Political earthquake in America the consequences of “McCarthy” dismissal.
On Tuesday, an event occurred in the US House of Representatives, which some world media referred to as a “political earthquake” and could have many consequences on the country’s politics.
Lawmakers of the US House of Representatives voted with 216 votes in favor against 210 votes against a plan that led to the removal of “Kevin McCarthy”, the Republican Speaker of this House. The supporters and opponents of the plan to remove McCarthy spoke for 1 hour before the vote on the reasons for his stay or removal from his position.
Republicans have a fragile majority in the House of Representatives with 222 representatives against 213 Democratic representatives; What led to the removal of the Republican McCarthy was that eight Republican representatives, who are called “radical elements”, voted to remove McCarthy along with 208 Democratic representatives.
The removal of McCarthy is very important because it is the first time in the history of the United States that the legislators vote to remove the speaker of this House. In 2015, “John Boehner”, the then speaker of the US House of Representatives, was also impeached, but he managed to get enough votes of confidence and remain in his position. Before that, in 1910, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives was impeached, an impeachment that ultimately did not lead to his removal.
The decision to hold this historic vote was made just days after McCarthy, along with Democratic representatives, tried to pass a temporary budget in the House of Representatives and not shut down the Biden administration.
On Saturday, just a few hours before the end of the current fiscal year, the US House of Representatives had to approve a temporary financial budget bill for the next 47 days in order to prevent a government shutdown; It is said that McCarthy played a key role in the approval of the plan, and after its approval in the Senate, with the signature of Joe Biden as the president, its implementation process began.
Why was McCarthy fired?
58-year-old Kevin McCarthy told reporters shortly after his dismissal: “I took risks for the sake of the American people to prevent a government shutdown, and now I’m happy with myself.”
Hard-line Republicans accuse McCarthy of not receiving many points in exchange for approving the budget in favor of the Biden administration and the Democrats; He explained that he worked with the Democrats and the Biden administration to keep the country moving forward. McCarthy claimed that “I did not want to put my interests before the interests of the nation, I do not regret all the efforts I made before I was removed.”
After the historic dismissal of McCarthy, the representatives of the US House of Representatives must vote again to elect a new speaker and choose one of the candidates who have announced their readiness to head the House of Representatives.
Conditions after the dismissal of McCarthy
US House of Representatives lawmakers immediately elected Republican Patrick McHenry as Acting Speaker of the House of Representatives after McCarthy’s ouster. McHenry is one of McCarthy’s allies and could be the acting speaker of the US House of Representatives for a short time, up to 3 legal sessions of the House of Representatives. According to the internal laws of the House of Representatives of the United States, the duties of the interim speaker are not clearly defined and unclear, and it is not clear whether the interim speaker has full powers or will only be able to perform administrative tasks and supervise the new internal elections. The regulations do not say how long the interim president can remain in office or when new elections will be held.
Rep. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican, told reporters that McHenry’s main job as Speaker of the House is to “give us a new speaker.” Any role beyond that would require removing McHenry from his current role.
Will the government’s temporary budget be suspended?
The vote to oust McCarthy came just days after the House of Representatives narrowly avoided a government shutdown. McCarthy’s ouster adds to ongoing uncertainty about government spending, including billions in aid to Ukraine and other international needs. Until a new president is appointed, further action on the interim government budget is unlikely, as lawmakers face a Nov. 17 deadline to provide more money or a partial government shutdown.
The conflict over the passage of the government’s interim budget plan, as well as the anger of hard-line Republicans over McCarthy’s failure to get the deep cuts in government spending sought by far-right conservatives, led Republican Representative Matt Gatz to oust McCarthy. present and succeed in dismissing him.
The US House of Representatives is now in an unprecedented moment after the impeachment of its speaker, and it is not clear when exactly the vote will be held to elect a new speaker. Normally, elections for the Speaker of the House of Representatives are held at the beginning of a new Congress and once every two years, after the general election of the Congress.
The problems of choosing a new boss
Leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties must decide when they are ready to enter the process of electing a new Speaker of the House of Representatives. In January, after 4 days and 15 rounds of voting, the US House of Representatives finally succeeded in electing Republican Kevin McCarthy as the speaker of this house. McCarthy won 216 votes out of 428 votes and was elected as the president of the US House of Representatives, and his opponent Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democratic minority in the House of Representatives, won 202 votes.
McCarthy, the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, who had the highest chance of assuming the presidency of this House, failed to obtain the necessary quorum in fourteen rounds of voting.
The new House of Representatives will not be an easy process, especially for Republicans, unless they conclude that such chaos will cause a public backlash and could destroy their electoral prospects in 2024, and therefore elect a new speaker. Agree on an option.
Trump in the legislative position?
After the dismissal of McCarthy, some Republican representatives proposed Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, who is currently facing heavy legal cases, for the presidency of the House of Representatives of this country. Even “Troy Nells” announced that “in the coming days, when the House of Representatives reconvenes, my first task is to announce the nomination of Donald Trump as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives.” “Trump, the greatest president of my lifetime, has a proven track record of pursuing an ‘America First’ policy and will bring greatness back to this House.”
According to the US Constitution, the Speaker of the House of Representatives does not necessarily have to be a member of Congress. That is why some Republicans have put forward Trump’s name for the position, although Trump has previously said that he is not interested in the presidency of the House of Representatives and plans to run for president in the next election. Of course, until now all the Speakers of the House of Representatives have been representatives of this House.
On Tuesday, the lawmakers of the US House of Representatives voted to remove their president; This dismissal was not a normal administrative and legal procedure, but it was an event that is unprecedented in the history of the United States, and according to many American officials, this event is a sign of confusion in the Republican Party and a disruption in the usual processes of the House of Representatives as one of the legislative branches of the United States and in A higher level is a sign of turmoil in the political structure of this country.
Some experts, in quick and sly analyses of former American President Donald Trump and one of the main critics of Joe Biden, the current president of this country, do not consider him unaffected in this dismissal, because it is said that Matt Gatz, the presenter of the McCarthy dismissal plan, has close relations with Trump. After firing McCarthy, Trump wrote on his personal page in cyberspace: “Why are the Republicans always at war with themselves, why are they not fighting the far-left Democrats who are destroying our country?”
But McCarthy became a victim of the trend that he himself founded; Because last January, many hard-line Republicans were against his presidency, and after 14 rounds of voting, he finally promised them that he would change the internal rules and regulations of the House of Representatives in such a way that even one representative could propose the removal and impeachment of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. and the irony is that right now he himself is the first victim of this new procedure and Matt Gutz succeeded in removing McCarthy by presenting a plan to remove him.
After his dismissal, McCarthy said that “there is a real institutional problem. If only four people can remove you from office, I would advise the next speaker to change the rules.” Republican Representative Mike Lawler said while leaving the Republican Party meeting: We have eight selfish idiots who are undermining the establishment and the party, and I think this is wrong. I think Kevin (McCarthy) certainly didn’t deserve it.
The presidency of the House of Representatives is the third most important position in the American political system after the positions of the president and vice president, and now with the new procedure that McCarthy himself founded, it is predicted that the Republican Party will be the majority party in choosing the final candidate for the presidency of the House of Representatives. It will have serious problems and the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives has lost its stability and has become unstable. For this reason, we are likely to face more confusion in the election of the speaker of the US House of Representatives in the coming weeks.