Election deniers rule the roost in the House of Representatives

Underlining the political chaos after the failure of Kevin McCarthy to win the role of Speaker in the House of Representatives in the first round it has been revealed that 12 out of the 20 Republican dissenters who voted against him are 2020 election deniers. In other words, they support the Donald Trump position that he was robbed of the election prize and Biden should never have been president. These 12 people - nine men and three women - scuppered McCarthy's chances of sitting in the Speaker chair vacated by the illustrious Nancy Pelosi. It does seem incredible that in a democracy like the United States there are so-called representatives of the American people who claim to be democratic yet reject one of the main tenets of democracy, that a free and accountable vote elects the leader of the country. These 12 people must have given Trump new encouragement that perhaps he can after all win back the White House in 2024. Meanwhile they have disrupted the House to such an extent that no one knows who is going to be the next Speaker. You could argue that this is good for the Democrats and bad for the Republicans who are supposed to be in charge of the House after the results of the midterm elections in November. But it's actually a disaster for both parties and therefore the Biden administration. It shows that the Republicans are severely divided but that means it will be even more difficult for Biden to get legislation through the House in the next two years because the Republicans will be spending most of their time in-fighting. The one possible good bit of news for Biden is that when he eventually announces he is planning to stand for a second term he will be able to claim the Republicans are simply not ready or able to return to power as a united party.