United States: Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, risks being removed from his position in the American Congress

Such a vote has not taken place in more than a century in the United States. The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, risks being ousted from his post in the US Congress on Tuesday. He was targeted by a motion of censorship from his party, tabled by the Trumpist elected official from Florida of the American hard right, Matt Gaetz. The motion is currently being considered in Congress.

Mr. Gaetz mainly criticizes Kevin McCarthy for having negotiated with elected Democrats a provisional budget to finance the federal administration, which many conservatives opposed. He also accuses the Republican tenor of having concluded a “secret agreement” with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, on a possible future package for Ukraine.

However, the right wing of the Republican Party is strongly opposed to the release of additional funds for kyiv, believing that this money should instead be used to fight the migration crisis on the border between the United States and Mexico.

This procedural impeachment maneuver, very rarely used in American parliamentary history, will trigger a perilous showdown in the lower house. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, however, wanted to be confident on Tuesday: “I think I will hold on,” declared Kevin McCarthy, a few hours before the examination of the motion of censure.

The necessary majority

To pass, this motion requires a majority vote in the 435-member House. But it doesn’t matter that the immense majority of Kevin McCarthy’s parliamentary group supports him publicly: the Trumpists have a de facto veto in this institution, given the very thin Republican majority.

“I’m going to support the impeachment motion because we’re over $33 trillion in debt,” Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett said Tuesday. “We either need to change course or change leadership,” he said.

An impeachment of Kevin McCarthy would be completely unprecedented: no speaker has ever been ousted from his post in the history of the United States. To get out of this impasse, the fifty-year-old tried to use a series of procedural maneuvers, calling, among other things, to postpone the examination of the impeachment motion. But these attempts have so far all failed, increasing the pressure on the elected official from California.

Kevin McCarthy will also not be able to count on the Democrats coming to his rescue with their votes. “It’s up to the Republican Party to end the Republican civil war in the House,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in a letter following a long meeting with his parliamentary group. . He urged his party members to vote in favor of the impeachment motion.

Kevin McCarthy, 58, had already been elected by force in January, due to the very slim Republican majority. To gain his position, he had to make important concessions with around twenty Trumpists, including the possibility that any elected official would have the power to call a vote to dismiss him.