Trump, in-fighting and division: A new session of Congress – but the same old problems for the Republicans

Speaker Kevin McCarthy is tasked with holding his party together in the House of Representatives – but the GOP look short of a plan, writes Chris Stevenson

Speaker Kevin McCarthy swears in members of the 118th Congress on the House floor (AP)

“It’s nighttime here in Washington,” the new Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, said after finally making it through a 15th vote of members, “but in some ways, it’s also a new beginning – a fresh start.”

Having started the week with around 20 holdouts within his own party, stopping him from getting to the 218 votes needed to take the speakership, McCarthy ended it with six of those voting merely “present” – which lowered the threshold he needed – and he squeaked through with 216 votes. In the last ballot, no Republican voted against the new speaker. McCarthy can spin the beginning of the 118th Congress as a fresh start, with the Republicans having retaken control of the chamber, but the fractured nature of his party means that governing effectively will be difficult.

Let’s start with what McCarthy has had to give away to ensure he became speaker. The easiest way to understand the impact is the agreement to reduce what’s called the “motion to vacate”. Essentially, one legislator could trigger a vote to remove the speaker. That would restore the measure back to what it had previously been before the speakership of McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi, where a motion to vacate could be offered on the House floor only “by direction of a party caucus or conference”. Given the polarised nature of current US politics, there was a definite argument for the ability to call a vote to be made more difficult.