Extraordinary! Why hasn’t the US House of Representatives elected its president?

The US House of Representatives failed to elect the president of the body for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. After six rounds of voting, the Republican Kevin McCarthy still does not obtain the necessary 218 votes, that is, 50% plus one, to become the head of the body.

Former US President Donald Trump has already urged his party to vote for Kevin McCarthy as the new president of the renewed lower house of the US Congress. «Republicans, don’t turn a huge win into a gigantic, embarrassing loss. Time to celebrate, you deserve it», wrote Trump on his Truth Social account.

At the same time, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, a member of the Democratic Party, urged the Republicans to «get their act together» after the «shameful» vote, reports RT. «I just think it’s embarrassing the way it’s taken so long and the way they’re treating each other», said Biden.There are no members in the Chamber

The House of Representatives is at an impasse because, as they have not been able to elect the president, none of the representatives can be sworn in, and, as a consequence, Congress cannot meet or vote on any legislation, writes AP. Thus, there are practically no members in the body, only elected legislators.

According to the agency, legislators from both parties are not sure if they can call votes or present motions on the floor because there is no president to rule on their requests. Nor can they form commissions or pass laws.

Democrat Ted Lieu claimed that he doesn’t know what his «status» is. “I don’t know if I have healthcare, I don’t know if my staff are paid. We are seeing all this now, because this has not happened in the last 100 years», he added. In addition, Lieu indicated that he is concerned that lawmakers cannot consult classified documents important to national security, and that they cannot respond to a global crisis.

«I’m getting a lot of messages from conservatives who are fed up with this», said Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene according to Reuters.Opponents of McCarthy

Already before the votes, the Republican candidate Kevin McCarthy faced a group of conservative legislators supporters of Donald Trump who consider that he «is neither conservative enough nor tough enough to fight the Democrats», recalls AP.

Republican Ken Buck asserted in an interview with CNN that some do not support McCarthy for personal reasons. In turn, the representative for Florida Matt Gaetz declared on Tuesday that «perhaps the right person to preside over the House is not someone who has sold shares of himself for more than a decade to get it (the position)».

For his part, Dan Bishop told CNN that McCarthy never focuses on «a specific agenda». «And that’s how it has been for the last 14 years that he’s been in leadership, with all due respect to him», he said.

Some Republicans are demanding real changes in the House of Representatives. Specifically, Chip Roy and Scott Perry speak out for the need for open amendments in the body, and Byron Donalds has joined those who want a single member to be able to force a vote to remove an incumbent president, according to CNN.

In this regard, Victoria Spartz, who abstained from voting on Wednesday, told the channel that McCarthy’s opponents are right about open debate and the amendment process, and that she wants the House to work differently. «We have uncontrolled spending and we can’t do anything about it», pointed out Spartz.Democrats united

Meanwhile, the Democrats closed ranks around the new leader of their party, Hakeem Jeffries, who collected all 212 votes from his party members present in the lower house of Congress. This is the first time since 2007 that a Democratic leader has won the support of all members of his party in the body, reports NBC.

«We’re going to stay here to get it. We are united, and we are all going to support Hakeem Jeffries for president, the most voted in the last ballot», said Pete Aguilar, the Democratic representative for California.

Other candidates in the House

In the voting this Wednesday, about twenty members of the Republican Party supported a new candidate: the representative for California Byron Donalds. Donalds is elected to the House for only the second time, which «makes him an unusual candidate for the position of president, which usually falls to more experienced legislators», says an article in The New York Times.

Chip Roy argued that Donalds is «a good man raised by a single mother who overcame adversity, became a Christian at the age of 21, and has dedicated his life to furthering the cause of his family and country».

Commenting on his nomination for speaker of the US House of Representatives, Donalds stressed that he is not afraid of possible «retaliation». «I’m 6’2″ [188 centimeters] and I weigh 275 [125 kilos], I’m not worried about that», he was quoted as saying by local media.

Also, during the first day of voting, some Republicans supported Jim Jordan. Jordan is «widely considered the top conservative in the House, but winning the presidency would be an incredibly high bar for him for multiple reasons», said The Hill. The representative for Ohio himself urged other Republicans to unite around McCarthy.

Steve Scalise could be considered as another possibility, since he «is seen as the second natural choice to become president» of the lower house, indicates The Hill. However, Republican Don Bacon questioned whether Scalise could win the presidency of the body. «[McCarthy and Scalise] They represent a lot of the same ideology, and they’ve built this team together», argued Bacon.

Another Republican who could become the speaker of the House is Patrick McHenry, who, however, «has made it clear for months that he wants nothing to do with this job», explains the newspaper.What are the scenarios?

Insider suggests several possible scenarios for the development of events. Thus, McCarthy has an option to meet the demands of the conservatives. The Republican has already tentatively accepted some of them, and now several members of the House believe there is little he can do to win more votes.

Another option that the Republican candidate has is to reach an agreement with some Democrats so that members of the Democratic Party support his candidacy. «However, so far the Democrats have shown no willingness to intervene», writes the media outlet.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna told Reuters that he and others could support a moderate Republican who agreed to share subpoena power with Democrats and to avoid impediments on issues related to government funding and the debt ceiling.

In this context, Kevin Kosar, a senior fellow at the American Business Institute who studies Congress and American politics, said that cooperating with the Democrats could hurt McCarthy in the long run, as the Democrats will never let him forget that they had to do him a favor because without them, he could not hold the position.

Also, if the vote drags on, some members of the House could stop attending it, so McCarthy could get 50% plus one of the votes among the lawmakers present and be elected as president, according to Insider.

Another possible scenario is that McCarthy withdraws his candidacy if he «believes he can’t win or sees support erode with additional voting», and then the body chooses another candidate, explained Kosar.

Finally, House members could change the election rules, passing a resolution allowing whoever gets a simple majority of votes to become president. According to Insider, if this resolution passes, «it could scare enough Republicans into supporting McCarthy and thus prevent a Democrat from becoming president», since in the first six rounds of voting, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries won a majority of votes.