These hardcore Republicans are denying McCarthy the vote because he can’t eat for free

What is currently happening in the US House of Representatives is a true spectacle of the century: Republican candidate Kevin McCarthy was also not elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives on the sixth ballot. The reason for this lies in his own ranks: about 20 Republican MPs refuse to give him the vote. Who are they, who leads them, what do they want?

Scott Perry: The strategic mind

The 60-year-old from Pennsylvania is the chairman of the so-called “Freedom Caucus”. This is a group of ultra-conservative Republicans largely made up of supporters of the Tea Party. Donald Trump is not necessarily sympathetic to the group, they have rejected many of his proposals – they are not radical enough.

Iraq veteran Perry, on the other hand, is a close follower of Trump. He would have been involved in having Donald Trump’s election defeat in 2020 canceled through the Justice Department, the NZZ writes. He also actively spread the lie about the stolen elections.

But what motivates someone to block his own party member? A few days ago, Perry wrote a letter to McCarthy asking him to leave the room. Anyone who has been part of the party leadership for so long (14 years) has long been part of the establishment and has lost political clout. McCarthy gives up too easily in the political fray; he is not exhausting the Republicans’ pressure capabilities. In short: too willing to compromise, not radical enough. So nothing can change in the “political quagmire” that people so urgently want to drain.

Chip Roy: the change maker

The 50-year-old Texan is also a political extreme right and a member of the Freedom Caucus. But unlike his aforementioned comrade-in-arms, he seems less concerned with McCarthy as a person and more with the fundamental process in Washington, which he would like to change. With almost missionary zeal (which makes sense, after all, he is a professing and believing Christian), he delivered an emotional doorstep Tuesday about the abuses of American democracy.

He criticized the fact that Congress has passed laws that absolutely exceed the bar financially. For example, the gigantic regulatory package of December with a price tag of no less than 1.7 trillion (!) dollars. There wasn’t even time to read the whole package. Roy is also annoyed that there is too little discussion in the house and compromises are made too quickly.

Paul Gosar: The Enfant Terrible

The name of the 64-year-old from Arizona should still be known to some from the “anime affair” between Alexandria Occasio-Cortez and Joe Biden. In an election campaign video, Gosar introduced himself as the protagonist of the “Attack on Titan” series, killing the two Titans Occasio and Biden. Tasteless, but the main thing is provocative. He was severely scolded by the House of Representatives for the action and thrown out of the committees in which he sat.

Such provocations are a symbol of Gosar. He denies climate change, calls the 2020 presidential election rigged, and says the people who stormed the Capitol on the infamous January 6 were “friendly patriots.” The dental surgeon spreads so many falsehoods and false statements that even his fellow party members no longer believe them.

Lauren Boebert: The Armed Woman

Her first official act in the Republican majority in the House of Representatives: she had the metal detectors removed from the Capitol floor after Jan. 6. So it’s no surprise that the 36-year-old from Colorado is a supporter of the gun lobby.

She even had a restaurant where the wait staff is armed. She is also a sympathizer of the conspiracy theory group QAnon. Of her blockade at the house, she told Sean Hannity, Fox News’ conservative political spokesman, “I have no problem with it [mit der Blockade]. So we don’t waste tax money, we don’t send money to Ukraine.” The massive spending related to the war in Ukraine has long been a thorn in the side of the Freedom Caucus.

She demands ex-President Trump (who supports McCarthy, albeit surprisingly lethargic) tell him to withdraw his candidacy since he couldn’t get his 218 votes anyway. When Fox host Hannity asks her that her group only has 20 votes and that their logic tells them to back off, she evades and smiles.

Matt Gaetz: The hothead

He is considered a hothead and is actually very loud, very extreme and provocative. He was also an opponent of the Corona measures and believes that everyone can defend their home with force of arms. The 40-year-old from Florida made himself known to all American media with one sentence about the McCarthy debacle:

He, too, refers to the conservative narrative that Washington is a political quagmire of corruption and putrefaction that needs to be drained. The fact that he describes McCarthy as the biggest alligator can be interpreted as meaning that Gaetz sees him as corrupt. But Gaetz himself, writes Die Zeit, has another reason for the blockade: he apparently has his eye on the seat of the subcommittee that decides on the defense budget. Gaetz also wants to end aid to Ukraine. The blockade is to blackmail McCarthy into making concessions, such as this chair.