Faced with endless and inconclusive negotiations, the Republican candidate for Speaker of the US House of Representatives abandoned his candidacy on Thursday evening, leaving Congress plunging deeper into the crisis.
Louisiana Representative-elect Steve Scalise, the leader of the Republican group, narrowly won an unofficial election last Wednesday to replace Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted on October 3 as “speaker” of the House.
But lacking sufficient support within his party, which has been consumed by fratricidal squabbles between moderate elected officials and pro-Trump rioters, he surrendered.
“It was a big adventure and there is still work to be done. I have just told my colleagues that I am withdrawing my name as a candidate for Speaker of the House.”
With this announcement, the search for a new leader for the US Congress, which has been paralyzed for more than a week, appears increasingly thorny.
Congress consists of two chambers: the first, the Senate, was won by the Democrats led by Joe Biden, but the other, the House of Representatives, is in the hands of the Republicans, which has reached an unprecedented deadlock.
The vast majority of the powers of this institution were suspended due to the sudden dismissal of “Speaker of the House of Representatives” Kevin McCarthy, which revealed the huge cracks plaguing the American conservative camp, one year before the presidential elections in 2024.
Faced with their inability to agree on his successor, this chamber, which is supposed to be one of the most powerful chambers in the world, is experiencing incredible paralysis.
The United States is currently unable to vote in favor of any new aid to Israel, a historic ally in the midst of war with Hamas. Not even an additional envelope for Russia-invaded Ukraine, which has been under discussion for weeks.
It is the chaos that the world’s leading economic power – still clinging to its role as world policeman – had hoped to avoid.
Without a “president,” the third political figure in the United States, the US Congress cannot vote on a new budget for the federal state either. The latter expires in a few weeks, which would once again put the world’s leading economic power at risk of paralyzing its public administration.
Steve Scalise, known for surviving a shooting incident in 2017, expressed hope that he would be able to bring his nomination to a vote with all elected officials in the House of Representatives. A necessary step to get to the perch.
But about a dozen conservatives immediately announced that they would oppose his nomination at all costs. They cited, for example, the elected official’s budget stances, the fact that he was suffering from cancer, or a speech he gave twenty years ago at a conference associated with a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, to block it.
Will the blockage last a few more days? A few weeks? There appears to be confusion at all levels of the party.
“This country is counting on us to come together. The House needs a speaker and we need to make it work again, Steve Scalise insisted.
“But clearly not everyone is there. There are always divisions that need to be resolved,” he added.
“Why don’t we all go home and meet again next week?” Trump-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested Thursday afternoon.
Joe Biden’s Democratic Party represents a minority in the House of Representatives and is therefore essentially a bystander to the messy negotiations in Congress.
Unless there is a sudden alliance with moderate Republicans, which could put an end to this unprecedented situation.
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed his regret Thursday that “the civil war between Republicans in the House of Representatives continues to paralyze Congress,” saying that “a bipartisan solution is the only way out.”
