The new Congress that takes office in early 2023 promises to complicate the Executive’s life, combating what it believes to be indoctrination in schools and what it calls “gender ideology”, threatening to investigate permissiveness with organized crime and criticizing alleged plans to restrict freedom of expression on social networks in collusion with big techs.
It could be Brazil, but these are indications given by US Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, if he is elected President of the House of Representatives in January — as everything indicates he will be.
To get there, he has radicalized his speech in the name of winning over the most conservative wings of the party itself, opening a crisis with the most moderate names that, at the limit, could even remove him from office.
The Republican Party won a majority in the House in the November legislative elections and will regain control of the House from January. But the victory, which secured 222 of the 435 seats, was tighter than anticipated — just four seats beyond the required 218.
McCarthy, 57, is now the leader of the party, which, in normal situations, would guarantee him the presidency of the House from January 3, when the new Congress takes office. But the state of mind in American politics has made it difficult to reach consensus, especially among Republicans, divided between radical devotees of Donald Trump and those who defend leaving the former president behind.
Born in California, the deputy was elected for the first time to the House in 2006 and quickly gained space in the party’s internal politics. At the beginning of his career, he was seen as a representative of the moderate youth wing, the “young guns”, and even launched a book with that title, calling for more bipartisan consensus to advance important agendas for the country.
During the Trump administration, however, he moved closer to the conservative agenda and became a strong ally of the president. Days after the 2020 election, still during the calculation, he even told Fox News that the Republican had won, before the official result pointed to Democrat Joe Biden as the winner.
The tide turned following the invasion of the Capitol, when a crowd inflated by Trump tried to forcibly prevent confirmation of Biden’s victory. McCarthy turned against the then president and, in private conversations leaked to the press, even asked for his resignation. This is one of the main reasons why the party’s radicalized group fears that it will not be faithful to Trump’s ideals.
Politically skilled, however, the leader knew how to read the scenario and got closer to the former president, even throwing his former right-hand man, Liz Cheney —who voted for the impeachment of the republican and is part of the congressional commission that investigates January 6 — into the fire.
But now, as he needs 218 votes to be elected President of the House and the Republicans will be 222, he has a minimal margin of dissent. Estimates of the American press indicate that he lacks five supporters, and recently he went through a scare: in November, in the election of the Republican leadership in the House, Andy Biggs challenged him and, although he did not threaten victory, he won 31 votes —the elected had 188.
According to the Arizona deputy’s group, there are about 20 Republicans strongly opposed to a McCarthy presidency, which would fatally remove him from the race, considering that Democrats should not vote for him.
For this reason, McCarthy has courted the Freedom Caucus, a group of about 40 ultraconservative lawmakers close to Trump. One of the most symbolic nods was made on a visit to Texas in late November; on the Mexican border, he said he would open investigations against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It’s an old plea from the radical group, dissatisfied with the Biden government’s migration policies.
“If Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure to determine whether we can launch impeachment investigations,” he said in El Paso.
Last week, he released the list of priorities for the investigations he promises to open, and at the top of the list is the one aimed at Mayorkas. Among the reasons, he ranges from the impact of drug trafficking in the region to what he says are “false allegations that police ‘whipped’ immigrants in Del Rio.” In September last year, images of border agents on horseback, with reins in hand, chasing Haitian immigrants went around the world and opened a crisis in the government — the White House condemned the action.
But the list of investigations he promises to sponsor goes on and on: from China’s influence in the US and the origins of the coronavirus to the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and one of the president’s sons, Hunter Biden. Also tech companies that, “in coordination and collusion with government and intelligence officials”, intend to “silence free speech”. And what he calls indoctrination in schools.
McCarthy asserts that classrooms “have become a battleground on which competing political ideologies, gender theories and junk science are at war with children’s well-being”, citing “harmful policies promoted by ultra-left teachers’ unions” that “poison the minds of children”.
The nods to the radicalized base, however, have bothered moderate parliamentarians, and there is even talk of an agreement with Democrats to try to elect a more centrist republican —the endeavor, however, would require reaching something close to unanimity among the 213 deputies of the party of Biden to join 20 dissident Republicans in reaching the necessary 218 endorsements.
There is also the possibility of disaffected people not attending the poll. As the number of votes required is linked to the majority of those present, if there are 426 of the 435 deputies, the required majority becomes 213, precisely the number of the Democratic Party. This would allow Hakeem Jeffries, newly nominated to lead the party, to be elected – it is unlikely, however, that Republicans will relinquish the presidency.
The lack of consensus in choosing the leader of the House blocks the agenda in the Chamber, and deputies need to vote as many times as necessary until the new president is chosen. The last time a major stalemate happened was a hundred years ago, in 1923, when the election of a Republican took nine votes. In 1849, there were 60 rounds to reach a consensus and in 1856 the Chamber stopped for two months because no candidate managed to reach a majority.
Some of McCarthy’s Proposed Investigations in the US House
- Crisis at the borders and the actions of the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas
- Freedom of expression on social media
- China’s influence in the US
- Origins of Covid-19
- Hunter Biden, son of the US president
- Withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan
- Federal government spending
- Abuses in Justice Department and FBI Investigations
- Racial theory and “gender ideology” in schools
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
