Internal divisions in the Republican Party, fueled by the influence of Donald Trump, have led the US Congress to another week of misrule. On Tuesday, they voted against their own proposal to initiate a House impeachment trial against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border. Hours later, their initiative for additional aid to Israel also failed in the same chamber, where they have a majority.
On Wednesday, they also did not reach the necessary votes to approve in the Senate one of the most restrictive immigration pacts in history, which its leader, Mitch McConnell, had been negotiating with the Democrats for four months. The divisions have remained present in the halls of the Capitol until Saturday, on the eve of a new procedural vote on Sunday for joint aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which is also unlikely to obtain the necessary votes in the Lower House if it is approved before by the Senate.
This series of legislative failures has put Republican leaders in both chambers in the spotlight. The president of the Lower House, Mike Johnson, came to office after the most conservative wing of the party boycotted the previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and remains unable to deal with internal divisions. The leader of the Republicans in the Senate, McConnell – the longest serving member of the party in office, since 2007, and one of the most experienced senators, since 1985 – is now facing his moment of greatest weakness, as he cannot Let your colleagues vote according to your guidelines.
On Friday, President Joe Biden called on Republicans to end the dysfunction of Congress and approve the $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which has its death announced in the Lower House. “If the US Congress does not support Ukraine, it would be close to criminal negligence. It is outrageous,” he denounced, in a statement prior to the bilateral meeting at the White House with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who traveled to Washington, precisely, to meet with congressmen and insist on the need for help to Kyiv to confront Russian aggression.
“Without the support of the United States and European states, Ukraine has no chance of defending its own country,” said Scholz, who welcomed the approval in the European Union last week of an aid package. worth 50,000 million euros. Before arriving at the White House, the chancellor published an article in The Wall Street Journal in which he pointed out that “a Russian victory would make the world a much more dangerous place,” so “the world is watching Congress closely to see if he can put an end to his divisions.
Due to the blockage of assistance to Ukraine, the US has stopped sending weapons at a crucial time in the conflict, after two years of stalemate, leaving the Ukrainian army short of ammunition and missiles in this war of attrition , in which Vladimir Putin’s Russia continues to increase the pressure with almost daily attacks.
Republican divisions have been making headlines since the midterm elections in November 2022, when the party managed to wrest the majority in the House of Representatives from the Democrats, who until then had enjoyed control of both chambers. Already in its first vote, in January of last year, it took 15 votes to elect the speaker, McCarthy, which turned something that is usually a procedure – for the majority party to choose its own leader – into one of the longest votes in the history.
Months later, he was fired after agreeing with Biden on a very restrictive debt ceiling, because it was not restrictive enough. And the new leader, Johnson, has suffered to be able to approve, among other fateful votes, a series of extensions to maintain the government’s financing and thus avoid the chaotic closure of the Administration, for which no party wants to appear responsible.
The vote scheduled for this Sunday in the Senate is the product of a negotiation that dates back to last October. Following the Hamas attacks on Israel, Biden sent an urgent request to Congress for the approval of a joint package of aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as to reinforce the southern border. But Republicans conditioned his approval on an even more restrictive immigration law. After months of negotiation, the Democrats gave in and, when everything seemed ready to be approved, Trump interfered to make it fail.
The tycoon, who champions his border policy and directly accuses Biden of the increase in the number of migrants, wants to continue holding the Democrats responsible with an eye on the November elections and pressures Republicans in Congress to reject the pact. migratory. To overcome this impediment, the Democrats are now seeking to approve assistance to their two warring allies in an independent immigration law, but their efforts seem doomed – again – to failure, which will produce the umpteenth chapter of legislative misgovernment next week. .
