Republican Power Struggles - Who Will Become America's Third Most Powerful Leader?

Kevin McCarthy has been preparing for at least four years. He confers, he bowls, he fights. McCarthy, 57, Republican representative from California wants to be the new Speaker of the House of Representatives. He would replace the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, 82, and would be the third most powerful head in America after the President and Vice President.

Now that Republicans have secured a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, McCarthy could actually see himself on target. But since he would have reckoned without his party friends. Instead of celebrating after their ill-fated win in the midterm elections, the Grand Old Party (GOP) is locked in power struggles. In the midst of this fight: Kevin McCarthy.

Leaders of the Republican right wing, the so-called Freedom Caucus, are questioning the election of the previous minority leader to the powerful post. Doesn't McCarthy get into the position of leading the fortunes of the first chamber of Congress with the legendary mallet from January? Does he fail shortly before the goal?

The quarrels in the faction are based on power, strategy and personnel discussions, everything is linked. Content hardly plays a role. Formally, it's like this: Whoever has the majority in the 435-strong House of Representatives has the right to be the Speaker of the House. So far it has been the Democrats. Nancy Pelosi has held this post since 2019.

The future majority of Republicans is likely to be similarly narrow. A week after the midterm elections, votes are still being counted in the United States. The Republicans currently have 218 MPs and the Democrats 210.

But the speaker has to face an election in the plenum of the house, so he needs 218 yes votes. The new House of Representatives will be constituted at the beginning of January 2023 and will elect its speaker.

Right-wing Republicans, including Trumpians and conspiracy theorists like Marjorie Taylor Greene, want to use power in the House to begin impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden, among other things. The same is planned against Homeland Security Minister Alejandor Mayorkas. Political theatre, one might think, because such an impeachment has no prospect of success in the end. But at least political theater that can be easily disseminated through the media.

McCarthy spoke to far-right MP Marjorie Taylor Greene for 45 minutes the day after the election. "MTG" had defended its mandate in rural Georgia. She is a Trumpian icon, could gain influence. "MTG" recently announced that it would support McCarthy, adding that he would assure her of a powerful position.

McCarthy has been making himself rare in public for days, and is all the more looking for internal conversations with various faction colleagues in order to secure his power. He still can't be sure of his case. Right-wing Republicans want reassurances, quid pro quo, from McCarthy. “No one in this city has 218 votes for Speaker of the House. So we're going to have a debate and make sure we get the structure right, and then figure out how someone's going to get 218 votes," said Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and a member of the right-wing Freedom Caucus after speaking with McCarthy . This is how the New York Times reports.

McCarthy now argues internally with the catchphrase "unity". The parliamentary group will "win as a team or lose as individuals," he said - a bold thesis in a party geared towards individualism.

At a faction meeting on Tuesday, McCarthy had his own people nominate him as Speaker of the House. In a secret ballot he received 188 votes. Remarkable: The right-wing MP Andy Biggs received at least 31 votes. It's a warning shot to McCarthy. Biggs once led the right wing ("Freedom Caucus"). His respectable success can be understood as a declaration of war on McCarthy, along the lines of: You will be nothing without us.

The majority faction in the House has all sorts of leverage to push through its agenda: it determines the agenda of the plenary session. It automatically has a majority in all committees and appoints all committee chairs. Many Republicans want to investigate the questionable business practices of Biden's son Hunter by committee.

Leading Republicans want investigations into Pelosi and the Justice Department. You see injustices in dealing with participants in the siege of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. At that time, a pro-Trump mob stormed the center of American democracy, resulting in deaths and injuries. A number of Republicans expect McCarthy to give the green light for such investigations.

McCarthy played a varied role in the storming of the Capitol almost two years ago. First, he condemned the violence, blaming then-President Donald Trump for it. In general, he always defended Trump, long supporting his unfounded claim that Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election. Immediately after January 6, 2021, McCarthy wanted to urge Trump to resign immediately. "I'm fed up with this guy," he told party friends.

A little later, however, McCarthy made a pilgrimage to Trump at his home in Mar-a-Lago. That was a reversal of course, even a political apology. Since then, McCarthy has refrained from public criticism of Trump. Potential election as speaker would be the high point of his career. He has been a member of parliament in Washington since 2007, having previously been in the legislature in California. He worked for a congressman, was head of the Young Republicans of California.

McCarthy is a career politician, while "politician" is a dirty word among the Trumpists. He hails from Bakersfield, California - a Republican stronghold in a largely Democratic state. In his home constituency, he got about two-thirds of the votes.