Power struggle in the US Congress: McCarthy is up for election for the twelfth time An aloha tattoo? German police officer went to court for this (we have some ideas…)

Republican Kevin McCarthy is running for the twelfth time in the historic power struggle for the presidency of the US House of Representatives. His party colleague Mike Garcia nominated the 57-year-old on Friday during a session of the parliamentary chamber. Voting has now been going on for four days. McCarthy has failed 11 attempts so far as right-wing opponents refuse to support him. They are supporters of former President Donald Trump, who supports McCarthy, however.

This time too, the rebels presented opposing candidates. Radical Rep. Matt Gaetz nominated Jim Jordan, who had previously been nominated for detractors. You don’t become Speaker of the House of Representatives until you get enough votes, Gaetz said. “So you have to ask yourself (…) if this is an exercise in vanity for someone who has done the count and is putting this institution through something that is absolutely avoidable,” Gaetz said of McCarthy. Trump supporter Lauren Boebert nominated her colleague Kevin Hern.

The current vote for the top job is already one of the longest in U.S. history. Not since the 19th century has it taken members of the House of Representatives as many attempts to elect a new leader as it does now. The last time there was more voting was only in 1859/1860. At that time, Republican William Pennington was not elected Speaker of the Chamber of Congress until the 44th ballot. The process then took several weeks. (saw/sda/dpa)