McCarthy also failed to win House leader on fifth ballot, Capitol chaos continues | Abroad

They are nineteen people and hold American politics hostage. Members of Congress from the far-right conservative wing of the Republican Party are refusing to endorse their party leader’s nomination for Speaker of the House of Representatives. This means that the United States will start the year without a parliament and there are no rules on Capitol Hill.

Because as long as no president has been elected, all the rules and procedures of the House of Representatives are suspended. The 435 members who would start a new term this week will therefore not be sworn in. Even the dress code which normally applies in the corridors has been lifted. Journalists and staff get away with bare shoulders or jeans.

Normally, the leader of the majority faction almost automatically becomes president, the so-called speakers. The vote is then a formality. But the vote on Republican Kevin McCarthy’s nomination turned into an embarrassing political disaster. For the first time in a hundred years, the ruling faction does not elect a president. On the first day he lost three votes, a day later he again failed to secure a majority on the fourth and fifth ballots.

The nineteen voters against made themselves unpopular with their colleagues. Their demands were largely granted by McCarthy, but they continue to thwart him, it is claimed. In the corridors, according to party members, they are now called the ‘Taliban 19’. On the first day of Congress of the year, they managed to keep their ranks close and even to twenty votes against McCarthy.

They are the most right-wing and extreme members of the group. Most supported former President Trump in his attempts to stay in power illegally. Among them, for example, is Paul Gosar from Arizona, who was reprimanded by McCarthy for attending a meeting of white nationalists. He also shared an animated video on social media in which he attacks leftist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword.

The Republican Party Rebellion represents a partial resurrection of the Tea Party, an arch-conservative wing that attacked its own party leaders in the 1910s and tried as much as possible to side with then-President Obama. A similar group of about 30 Republicans extremists is now called the Freedom Caucus. They represent a hardline anti-government vision and want to push the party further to the right.

They have been branded “parliamentary terrorists” by the party leadership, as they are said to be primarily interested in sabotaging decision-making in order to get their point across. It is entirely conceivable that non-voters will also interfere with other votes and cause congressional paralysis. Congressman Dan Crenshaw speaks of a “suicidal movement” that will be unwelcome by voters. “This guarantees that Biden is re-elected in 2024,” he warned his party. “This strategy is so stupid.”

Members of Congress must vote until a presidential candidate obtains a majority. It was still unclear how long it would take Wednesday night – it could be days. In 1855, the then Congress even needed two months. Kevin McCarthy has promised not to give up. He could try to get the Democrats to vote for him in order to get a majority. But it is also quite conceivable that another candidate will be presented. In theory, this could even become a Democrat.

On his online platform, Donald Trump called on allies to rally behind McCarthy. Trump fears, he wrote, that the Republicans’ takeover of the House of Representatives could begin with “an extremely embarrassing defeat.” But the former president seems to have lost his influence. The insurgent Republicans then again voted against McCarthy.