Republican Rep. Tom Emmer withdrew from the race for speaker of the House shortly after his party nominated him for the position. The United States House of Representatives remains without a leader after Kevin McCarthy was impeached on October 3. Last Friday, lawmakers rejected, for the third time and with the support of their own bloc, the wish of the conservative hard-line Jim Jordan.
A new failed attempt. After being chosen by the Republicans as the candidate for the presidency of the House of Representatives, Tom Emmer withdrew from the race on Tuesday, October 24.
The event comes three weeks after Republicans fired former Republican leader Kevin McCarthy on October 3. Since then, they have not been able to find his replacement, showing, once again, the cracks within the party.
Emmer, a congressman from Minnesota, got more votes in the first rounds to become the Republican candidate and was faced by Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana in the fifth vote.
Others have dropped out of the race, including Byron Donalds, a Florida lawmaker aligned with former President Donald Trump, and Oklahoma’s Kevin Hern.
Austin Scott (Georgia), Jack Bergman (Michigan), Pete Sessions (Texas), Gary Palmer (Alabama), and Dan Meuser (Pennsylvania) also withdrew.
Before Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise gained the support of his party to run for office as McCarthy’s replacement, but he resigned after considering that he could not get the votes needed to take office.
A Legislature in trouble
The House of Representatives has been plunged into uncertainty without a president since the beginning of the month after a group of radical Republicans pushed for McCarthy’s impeachment, creating what is now a government crisis that has prevented the normal operation of Congress.
The most radical wing of the Republicans voted in favor of removing McCarthy after it was pointed out that he cooperated with Democratic policies to support the unblocking of government funding.
Now, the federal government is risking a shutdown within weeks if Congress doesn’t pass a funding bill by the Nov. 17 deadline to resume services and offices.
In this scenario, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, asked Congress for $105 billion for Israel’s aid in its war with Hamas, as well as for Ukraine, and to strengthen the Mexican border due to the crisis in migration. Meanwhile, federal aviation and agriculture programs face possible expiration without any measures in sight.
Emmer questioned the candidacy
Some Democrats see Emmer, one of the House Republican leaders who voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, which gave Biden victory, as a potential ally.
But allies of former President Donald Trump and other hardliners criticized Emmer for that support. They also criticized him for supporting initiatives such as same-sex marriage and for criticizing the former president.
Trump even mocked Emmer, with whom he had a rocky relationship. The former president also assured that many of the candidates are looking for him to get his seal of approval.
