The ambitious Kevin McCarthy, elected in pain at the head of the House of Representatives a few months ago, regained luster - and the ascendancy over the elected Republicans - by opposing Joe Biden head-on on the budget the United States.
With his position as "speaker", he forced the Democratic president to negotiate by refusing to raise the debt ceiling without cuts in public spending. The strategy is daring: without a vote from Congress, the country could find itself in default of payment as early as June 1.
How far will he go in this showdown that puts him at the center of the political game? Will he let go of the ballast to avoid the crisis, at the risk of displeasing the Trumpist parliamentarians who could then try to dethrone him?
The intentions of this 58-year-old man, who has often bent his spine to achieve his ends, remain mysterious.
But for the time being, he seems to have succeeded in unifying the elected Republicans of the two chambers of Congress who, all sensibilities combined, support his crusade.
The elected representative from California, with a tanned complexion and an impeccable gray lock, had nevertheless emerged weakened from his election, in January, at the head of the Chamber, a position he had been aiming for for years.
Head since 2014 of the Republican group, he had come up against the rebellion of around twenty elected Trumpists, who accused him of being too timid, not supportive enough of the ex-president or even of lacking convictions.
He had to woo them for four days and offer them major concessions to bring them back into line after fifteen rounds of voting.
It was not the first time that this pragmatic man swallowed grass snakes.
Starting from a classic Republican position, focused on the defense of the market and individual success, Kevin McCarthy has fully endorsed the shift to the right of his political formation on immigration, crime or against the rights of transgender people.
Faced with allegations of electoral fraud hammered without proof by Donald Trump and the assault on Capitol Hill, he operated a more ambiguous pas de deux.
A supporter of the Republican billionaire in the 2015 primaries, Kevin McCarthy had initially supported his crusade against the result of the 2020 elections.
Shaken by the attack on the headquarters of Congress on January 6, 2021, he then declared that Donald Trump "bears responsibility" for this violence.
But a week later, he was being photographed all smiles beside her in the gilded salons of Mar-a-Lago, the real estate mogul's Florida residence.
“Today, President Trump has pledged to help elect Republicans to the House and Senate in 2022,” he then justified, praising the virtues of a “united conservative movement”.
Born in 1965 in Bakersfield, a Republican stronghold in the Democratic heartland of California, Kevin McCarthy is the son of a Democratic firefighter and housewife.
On his website, he highlights his popular origins and promises to "defend the American dream for those who work hard". He also tells how he opened a small sandwich business at the age of 21 and discovered the hassle of bureaucracy.
However, he quickly resumed university studies and became a parliamentary assistant, then elected local, until entering the House of Representatives in 2006.
A networker, he is a past master in the art of fundraising and handshakes.
An auction on Tuesday to benefit the Republican Party confirmed his newfound popularity among those who still challenged him in January: the rambunctious Marjorie Taylor Greene paid $100,000 for a lip balm used by "Kevin".
24/05/2023 15:34:30 - Washington (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
