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The House GOP is ready to fight with Democrats, but first they have to get over their fights with each other. Martin Pengelly reports on the rifts developing within the party as they decide their leaders in the House for the next two years.
Even before Republicans took the House of Representatives, leading figures on the right of the party pointed to troubled waters ahead for Kevin McCarthy – or whoever else becomes the next House speaker.
Now Republicans have won their slim victory in the lower chamber of Congress, the next two years are likely to be chaotic. Controlling an unruly party with an extremely narrow majority will all but guarantee brutal tests every day, especially from the right wing.
Fighting among Republicans over who leads the House is already in full swing. On Tuesday, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, would not tell Politico if he would back McCarthy.
But Higgins did say: “The speaker of the House, whomever he or she is, will be required to recognise the center of gravity of the conference itself. And the Freedom Caucus has moved that center of gravity to the right.”
Here’s the Guardian’s Joan E Greve with more details of what a Republican-controlled House and a Democratic-controlled Senate will mean for American politics over the next two years:
Republicans officially captured control of the House on Wednesday, as the Associated Press called the 218th seat for the party. The House victory ends four years of Democratic control of the lower chamber, handing Republicans the speakership and the chairmanships of key committees, while Democrats will maintain control of the Senate.
