The Republican candidate for speaker of the House of Representatives lost the first three votes on Tuesday to be elected 'speaker' after the boycott of the hard wing of the party

Trump calls on Republicans to close the crisis and support McCarthy

IMAGEN/TWITTER (@GOPLeader) - US House of Representatives presidential candidate Kevin McCarthy

Agencia EFE

04 de enero de 2023 (16:25 h.)

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Former US President Donald Trump has broken a lance on Wednesday in favour of the candidate for speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, who made history yesterday by losing three times the vote to be appointed to the post because of divisions in his own party.

"Some really good conversations took place last night and now it's time for all our great Republican House members to vote for Kevin, close the deal and take the win," Trump said in a message on the social networking site Truth.

Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy lost Tuesday for the third consecutive time the vote to preside over the U.S. House of Representatives in the 118th legislature due to a rebellion of the hard wing of his party. With 202 votes, the leader of the Republican caucus failed to win the 218 votes needed to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi as the new Speaker of the House, despite his party's majority in the House.

"Republicans, don't turn a great triumph into a giant, embarrassing defeat. It's time to celebrate, you deserve it. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a great job," added Trump, who has announced he will run for his party's nomination in next year's presidential election.

The most right-wing wing of the Republican Party, grouped in the so-called Freedom Caucus, maintains blocked the election of the new leader of the House of Representatives, which can not get going until a new "speaker" is elected, after 20 fractious Republicans did not give support to McCarthy yesterday.

It was the first time since 1923, exactly a century ago, that the House failed to appoint its speaker on a first vote.

The ultra-conservative members of Congress blame McCarthy for failing to negotiate with them on a reform of the rules of debate and on names to head congressional committees in the new term.

The rules of procedure provide no alternative to continuing to repeat votes until someone achieves the necessary majority. The House of Representatives will resume voting at noon on Wednesday.