McCarthy's chances of presiding over the House of Representatives do not add up

Kevin McCarthy is currently one step away from making history. And not precisely for becoming part of the club of presidents of the House of Representatives, but for being the first -if he finally succeeds- to need more than one session to be sworn in for more than 100 years. Despite presenting a document with important concessions to his critics, nine congressmen who remained undecided about the direction of their vote have joined the rejection of the five "Never Kevin" congressmen.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives needs, in principle, at least 218 votes to accede to the post. Following the midterms, the Republican Party now holds 222 out of the 435 total seats, with 212 for the Democrats, and one seat remains vacant. However, McCarthy is opposed by five conservative legislators who have publicly stated their refusal to vote for him, considering him "a shill of the Establishment" and accusing him of having a "track record of cutting backdoor deals with Democrats." In addition, several congressmen have yet to confirm their votes.

"Backdoor deals"

In a last-ditch attempt to win the presidency, McCarthy submitted a 55-page proposal to conservative representatives promising changes in the way the chamber works. The most prominent, an initiative to allow five legislators from the majority party to file a motion of confidence against the speaker of the house and force his removal. This was a GOP complaint following the arrival of Nancy Pelosi in 2019, who changed the rule so that only leaders could force a vote on the chairman's termination.

According to Politico, the Minority Leader's entourage went so far as to ask Matt Gaetz, one of the most staunch opponents of the Californian, whether he would support McCarthy in the event that they reduced the quorum needed to raise the Speaker's departure to one legislator, to which the Florida representative responded, "Is that an offer?" Along with Gaetz, the "Never Kevin" group is made up of conservative congressmen who have publicly stated they will not vote for McCarthy: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Matt Rosendale of Montana and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.

"Is that a proposal?"

In his brief, McCarthy emphasizes that "the fact is that Congress is broken and needs to change." He also criticized that party leaders are accumulating more and more power, which has "relegated the members of both parties to the background, with gigantic bills being drafted behind closed doors and are rushed in at the last minute to be voted on."

This was one of the main complaints that several GOP representatives, led by Scott Perry, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, presented to McCarthy's team on December 8. Following the last-minute response from the new majority leader, Perry and eight other conservative lawmakers issued a letter in which, after lamenting that "he is late," they considered the Californian's proposals as "insufficient" and again called for "a radical break with the status quo," not a continuation of past and current Republican failures." In a tweet, Perry stressed that "nothing changes when nothing changes" and stressed that the renovation "must start from the top". According to him, it's "time to make the change or get out of the way".

"Make the change or get out of the way"

The letter is signed by Perry himself, and Congressmen Chip Roy, Anna Paulina Luna, Eli Crane, Andy Ogles, Paul Gosar, Andrew Clyde, Andy Harris and Dan Bishop.