McCarthy gains momentum but fails to win US House leadership

US House Speaker candidate Kevin McCarthy took a significant step to securing the gavel yesterday after three days of deadlock as he managed to win over most of the 20 hardline fellow Republicans blocking his path.
The party, which has a razor-thin majority in the lower chamber of Congress, was facing worsening infighting after McCarthy lost a historic 11 consecutive ballots for the job.
However, the 57-year-old Californian was able to pick up 14 votes among the right-wing defectors in the 12th round yesterday after offering major concessions, in a development that McCarthyites hope will lead to more votes flipping.
Seven fellow Republicans still voted against him, leaving him three votes short of the majority needed to win the Speaker’s gavel and prompting his supporters to put his nomination forward for a 13th vote.
It was the first time in the tense, draw-out process that McCarthy has actually beaten his Democratic opposite number Hakeem Jeffries, although neither has achieved the outright majority required to win the speakership.
The win nevertheless vindicated the incongruous air of confidence McCarthy has exuded all week, even as he was bleeding votes and looking like a busted flush.
“We’re going to make progress. We’re going to shock you,” he promised reporters as he walked into the Capitol yesterday.
It was not immediately clear if a 13th ballot would go ahead before the weekend, but McCarthy had earlier indicated that he wanted keep the House open until the Speaker’s race is wrapped up.
There have already been more rounds of voting than any Speaker election since the Civil War.
Weary lawmakers-elect on all sides had been hoping for a tipping point, but McCarthy hadn’t previously appeared to be making any progress in adding to the Republicans supporters that have stuck with him.
Lawmakers-elect had increasingly been voicing frustration about being trapped in Washington day after day.
“There’s a lot more at stake than whether Kevin McCarthy’s going to be able to get the gavel,” Republican Kevin Hern told Politico. “We’ve got lives that are being impacted right now, and this is tough for people.”
Chip Roy, seen as a figure of stability among the raucous anti-McCarthy group, was given credit for the apparent turnaround after voicing his belief that he could persuade around 10 colleagues to accept the mountain of concessions McCarthy has offered the hardliners.
However, Democrats and some of McCarthy’s supporters, in private, are concerned that he is offering his far-right critics radical policy commitments that will make the House ungovernable.
Others were complaining that he is handing the hardliners too much power with promises of plum committee posts and changes to the rules that would severely weaken the role of the Speaker.
Republicans’ weaker-than-expected performance in November midterm elections left them with a narrow 222-212 majority and gives outsized power to the right-wing hardliners who oppose McCarthy’s leadership.
They have railed against McCarthy, accusing him of being soft and too open to compromise with President Joe Biden and his Democrats, who also control the US Senate.
The fourth day of voting came as Democrats marked the anniversary of the US Capitol riot by linking the violence to the internecine warfare among House Republicans.
“Two years ago, a violent mob – fuelled by hate and a tyrannical president – stormed the Capitol and attacked our democracy,” said No 2 House Democrat Katherine Clark in a statement yesterday. “Tragically, the same extremist forces continue to have a stranglehold on House Republicans. They cannot elect a leader because their Conference is held hostage by Members who peddle misinformation and want to dismantle democracy.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the second anniversary of the insurrection – when a mob of defeated president Donald Trump’s supporters ransacked the Capitol – should serve as a “wake-up call” for Republicans to reject extremism.
However, he added “the utter pandemonium wrought by House Republicans this week is just one more example of how the extreme fringe of their party, led by election deniers, is pulling them further into chaos”.
The top Democrat spoke as President Joe Biden was preparing to award medals at a sombre ceremony acknowledging police officers who defended the Capitol.
Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison said that Republicans who continue to amplify Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen remain “present and persistent” threats to democracy.