Deadlock continues in Washington as Republican Kevin McCarthy loses 14th round of voting

Republican Kevin McCarthy once again failed to be elected to head the US House of Representatives on Friday, immediately arousing great tension in the hemicycle.

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Just after the failure of his 14th candidacy, the chosen one from California headed towards the group of Trumpists paralyzing his access to the perch, while accusing fingers pointed. Amid the hubbub, the Congress Clerk called on elected officials to remain calm.

The main interested party had even shown himself to be very confident in the middle of the afternoon: “I counted the votes”, he assured a crowd of journalists.

Paralysis

The hard core of very conservative elected officials are taking advantage of the very thin Republican majority won in the November mid-term elections to play spoilsport. And camped on its positions for four days, a scenario not seen for more than 160 years.

This paralysis of the American Congress has very concrete repercussions: without a “speaker”, the third most important figure in American politics after the president and the vice-president, elected officials cannot take the oath or therefore vote on a bill. It is also impossible to participate in parliamentary committees or to receive information classified as defense secret.

Member of the Republican staff for ten years, Kevin McCarthy has no credible competitor. Only the name of group leader Steve Scalise has circulated as a possible alternative, without his chances seeming serious.

The impatience was palpable among the members of the “Grand Old Party”, who largely support the candidacy of Mr. McCarthy, giving rise to very lively debates within this parliamentary group. Many of them also left the hemicycle on Friday in protest during the speech by Matt Gaetz, one of the elected leaders of the Trumpist revolt.

«Chaos»

Throughout this process, Joe Biden’s Democratic Party has not failed to denounce the stranglehold of Donald Trump’s faithful – many of whom still refuse to recognize his defeat in 2020 – on the Republican Party, two years to the day. after the storming of the Capitol.

“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.

But the Democrats, who lost control of the House after the November poll, do not have enough votes to end this paralysis.

Marathon negotiation sessions in the galleries adjacent to the hemicycle, a horde of journalists picking up every statement from this group of free electrons… This election seems endless at times.

And for good reason, the 434 representatives of the House have no choice but to continue to vote until a “speaker” is elected by a simple majority.

The opportunity for the cameras of the American parliamentary channel, usually subject to very strict rules regarding authorized shots, to capture many moments of life from this atypical procedure, to the delight of viewers and networks. social.