Merciless power struggle: McCarthy also failed in eighth ballot for main post Amazon cuts more than 18,000 jobs

Despite new concessions to his opponents, Republican Kevin McCarthy has failed again in the power struggle for the highest office in the US parliament. The 57-year-old did not receive enough votes in the next elections on Thursday to become chairman of the House of Representatives. Previously, intensive negotiations took place behind the scenes – apparently without success. McCarthy did no better than the previous runs on Tuesday and Wednesday. Above all, he opposes staunch supporters of former President Donald Trump — though he supports McCarthy.

McCarthy is said to have made a big move towards his party opponents ahead of the vote to secure their votes and break the deadlock. The 57-year-old would even have agreed to further lower the hurdles for removing a speaker from the House of Representatives. He offers his opponents a means of pressure to drive him out of office at will. This can have serious consequences and cause even more instability when major decisions need to be made in Congress. The right-wing deputies could hold the chamber hostage. McCarthy had already come a long way to accommodate the renegades on this point – but without success.

He is now showing a new level of “desperation,” the broadcaster CNN judged. McCarthy failed six rounds of voting on Tuesday and Wednesday and was embarrassed. The humiliation continued on Thursday. One of his opponents even voted for ex-President Trump during the oral vote. When voting, MPs can also vote for people who are not members of the US Congress. Trump has no realistic chance of being elected Speaker of the House of Representatives.

With a narrow majority of Republicans in the House of Commons, McCarthy needs nearly every vote in his party to be elected leader. If McCarthy can’t agree with opponents in his party, he can try to negotiate with the Democrats. They could help him win the election by, for example, abstaining from voting in their ranks, because then fewer votes would be needed. Also, a new candidate could be put forward that the Republicans can agree on. But talks with Democrats about a consensus candidate they would support would also be conceivable.

That the Democrats currently seem to be very happy with McCarthy’s failure became apparent Wednesday evening (local time). After a break, the MPs reconvened. McCarthy had previously said that a new vote would not pass that night, so one of his confidants asked for the meeting to be adjourned. The Democrats, however, opposed the project. Only at the last minute was the motion passed by a paper-thin Republican majority.

Even a call from ex-President Trump had not changed the situation. He had previously supported McCarthy, but supported him again after the voting debacle. But ardent Trump fans continued to block McCarthy. For McCarthy, the series of defeats is a historic defeat and a public notoriety. It is the first time in a hundred years that it took more than one election attempt and that a parliamentary group failed to elect its candidate in the first round.

The power struggle also shows the inner turmoil of the Republicans. They had regained a majority in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections in November and actually wanted to oust President Joe Biden. Many now wonder whether the dysfunctional party is capable of taking on the important tasks in the House of Representatives. (sda/dpa)