A group of hardline Republicans took over the House on Tuesday, paralyzing legislative business for several hours in a startling show of anger at President Kevin McCarthy for striking a deal with President Biden to suspend the debt limit and Join the Democrats. to force it through.

The riot, staged by nearly a dozen members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus as the leaders sought to introduce legislation to guard against restrictions on gas stoves and other federal regulations, reflected the bitter acrimony that lingers in Republican ranks after the approval of the debt limit measure. last week.

He indicated that even as right-wing lawmakers suggest they are not yet willing to try to oust McCarthy from office over the compromise, they plan to use their influence in the closely divided House to make the president’s job impossible unless he does a reverence. at his will.

“We are concerned that the fundamental commitments that allowed Kevin McCarthy to assume the presidency have been violated as a result of the debt limit agreement, and the response for us is to reaffirm the House Conservatives as the appropriate coalition partner for our leadership, instead of making common cause with the Democrats,” Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida told reporters.

He spoke after he and 10 other Republicans took the extraordinary step of voting against a procedural measure to set ground rules for legislative debate, usually a party-line vote, to register their protest, which took McCarthy and his leadership team off guard. Their decision to organize the rally was all the more remarkable because the members actually supported the underlying bill.

The move led to chaos in the House of Representatives, where, for nearly an hour, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the second- and third-ranking Republican leaders, huddled with resisters near the back of the camera. trying in vain to persuade them to reconsider. Conceding defeat, Scalise eventually changed his own vote to “no” to allow the measure to be reconsidered. The result was that the rule failed by a vote of 206 to 220, with a dozen Republicans opposing it, the first time in nearly 21 years that such a procedural measure had been defeated on the full House.

He underscored McCarthy’s lack of control over his contentious conference.

“In a narrow majority, individual members have inordinate power,” Rep. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina told reporters after the vote, as Freedom Caucus members met with McCarthy in his Capitol Hill office.

Members of the far-right group said the president had only been able to win their votes in a protracted 15-round election for office in January because he promised to empower them and warned they would continue to use guerrilla tactics. disturb the House unless he did.

Representative Dan Bishop of North Carolina accused Mr. McCarthy and his team of trying to “take the pin out of the grenade and roll it under the Republican unity tent” by agreeing to the debt limit deal, which contained cuts in spending just a fraction as Republican lawmakers had endorsed in a bill they passed in April. “What happens depends on how the leadership is inclined to reciprocate.”

A continued protest would substantially weaken McCarthy, undermining his ability to pass bills in a chamber where they normally can’t afford to lose more than a handful of votes.

Until Tuesday, McCarthy had been able to squeeze his way through that narrow margin with last-minute deals and measures to assuage reluctance, keeping his party in check to avoid embarrassing defeats on issues like border security and federal spending cuts.

But Freedom Caucus members took umbrage at the speaker’s efforts to rally Republican votes for the debt limit bill, accusing him of using heavy-handed tactics to try to intimidate them into supporting the deal.

Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia has claimed that leaders threatened to deny him a vote on his legislation to strike down tougher federal regulations on handguns with stabilizer braces if he did not vote to advance the debt ceiling bill to a vote. end, a charge Republican leaders deny. .

Late Tuesday afternoon, Clyde, who did not join his Freedom Caucus colleagues in Tuesday’s protest vote, told reporters he had been promised by leaders that his bill would go to the floor on Tuesday. next week. But that was unlikely to calm the anger of right-wing Republicans over the debt limit deal.

“Unfortunately, two weeks ago, a deal was reached and it broke with what had been working,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told reporters, lamenting McCarthy’s decision to negotiate with Democrats instead of working with the Republicans to find an agreement that would preserve the unity of the party. “It will take a lot to restore our faith that we can do that in light of what happened with the debt ceiling.”

In addition to Mr. Roy, Mr. Bishop and Mr. Gaetz, the other Republicans who joined the protest vote included Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Arizona Cranes. , Bob Good from Virginia, Ralph Norman from South Carolina and Matt Rosendale from Montana.