Under the hammer

It was meant to signify Republican resurgence – but the House speaker vote instead exposed the chaos at the heart of the party. What now for America’s right?

- David Smith

He had nothing to lose but his dignity. Congressman Kevin McCarthy knew that the job he had always craved was within his grasp. All he needed was the vote of a 40-year-old Florida man under investigation over sex-trafficking allegations.

McCarthy walked over and begged Matt Gaetz to make him speaker of the US House of Representatives. Gaetz stared, pointed a finger and refused. Fellow Republican Mike Rogers stormed towards Gaetz and had to be forcibly restrained.

That this tragicomedy played out on the second anniversary of the deadly attack on the US Capitol was almost too on the nose. That it was Gaetz, an ardent supporter of Donald Trump and smash-mouth media performer, who held McCarthy’s fate in his hands said everything about the Republican party in 2023.

Midnight tolled and, within an hour, McCarthy had achieved his dream of becoming speaker, securing a majority of votes from those present at the 15th attempt in the longest such election since the civil war. He beamed, punched the air and waved the gavel with childlike enthusiasm. “That was easy, huh?” he said. “I never thought we’d get up here.” But at what cost?

After a historic humiliation, it was a pyrrhic victory. With a wafer-thin majority, and having surrendered numerous powers to far-right rebels so they would drop their opposition, McCarthy is likely to be one of the weakest speakers in history.

His concessions reportedly included allowing a single member to call for a vote to remove the speaker, putting him at risk of a shorter tenure than Liz Truss’s 50 days as British prime minister. He also offered key committee positions to the House Freedom Caucus, granting them outsized influence and raising the spectre of chaos for the next two years.