The US House of Representatives plunged deeper into crisis Thursday as Republican favorite Kevin McCarthy failed again to win the speakership -- entrenching a three-day standoff that has paralyzed the lower chamber of Congress.
McCarthy, a favorite of his party's establishment but a bete noire of the far right, has made sweeping concessions to quell a rebellion of around 20 hardliners blocking his bid to be the country's top lawmaker.
But his overtures have fallen on deaf ears and he failed to win over a single renegade Republican across five ballots staged on Thursday before the House agreed to adjourn until noon (1700 GMT) Friday.
The final round of voting was the 11th in total since the chamber opened for a new term under a narrow Republican majority this week. No speakership contest has gone more than nine rounds since the Civil War era.
AP adds: Such are the fractures in the country, between the political parties and inside the Republican Party itself, that one time-honored specialty of Washington — memorializing and coming together over national trauma — isn’t what it used to be.
Friday’s moment of silence at the Capitol to contemplate the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on it was expected to draw mostly Democrats.
At the White House, few Republicans were expected for a ceremony at which President Joe Biden will award Presidential Citizens Medals to a dozen state and local officials, election workers and police officers for their “exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens” in upholding the results of the 2020 election and fighting back the Capitol mob.
It’s all a far cry from Sept. 11, 2001, when lawmakers who had frantically evacuated the Capitol during the terrorist attack gathered there later in the day in a moment of silence and broke out in “God Bless America,” Republicans and Democrats shoulder to shoulder.
“They stood shaken and tearful on the steps of the Capitol, their love of nation and all that it symbolizes plain for the world to see,” an Australian newspaper reported in a passage reflected now in the House’s official history.
JOE BIDEN
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Today, the world sees a different picture, one of turmoil in American democracy coming from within the institution that insurrectionists overran two years ago.
The nation’s legislative branch is again paralyzed — not by violence this time but by a tortuous struggle among Republicans over who should lead them, and the House itself, as speaker.
To be sure, a resolution to the immediate crisis may be near as the GOP leadership continues negotiations to appease its hard-right flank, but questions loom about the chamber’s ability to manage even the most essential legislation, such as funding the government and meeting the nation’s debt obligations.
Biden, in his afternoon remarks, will tell stories of heroism, whether in the face of a violent Capitol mob or a vehement horde of Donald Trump-inspired agitators who threatened election workers or otherwise sought to overturn the results. He will appeal for unity.
But the Democratic president can’t ignore the warning signs that it could happen again.
In the midterms, candidates who denied the outcome of 2020’s free and fair election were defeated for many pivotal statewide positions overseeing elections in battleground states, as were a number of election deniers seeking seats in Congress.
Yet many of the lawmakers who brought baseless claims of election fraud or excused the violence on Jan. 6 continue to serve and are newly empowered.
Trump’s 2024 candidacy has been slow off the starting blocks, but his war chest is full and some would-be rivals for the Republican presidential nomination have channeled his false claims about the 2020 race.
As well, several lawmakers who echoed his lies about a stolen election at the time are central in the effort to derail Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ascension to speaker — unswayed by Trump’s appeals from afar to support him and end the fight.
The protracted struggle leaves the House leaderless, unable to pass bills and powerless to do much more than hold vote after vote for speaker until a majority is reached. Everything from national security briefings to helping their constituents navigate the federal bureaucracy are on pause because the members-elect can’t yet take their oath of office.
Some Democrats see a throughline from Jan. 6.