January 6 is a date marked in the history of the United States for the assault on the Capitol in 2021. At the scene of the crime, two years later, this Friday the members of the House of Representatives meet to try to resolve a blockade that also It has acquired historical dimensions. After 12 votes, the congressmen have not agreed to elect their president, which keeps the House paralyzed because of the rebellion of the most radical Republicans.
The party’s candidate, Kevin McCarthy, has taken advantage of the recess since the adjournment of the session on Thursday to continue negotiating and has approached positions with part of the dissidents. In the first vote this Friday, the twelfth in total, he has added new support, still insufficient, but which gives him hope of ending up winning the position.
There is no closed pact with the rebels, so the uncertainty about the choice of the speaker has not been fully cleared while the vote is in progress. However, the different parties speak of progress, rapprochement and progress and at least 13 of the 20 rebels have already supported him. McCarthy needs 218 votes to be elected and the Republicans have 222 of the 435 seats in the House after the elections on November 8. Until Thursday, the most he had gotten was 202 votes, but this Friday he has improved his result.
Among the new votes are Dan Bishop, Michael Cloud, Eli Crane, Byron Donalds, Anna Paulina Luna, Mary Miller, Ralph Norman, Andy Ogles, Chip Roy, Keith Self, Victoria Spartz and Scott Perry, the latter leader of the revolt. “We are at a turning point. I have negotiated in good faith, with one purpose: to return the Casa del Pueblo to its rightful owners. The framework for an agreement is in place, so in a good faith effort, I have voted to restore the People’s House by voting for McCarthy.” has tweeted. Each of the new votes has been celebrated with standing ovations from the Republican bench.
Some are irreducible, including Florida representative Matt Gaetz, who has called for McCarthy’s withdrawal: “He doesn’t have the votes today, he won’t have them tomorrow, and he won’t have them next week, next month, or next year,” he said. said, although no one has applauded him. The other one who assures that she will never vote for McCarthy is Lauren Boebert, who has nominated another candidate. McCarthy can afford not to be supported by a maximum of four of his own deputies.
Before this Friday’s session, a group of representatives has gathered at the gates of the Capitol to pay tribute to relatives of the victims of the assault on the Capitol. The act was open to members of both parties, but the vast majority of those who have attended have been Democrats and the previous speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and the one who is the new leader of the Democrats in the House, Hakeem Jeffries.
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“Two years ago today, our nation watched in horror as a terrorist mob stormed the Capitol grounds in a violent attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power,” Pelosi said in her message recalling the assault. “What was a day of unimaginable horror was also a moment of extraordinary heroism, as brave law enforcement officers stood up to insurgents to protect the Capitol. We are eternally grateful to these heroes, and we continue to pray for the fallen, the bereaved and their families”, he continued to conclude: “January 6 marks the Feast of the Epiphany in the Catholic tradition. As we commemorate two years since the insurrection, let us pray that this day will continue to serve as an epiphany for our nation: to heal the wounds that remain and to preserve American democracy.”
Whitout deal
Two hours after the conclusion of that act, the Chamber has met again without McCarthy having managed to close an agreement and guarantee the votes. The Republican’s position will be greatly weakened even if he manages to get elected. That is partly what the rebel deputies want, who do not have a viable alternative candidate and have gone so far as to propose former President Donald Trump for the position. Among the new concessions that he has offered is that it is enough for a single representative of the 435 to request it for the president of the Chamber to submit to a motion of no confidence to dismiss him, as requested by the so-called Freedom Caucus (Freedom Group), the most radical faction of the Republicans, to which almost all the dissidents belong.
McCarthy is also willing to give the Freedom Caucus a representation well above its share in one of the most powerful committees in the House, the one that regulates the procedures and on which depends on which laws are put to the vote, among others. relevant decisions.
These concessions are added to others that the candidate already put on the table last weekend. McCarthy has offered to dissolve the commission of inquiry into the assault on the Capitol as soon as possible, something that was taken for granted, and create in its place another to investigate the alleged use of the federal government of Joe Biden as a political weapon. That commission will predictably submit to scrutiny the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago (Florida) mansion by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other actions by the Department of Justice against the former president.
In addition, the political action committee reporting to congressional leaders announced Wednesday that it will not interfere in the Republican primary. In last year’s elections, that committee funded moderate candidates whom it saw as more likely to beat the Democrats, which upset the radicals. The commitment not to intervene was one more of the demands of the wayward.
The Freedom Caucus He made a list of his demands at the beginning of December. McCarthy already agreed last weekend to incorporate some of them into the new House regulations, which as a consequence will prohibit telematic voting or remote participation in committees. The new president will also suppress the metal detectors that Pelosi ordered installed after the assault on the Capitol to prevent access with weapons to the chamber. He also agrees to impose draconian restrictions on the approval of public spending: each time a new item is approved, it will have to be cut from elsewhere. The new regulation proposed by McCarthy also contemplates granting a minimum of 72 hours from when a bill is raised until it is submitted to the plenary session, thus avoiding express laws that some representatives indicated diminished their rights as parliamentarians.
Election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives It is the essential first step even for representatives to be sworn in, but ultras deputies have boycotted McCarthy’s election time and time again in an unseen spectacle in more than a century. In 1923, the last time the Speaker of the House was not elected the first time, it took nine rounds. To find such a persistent blockade, one must go back 164 years, to 1859, just before the Civil War, when it took 44 attempts in an environment of confrontation and polarization centered on slavery. The record, also from that time, dates from 1855, when 133 votes were necessary.
The speaker It is the third highest authority in the United States, only behind the president, Joe Biden, and the vice president, Kamala Harris, who in turn presides over the Senate. He is, therefore, the second in the line of presidential succession in the event of the president’s death or incapacity.
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