On Friday morning, at the second anniversary of the storming of the Capitol by a mob harangued by donald trumpjust a Republican congressman, former FBI agent brian fitzpatrick, attended an event organized by the Democrats to honor the victims of that day of political violence and pay homage to the law enforcement officers who confronted the attackers. Then, at another commemorative event at the White House, the president Joe Biden recalled: “America is a land of law, not chaos.”
Hours later it was hard to see it like this, or not to reflect on the radical gap and the drift of the Republican Party that illustrated Fitzpatrick’s sad loneliness, when, in the night session of the election of the speaker of the House of Representatives, the tensions and the drama that had been accumulating in four days of unsuccessful voting led to an unfortunate pandemonium, broadcast live on television.
It was about to come to blows. And the image of a Republican congressman, Mike Rogersbeing stopped to prevent him from launching himself on the also Republican Matt Gaetzhas remained as a symbol of the internal wars between the conservatives that have marked and denigrated the election process of kevin mccarthy as ‘speaker’.
Frustration
Days of failed voting had fueled the frustration. Only McCarthy’s intense negotiations and concessions to the twenty congressmen from the most extremist wing of his party seemed to bring him closer to victory and on Friday morning he managed to begin to break the revolt, leaving only six “rebel” votes against him. And after adjourning the session to continue negotiating, he returned at night to celebrate the fourteenth ballot. “I have the votes,” McCarthy said confidently before entering.
Something, however, did not go as agreed. Four of his opposition colleagues voted for other candidates. Lauren Boebert changed her vote to “present & rdquor ;. And when Gaetz cast the final vote, hers “present & rdquor; spoiled the win.
The pressure cooker that the chamber had become was about to explode. McCarthy himself parked the stoicism of the previous days and approached Gaetz and Boebert, exchanging angry comments with them. Rogers went even further (and according to some reports he yelled at Gaetz “you’re finished & rdquor;). In a lower house full of small children of congressmen waiting for the election to be sworn in, some Democrats raised a desperate cry: “Be civilized!”
Trump on the line
The chaos lasted for long minutes. Marjorie Taylor Greenea radical Georgia congresswoman associated with the QAnon conspiracy theories who was removed by the Democrats from her positions in committees but who will recover them after allying with McCarthy, was looking for her colleagues from the extremist Freedom Caucus still opposed to the Californian trying to pass them the mobile phone where she had in a call to “DT”, Donald Trump. At least one refused to get on the device.
A motion to adjourn until Monday, to give McCarthy more time to negotiate with his six opposition colleagues, was on the way to pass, but suddenly Gaetz and Boebert voted to keep voting. Votes were exchanged on red cards. And the fifteenth ballot came, where the last six Republicans who had opposed McCarthy changed their votes to present.
Related news
With 216 votes, at 00:38 on Saturday the new ‘speaker’ was certified.
When he gave his first speech in office, he wanted to joke saying: “It’s been easy, huh?”. But he felt more appropriate what he said before the 15th ballot and after the melee Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips: “Wow.”