Dhe American House of Representatives did not elect a speaker in the thirteenth ballot on Friday. Republican faction leader Kevin McCarthy came much closer to his goal of getting into the third highest office in the United States. He received 214 votes, 14 more than in Thursday’s last three ballots. After two rounds of voting, the plenary adjourned the session until late in the evening. At 10 p.m. the MPs should meet again.
In the thirteenth ballot, only six of the 20 Republicans who had supported other candidates in 11 ballots prior to Friday, again withheld McCarthy’s vote. In doing so, the majority of the rebels gave the lie to Florida MP Matt Gaetz, who had assured at the beginning of the session that the group of twenty MPs would remain closed. Gaetz’s speech, which nominated McCarthy’s supporter Jim Jordan, contained the most severe criticism of McCarthy yet. He should not be entrusted with any power, because he will not use it in the interests of the people, but of the lobbyists.
After the progress, McCarthy himself was confident of being able to win the two votes needed on Friday “to end this once and for all”. Because it took so long, people have now learned to govern. “Now we can do a good job,” McCarthy said. According to media reports, the team around the faction leader is now concentrating on the two deviants Matt Rosendale from Montana and the newcomer Eli Crane from Arizona. The latter is said to be concerned about the reaction of voters in his very conservative Republican constituency should he vote for McCarthy. In both cases, the influence of Donald Trump, who called for McCarthy’s election, could help. Both Rosendale and Crane supported Jim Jordan in the 13th ballot, who himself had voted for McCarthy from the start.
212 votes for Democrat Jeffries
Democrat Hakeem Jeffries received his entire faction’s votes in both polls on Friday; Democrat David Trone was absent from the twelfth vote due to a medical matter, giving Jeffries only 211 votes instead of 212.
McCarthy had already announced on Friday morning that the public would be “shocked” at the meeting. One of his concessions was that in future every single member of parliament can initiate a vote of no confidence against the “speaker”. In addition, the former dissenters should be allowed to determine two of nine members in the influential Rules Committee. Every bill goes through the hands of the MPs on this committee. McCarthy also agreed to hold a vote on MP term limits and specific border policy legislation.
