California Representative Kevin McCarthy has failed to become Speaker of the House after six separate votes conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, with hope that he can squeak out a victory as voting continues on Thursday.
Without a speaker, the House cannot function due to members not being sworn in. There has also been no approval of a rules package, which has been advised to occur by January 13. Some committees are also still lacking Republican chairs.
Global Times, a tabloid of the Chinese Communist Party, made light of how McCarthy’s failures represent a once-in-100-years phenomenon. It has been that long since a speaker was not elected on the first vote, let alone the seventh or eighth.
“During Capitol riots, American rioters shocked the building from the outside,” read an editorial published Thursday. “This time, the stalemate was the result of conflicts from inside the Capitol. The two events are chaotic phenomena of spread and aggravation of the disease of U.S. political system.”
The editorial continually prodded McCarthy, referring to him as “a well-known ultra-conservative politician” who is against the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement. It also referred to his “crazy anti-China remarks” that left a very bad impression on Chinese people.
“However, astonishingly, McCarthy was not opposed because of his radicalism, but because he was considered not tough enough by some more radical congressmen in the Republican Party,” the editorial says. “It shows how severe the division and polarization in U.S. politics are.”
McCarthy has not come close to securing the 2018 votes necessary to secure the speakership, deemed not just a “farce” by Chinese media but “a political thriller” that has wide-ranging implications worldwide.
Global Times also cited antagonism in U.S. politics as a reason why politicians “find or create an enemy” outside the U.S. to attack, as to distract from problems at home. One of those enemies is China, the editorial states, due to different ideology, economics and a perception of toughness.
“They will gradually fall into collective self-hypnosis, and will keep a blind eye on the fact that the enemy of ‘U.S. democracy’ is actually the U.S. itself,” the editorial reads.
The House speaker doesn’t actually have to be an elected official.
Other names that have been referenced as potentially filling that role have included former Republican Congressman Fred Upton and former Republican-turned-Libertarian Justin Amash. Colorado Governor Jared Polis previously said that Amash may be a good selection due to being more middle-of-the-road politically.
Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, who engaged in a tense back-and-forth Wednesday evening with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, even tossed former President Donald Trump’s name into the ether.
