Republican lawmaker Kevin McCarthy has been elected the new Speaker of the House of Representatives after winning the 15th round after chaotic scenes in the US Congress.
McCarthy’s party had taken control of the House of Representatives – the lower house of the US – after the midterm elections last fall, with a slim majority of 222-212 congressmen.
Usually, the election of the Speaker of the Assembly follows without problems, it is like a formality, where the leader of the largest party receives the trust to lead this temple of American democracy.
However, recent divisions in the Republican Party meant that this will not happen soon, and this lasted until the 15th round of voting.
On the 14th ballot, McCarthy received 216 votes, one short of the number needed for a victory. But, in the next round, he finally won with the result 216-211.
He was elected with the votes of less than half the members of the House of Representatives only because five party members did not cast their votes – not supporting McCarthy as leader, but also not voting for another candidate.
Speaker-elect Kevin McCarthy said the new House of Representatives wants the US to win the economic race with China, referring to the country as the “Chinese Communist Party”.
“We will also address America’s long-term challenges, the debt and the rise of the Chinese Communist Party. As for the Chinese Communist Party, we will establish a bipartisan select committee on China to investigate how to bring back the hundreds of thousands of jobs that went to China, and then we will win this economic race,” he said.