- Bernd Debusmann at the Capitol and Matt Murphy in London
- BBC News
image source, Getty Images
Kevin McCarthy has been elected speaker of the United States House of Representatives amid heated exchanges in which his fellow Republicans nearly came to blows.
McCarthy eventually won office following 15 rounds of voting which took place despite the fact that the Republican Party had achieved a majority in the lower house.
Following a dramatic lobbying campaign broadcast live from the House, Matt Gaetz, one of the party’s rebels, was urged to vote for McCarthy.
The Florida congressman was one of six who relented late on Friday.
Earlier, Gaetz came close to coming to blows with Republican Mike Rogers, a McCarthy supporter. Alabama Congressman had to be physically restrained by his colleagues while yelling and pointing fingers at Gaetz.
“Never surrender”
The president of the lower house sets the agenda and oversees legislative affairs. The position is second in line of succession to the presidency, following the Vice President of the United States.
Following his confirmation, McCarthy wrote on Twitter: “I hope one thing is clear following this week: I will never give up. And I will never give up for you, the American people.”
image source, Getty Images
Matt Gaetz (left) listens to the recriminations of Mike Rogers.
image source, Getty Images
Mike Rogers is held in full recrimination.
US President Joe Biden congratulated McCarthy on his victory and said he looked forward to cooperating with the Republican Party.
“The American people expect their leaders to govern in a way that puts their needs first, and that’s what we have to do now,” he said.
Republicans have already promised initiate investigations regarding Biden’s family businesses and regarding his government.
concessions
After the 13th ballot was postponed, McCarthy insisted to reporters that he “would have the votes” to take office in the next round.
In the twelfth round of voting, McCarthy managed to convince 14 Republicans to vote for him. Yet another rebel supported him in the thirteenth.
But the Californian congressman was still three votes short of reaching the 217 he needed to win the coveted position and, in chaotic and dramatic scenes, he failed once more on the fourteenth ballot.
Among the dissenters were members of the House Freedom Caucus, who say McCarthy is not conservative enough to lead them in their work to thwart Democratic President Joe Biden’s agenda.
image source, Getty Images
The rebels changed their votes between pressures and concessions.
McCarthy has offered several concessions to the rebels, including a seat on the influential rules committee, which sets the terms for legislative debate in the chamber.
It also agreed to lower the limit -a a single member of the house – to call a vote to remove the president of that body, which suggests that the Republican coalition might easily fracture once more even following McCarthy’s victory.
Democratic criticism
Senior Democratic Party lawmakers accused McCarthy of giving up power to an extreme one of the Republicans and compared the internal struggle in the opposition with the riots that Trump supporters staged in the Capitol exactly two years ago that interrupted the certification of Biden as president.
“Two years ago the insurgents failed to take the Capitol,” Congressman Eric Swalwell wrote on Twitter. “Tonight Kevin McCarthy has let them take over the Republican Party.”
For his part, Virginia Congressman Don Beyer highlighted the angry scenes among Republicans that followed the fourteenth ballot:
“Disturbing that this process ends in threats of violence in the House of Representatives on this very day. It may not determine the outcome, but that is no way to run the affairs of the people. A dark and sobering moment likely to be remembered long following end this session.”
Democrats, a minority in the chamber, had continued to vote in unison for their leader, New Yorker Hakeem Jeffries, the first black person to lead a party in Congress.
Friday was the first day that McCarthy’s vote count surpassed Jeffries’.
since 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, the Lower House of Congress had not voted so many times to choose a speaker. Back then, 44 rounds of voting were needed.
In the November midterm elections, the Republicans won the House of Representatives by a narrower than expected margin, 222 votes in favor and 212 once morest. Democrats retained control of the Senate.
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