Washington – Ambitious Kevin McCarthy, who struggled to lead the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, gained ascendancy over his party’s lawmakers by directly opposing Joe Biden, whom he is demanding cuts in public spending in exchange for raising the cap debt of the United States and avoid a default.
From his position as “speaker” or president of the opposition caucus in the Lower House, a place that is in fact a party leadership in the Legislature, he forced the Democratic president to negotiate, with a strategy that puts the prestige of excellent pay at risk. from United States.
How far will he go in this fight that places him in the center of the political game? Will he give in to avoid a debt crisis, at the risk of disappointing Trump-friendly lawmakers, who might then seek to unseat him?
Goals
The intentions of this 58-year-old man are mysterious. But for now, he appears to have unified Republican lawmakers from both houses of Congress who support his crusade.
McCarthy emerged weakened after his election in January to the head of the House.
Head of the Republicans in Congress since 2014, he clashed with about twenty pro-Trump legislators who reproached him for being too timorous, for lacking support for the former president and even for lacking convictions. Thus, he had to court them for four days and offer them important concessions, after 15 votes to decide the position.
It was not the first time that this pragmatic man had taken a bitter drink.
From a classic Republican position based on defending the market and individual success, Kevin McCarthy supported his party’s shift to the right on immigration, crime and transgender rights.
Faced with the allegations of electoral fraud without evidence put forward by Donald Trump and the assault on the Capitol, he was more ambiguous.
A supporter of the Republican millionaire in the 2015 primaries, McCarthy initially supported his arguments against the 2020 election result, but shaken by the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, declared that Trump had “responsibility” for that violent act .
A week later he was photographed smiling with the former president at his Florida residence in Mar-a-Lago.
Biography
Born in 1965 in Bakersfield, a Republican stronghold in the heart of the Democratic state of California, McCarthy is the son of a Democratic firefighter and housewife.
On his website, he highlights his folk origins and vows to “champion the American dream for those who work hard.” He tells how he opened a small business selling sandwiches at the age of 21 and discovered the red tape.
He then resumed his university studies, became a parliamentary assistant and then a local legislator, until he entered the Lower House in 2006.
His network of contacts has made him known for his mastery of fundraising.
An auction held Tuesday to benefit the Republican Party confirmed his newfound popularity: Controversial lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene spent $100,000 on a lip balm used by “Kevin”…
AFP Agency
Source: Ambito
