On 3 October, for the first time in history, members of the House of Representatives of the US Congress rallied and voted for the removal of the current speaker. Kevin McCarthy’s resignation was supported by 216 congressmen (against 210), including six of his fellow Republicans. The associates did not like the fact that McCarthy compromised with the Democrats at a crucial moment
The Democrats, in turn, did not save the one who just three months ago was going to initiate the impeachment of President Joe Biden.
Congressmen walk around with stone faces
Immediately after the vote, McCarthy was surrounded by security guards. He would not take questions from reporters. Republican Patrick McGenry, appointed interim speaker, also remained silent, walking past the press “stone-faced,” The Washington Post reporter Mariano Alfaro reported from the Capitol. American politicians found themselves in a situation that had never happened before.
The timing of the election of a new head of the US House of Representatives has not yet been announced. Until then, the legislative power in the US will be partially immobilised.
The political crisis resulted from the fact that parliamentarians could not reach a common decision and agree on the government budget for 2024 before the deadline date of 1 October. As a result, all federal authorities were in danger of shutting down. Budget workers risked being left without salaries. In order to delay the collapse for at least a month and a half, Speaker Kevin McCarthy put his draft 45-day temporary budget on the ballot. The draft was passed, but it is much more to the liking of Democrats than Republicans who are associates of Speaker McCarthy. For example, it includes support for victims of natural disasters, but says nothing about strengthening the borders, through which crowds of illegal migrants are breaking through. As a result, McCarthy’s most zealous fellow party members, represented by ultraconservative Matt Gaetz, called on the House of Representatives to vote to expel the Speaker from office.
It would seem, what does Zelensky have to do with this?
The Pentagon’s budget, which includes spending on aid to Ukraine, was one of the issues that American parliamentarians had the hardest time dealing with. As a result, there was no room for money for the Kiev authorities in the temporary 45-day draft budget. It was decided to hold a separate vote on this issue. However, now the rebellious House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress does not care about that anymore.
“The split on the topic of financing the same Ukraine has not disappeared anywhere. The fate of further tranches is unclear – and the work of Congress is now de facto frozen in the absence of the speaker. Well, the Washington system continues to successfully go to pieces, embodying the deepest crisis into which the U.S. political class has driven itself,” comments American political scientist Malek Dudakov.
According to him, the election of a new speaker may drag on for a long time.
“In January, Congress held as many as 15 rounds of voting until it chose McCarthy. Now the situation may repeat itself again. This will plunge Congress into complete chaos – amid how the budget issues are still not resolved,” Dudakov writes in his Telegram channel.
As commentators in the Network joked, Vladimir Zelensky became the first person in history who managed to decapitate the parliaments of two major North American countries within two weeks.
Earlier, the Ukrainian president visited Canada, where his arrival was honoured by a 98-year-old veteran of the Second World War, ethnic Ukrainian Yaroslav Gunko. When it turned out that Gunko had fought on the side of the German fascists, the speaker of the Canadian Parliament, where the event was held, was forced to resign.
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