Second act of the drama that the Republican Party is experiencing due to the rebellion of its most extremist representatives.
After the historic failure this Tuesday by not achieving enough votes for its leader, Kevin McCarthy, to be elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives after three votes, the session has resumed this Wednesday.
And the failure has been repeated in the fourth vote, in which again twenty of his deputies have turned their backs on him.
It is an unprecedented situation in a century that paralyzes the operation of the Chamber and plunges it into a chaotic situation.
In the moments prior to the start of the session, the US media have indicated that supporters of McCarthy, a 57-year-old congressman from California, were considering requesting a postponement so as not to repeat Tuesday's show of three consecutive defeats.
But they did not have enough votes due to the desertion of their ranks, again, by a group of radical deputies from the hard wing of the party.
These twenty ultra representatives take advantage of the position of strength that the precarious Republican majority that came out of the polls on November 8 gives them.
This Wednesday's session got underway with the nomination of the candidates.
McCarthy's proposal and that of the Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, have been joined this time by a third candidate, Byron Donalds, presented by the self-styled Freedom Caucus, which leads the Republican representatives who oppose the McCarthy's choice.
Donalds has grouped the votes of the ultra wing and has frustrated the
speaker's election for the fourth time.
The hard wing has been changing candidates: what they want is simply for McCarthy not to win.
It is not clear how many more votes there will be on Wednesday before the session adjourns again.
Each vote lasts around an hour, as the representatives are called by name.
McCarthy needs to achieve a majority of those who take part in the vote.
Assuming all 434 representatives participate, that's 218 votes, but Republicans have only 222 seats.
McCarthy can only afford the defection, therefore, of four members of his group, but 20 have voted for Donalds and one has said "present", which is a way of abstaining.
McCarthy has therefore lost another vote.
The Democrats do not want to take the chestnuts out of the fire of their rivals.
From very early on it has been seen that McCarthy was going to be defeated again, but until the last moment the representatives have the possibility of modifying their vote, so the defeat is not official until the appeal of all the deputies concludes and none exercises their right to change your choice.
The vote must be repeated over and over again until McCarthy or someone else reaches that majority, but at the moment neither the Republican candidate wants to retire nor do the ultras give in to the boycott of his election.
With the voting underway, there is also hardly any room for negotiation, so the unlock option is not close.
The record is 133 rounds in 1855, which meant a two-month block in parliamentary activity.
The last time the majority did not elect the speaker of the House on the first ballot was in 1923, exactly a century ago.
Former President Donald Trump's call to support McCarthy has been useless.
In a message posted this Wednesday morning on Truth, his social network, Trump wrote: "Some really good conversations took place last night, and now it's time for all our great Republican members of the House of Representatives to vote in favor. from Kevin [McCarthy].”
“Republicans, don't turn a huge win into a gigantic, embarrassing loss.
It's time to celebrate.
You deserve it.
Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a great job.
Just watch it!” added the former president.
As chaos engulfs the House of Representatives, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, participates this Wednesday in an act in Kentucky with the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, declared enemy of Trump, to give the starting signal to this year's investments derived from the infrastructure plan that was approved in 2022 with the support of congressmen from both parties.
Leaving the White House to head to Kentucky, Biden has been asked about the situation in the House of Representatives.
"It's not my problem," he said first.
He added that it is "shameful" that the process is taking so long and that "the rest of the world is watching."
Follow all the international information on
and
, or in
our weekly newsletter
.