After four days and 15 votes, in an impasse that had not been seen for 164 years, the United States House of Representatives finally elected, on the night of this Friday (6), in the early hours of Saturday (7) in Brazil, its new president.
California Representative Kevin McCarthy, 57, will lead the House for the next two years. His management, according to the promises he made, should open investigations into different aspects of President Joe Biden’s government and complicate the government’s agenda in the Legislature – even though the Democrats have control of the Senate. After the long election process, it is also safe to say that he will open a generous space for the ultra-right wing of the Republican Party.
The party, which reached a majority in the Chamber after the November midterms, was experiencing a split that, since the installation of this legislature, on Tuesday (3), has left the House headless and with the agenda blocked. Of the 434 seats currently occupied (out of a total of 435), the Republicans have 222. In theory, as is traditionally the case in American politics, they should be able to elect without fear the name that replaces the Democrat Nancy Pelosi in the presidency – and the natural candidate was McCarthy , leader of the caption in the Chamber.
But the deputy faced strong opposition from the Freedom Caucus (freedom bench), a radical and ultra-conservative republican group, and, if he could have only 4 dissents to reach the barrier of 218 votes and be elected, he saw 20 colleagues vote against him in most of the elections. 11 sessions of public humiliation to which he was exposed until Thursday (5).
It was the worst scenario in presidential elections since 1859, when completion took two months and 44 votes — deputies are obliged to vote as many times as necessary until a winner obtains a majority.
Resolute, however, McCarthy ceded what he had and what he didn’t have to the radical caucus, angering moderate Republicans. With the concessions, he reached this Friday with 14 and then 15 votes in his favor in the two rounds held in the afternoon.
Then, in the session postponed to 10:00 pm (0:00 am in Brasilia), the republican leader suffered yet another defeat in the Chamber. The vote had tense moments after deputy Matt Gaetz decided to abstain and McCarthy, in an unprecedented scene, tried to change his mind within the plenary.
Shortly after the session, the House still tried a motion to postpone the vote to Monday (9), but was unsuccessful. And then began the 15th round, in which the result was reached. The final vote count was 216 for McCarthy and 212 for Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Earlier, the now Speaker of the House told CNN that he was sure he would get the missing votes. “Even because this process has taken so long, now we have learned to lead. Then we will be able to end it at once.” The imbroglio eclipsed any other theme in Congress — like the controversies involving the son of Brazilians, George Santos, who confessed to having lied on his résumé to be elected; the toxic presence that had made him something of an outcast on Tuesday had lessened as the days passed.
“It’s become clear that some individuals are simply ‘obstructionists,'” said Keith Self, newly elected from Texas, candidly. It is not yet known for sure how much the negotiations cost McCarthy, but the bill will arrive – and it is certain that he will assume a very weakened presidency.
The American political press reports on the promises he would have made to radical republicans who were resistant to his name. According to CNN, he would have promised that any parliamentarian can propose a motion to remove the president of the Chamber; that his political group will not contest the primaries for the Republican candidacy in conservative-safe districts; that will guide projects on border security and limiting the number of terms of office of a deputy; change the spending ceiling of the House; expand Freedom Caucus membership in committees, including the one that regulates the charter; and increasing the number of possible amendments to bills —among other points.
McCarthy was first elected to the House in 2006 and quickly rose to prominence in domestic 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 vote, he even told Fox News that the Republican had won, before the official result pointed to 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, even asked for his resignation and gave a tough speech from the House pulpit in which he claimed that Trump was responsible for the attack – which, this Friday, turned two years old, on a date that went almost unnoticed in Congress due to precisely to the republican split.
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 republican’s impeachment and was a member of the congressional commission that investigated January 6 — into the fire.
The McCarthy administration is expected to open a series of investigations against the Biden administration, according to the list of priorities he released in December. The first must be against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, targeting the immigration crisis on the border with Mexico.
The list extends further to China’s influence in the US; the origins of the coronavirus; the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan; the affairs of one of the president’s sons, Hunter Biden; what he sees as limitations on freedom of expression by technology companies and what he calls indoctrination in schools.
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