At 02:00 Swedish time, the House of Representatives in the US Congress voted to postpone the presidential vote again. After four new fruitless attempts by Kevin McCarthy and the majority of Republican members, the Speaker’s seat remains empty.
As the leader of the newly elected Republican majority in the House of Representatives, McCarthy almost wrote himself for the role. but he has encountered resistance within his own ranks. Lawmakers loyal to former President Donald Trump, who feel McCarthy is neither conservative nor tough enough to fight Democrats, are refusing to let him go.
He needs at least 218 votes in total but so far has not come close in any of the 11 attempts made in the last three days. At most he has received 203 votes.
History was written
With the ninth vote down, history was written in the chamber. Then the number of votes required to produce a speaker was passed in 1923, the last time it didn’t work on the first try.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump came out and gave his support to McCarthy but it didn’t help much. In Thursday’s votes, Donald Trump was instead nominated for the office of speaker by Republican Matt Gaetz, one of the 20 members of the association of Trump loyalists.
– I have heard from my colleagues about all the important work that we have to do, and it is my sincere fear that if we were to allow McCarthy to take the chair, it would not get done. It would be “business as usual”, says Gaetz in the chamber according to CNN.