After the first try: Trump candidate fails in election for top position in Congress

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Archconservative American Republican Jim Jordan initially failed in the election of a new speaker of the House of Representatives. In a vote in the House of Congress on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump’s ally fell 200 votes short of the required majority of 217 votes.

In addition to the Democrats, twenty Republicans also voted against the 59-year-old hardliner, who was running to succeed Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was impeached two weeks ago. But Jordan could try to assert himself in further election rounds.

When he was elected in January, McCarthy needed 15 rounds to win the state’s third-highest office. Just nine months later, he was ousted as the chamber’s first speaker during an uprising by his party’s far-right wing.

Known for aggressive political style

In the chaotic search for a successor, Trump-backed Jordan was nominated by the Republican group last Friday. A day earlier, Republican majority leader Steve Scalise, who was initially nominated by the group, threw in the towel after it became clear that he would lack the necessary majority in the plenary meeting.

A lack of a majority had also emerged in Jordan in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote. Many moderate Republicans have deep reservations about the current chairman of the influential House Judiciary Committee, who is known for his sharply right-wing views and aggressive political style.

Republicans need presidents

The Republicans currently have 221 representatives and the Democrats 212. With one Republican missing from Tuesday’s vote, Jordan could only have afforded three dissenters. Significantly more party members then refused to support him.

The dispute between the Republicans has far-reaching consequences: without a chairman, the House of Representatives is largely paralyzed. This means, among other things, that Congress cannot decide on further military aid to Israel, which is under attack by the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas, or to Ukraine, which is under attack by Russia. The US is also threatened with a so-called shutdown in mid-November without a solution to the budget dispute. (SDA/AFP)

Source: Blick