Congressman Tom Emmer, the “number 3” of the Republicans in the United States House of Representatives, withdrew this Tuesday his candidacy for the leadership of the institution a few hours after being nominated and after receiving opposition from former US President Donald Trump and his associates.
The Minnesota representative said in a closed-door meeting with his colleagues that he would not ultimately choose to lead the House. because there is no chance to pass the vote set by the plenary according to local media.
Emmer, 62 years old, was nominated four hours earlier in the internal election of the Republican parliamentary group where he defeated Mike Johnson, representative of Louisiana, with 117 support compared to 97 for his partner. And after four rounds of voting behind closed doors, the Republican Party ruled the other seven candidates respectively.
However, criticism quickly emerged from the most radical members of the party They thought it wasn’t conservative enough.
The decisive blow was delivered by Trump, who has great influence over the Republicans and who He warned on social networks that choosing Emmer would be “a terrible mistake”.
“I have a lot of wonderful friends who want to lead the House and some of them are good fighters. But the fake Republican Tom Emmer, who I don’t know very well, is not one of them,” said the former president
Emmer recognized the election victory of President Joe Biden against Trump in 2020, supported a project in September to avoid a government shutdown, favors gay marriage, and supports the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, distinguishing him from the most radical of his political formations.
Republicans have chosen their fifth candidate for speaker
After Emmer’s withdrawal, the Republicans in the United States House of Representatives chose the representative Mike Johnson who would be his fifth nominee for body speaker.
Johnson of Louisiana will face a closed-door vote this Wednesday to see if it gets the required 217 votes to exit the room victoriously.
He is the fifth nominee for speaker of the House of Representatives proposed by Republicans after the start of the legislature, after McCarthy was ousted from office at the beginning of October following a motion of censure presented by the hardline wing party, accusing him of acting in the service of the Democratic Party.
Conservatives have a very tight majority in the House of 221 seats compared to 212 for the Democrats which forced them to have the support of almost all their members in the room to choose a new “speaker.”
McCarthy, who from the beginning faced resistance from the far-right group of lawmakers in the party, grouped under the “Freedom Caucus,” managed to win the position in January after 15 votes in the House. He has been in office for 9 months.
After his ouster on October 3, Congressman Steve Scalise was nominated but never voted in the plenary session due to a lack of support, while Jim Jordan, who replaced him as a candidate, withdrew from the race on Friday after losing by three votes in the plenary session. where some legislators from his ranks turned against him.
Until a new House president is elected no new resolutions or laws will be passed at a time when the approval of new military aid for Ukraine and Israel is up in the air.
For their part, Democrats have criticized conservatives for turning the Legislature into a circus.
