party by brokering deals intended to satisfy the demands of various dissenters.
At the weekend, he rolled out a package of proposed rules to change House procedure. But several Republicans have said the changes do not go far enough. They want further concessions that would make it easier to call a no-confidence vote in any future Speaker.
Many on Capitol Hill are braced for the possibility that the process could drag on for days, until McCarthy is able to build enough support or ultimately step aside in favour of another candidate. While his deputy, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has supported his boss’s bid, he is seen as the most likely alternative to secure 218 votes if McCarthy fails.
Democratic House leaders have rejected any suggestion that they would move to help McCarthy, or throw their support behind an alternative Republican candidate. Many Democratic lawmakers appeared to revel in their party’s relative unity on Tuesday, with some openly mocking the Republicans’ discord. Ted Lieu, the congressman from California, posted an image on Twitter in which he was holding a bag of popcorn.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzE2ZmRkODhlLWYxMzUtNGM5Ni04Mzk3LTEyYmM2ZGZmNjFhYtIBAA?oc=5
2023-01-03 23:11:31Z
1718904167
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar