Chinese Spy Balloon House Speaker Elections

By: Jackson Baldrate ‘23 Editor-in-Chief

Last week, the Pentagon revealed that it has been tracking a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” that was spotted over the mainland United States on Wednesday.

A senior U.S. defense official said that they have “very high confidence” it is a Chinese spy balloon. The balloon has been floating for an extended period of time over the United States, specifically in Montana, which is home to many of the United States’ nuclear missile silos.

It appears to be an escalation of Chinese surveillance efforts of the United States, which have become increasingly common in recent years. However, this balloon is notable because of how much time it has spent in U.S. airspace. Though the United States did not shoot it down over land, citing the potential threat to citizens on the ground, a U.S. fighter jet shot down the balloon over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.

The Chinese government responded by expressing regret for the incident. They claimed that the balloon was used for civilian research and had simply gone off-course. However, this claim has been met with much skepticism from military leaders and members of the United States government. This incident has escalated the already-high tensions between China and the United States. Since the discovery of the balloon, Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his trip to Beijing that was supposed to take place this week. Additionally, the Pentagon announced that they are tracking another Chinese surveillance balloon floating over Latin America.

By: Will Prisco ‘25 Editor

History has been made several times throughout Joe Biden’s time in the Oval Office. For example, Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President, making her the first woman and person of color to hold this office. In addition, the unprecedented war in Ukraine as well as the nation’s rapid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic are sure to be events that make the history textbooks in the coming years.

On a more sober note, however, the recent Speaker of the House elections emerged as an unparalleled event in recent history that will affect the House’s function in the next two years. On November 8, voters provided America with a new Republican lead House of Representatives for the 118th Congressional term. Although this was a victory for the GOP, their new majority is limited to 10 seats, as there are 222 Republican members and 212 Democratic members.

The first action of a new Congress is to elect a new Speaker of the House. This is an extremely important task, as the Speaker of the House is second in line to the presiden- cy, after the Vice President. The Speaker also controls all the legislation brought to the House floor and oversees the committees. Typically, the Speaker of the House is a member of the majority party, in this case, the Republican caucus. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), emerged as the frontrunner for this job, as he was formerly the House Minority Leader in the 117th Congress, during which Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), served as the Speaker of the House.

A majority of votes in the House are needed to provide Congress with a Speaker. In this case, since there are 435 members in total, Kevin McCarthy needed 218 votes to become Speaker of the House. However, due to the razor-thin Republican majority, Kevin McCarthy could only afford to lose 4 votes from his party and still become Speaker, as all 212 members of the Democratic caucus nominated Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), to succeed Nancy Pelosi.

The task of electing Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker proved to be an extremely difficult one. A small faction of the GOP referred to as the House Freedom Caucus, declared publicly that they would oppose Kevin McCarthy for Speaker unless he agreed to a list of carefully crafted demands. These included reinstating the “motion to vacate the Chair” rule, a policy that allows a single member of the House to call a vote of no confidence in the Speaker. Other demands included more time to analyze and debate bills as well as placing certain members on select committees.

While Kevin McCarthy agreed to most of the Freedom Caucus’ requests before the Speakership elections, he still came far short of the 218 votes needed, as he received only 202 in the first round. The voting continued for another 14 times before Kevin McCarthy finally achieved the job he had been vying for the last decade. This was the first time since the Civil War Era in the Speaker elections surpassed more than one ballot.

The American people can see that 118th Congress is off to a rocky start, as the new congressional term promises to be one of intense drama and politicization between the Democrats and Republicans as both parties gear up for the 2024 presidential election.