House speaker vote: McCarthy thanks Trump for final votes as fight nearly breaks out on floor
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Your support makes all the difference.Kevin McCarthy was finally elected speaker of the House of Representatives after 15 rounds of voting, clinching the gavel just after midnight on Saturday.
The longest contest for speaker of the House of Representatives in more than a century finally came to an end as six remaining Republican holdouts opted to vote “present”, giving Mr McCarthy a majority over Democrat Hakeem Jeffries.
Earlier, Republican House member Mike Rogers had to be physically restrained after lunging at Matt Gaetz amid chaotic scenes in the House.
Congressman Richard Hudson grabbed Mr Rogers by his face and physically pulled him away.
In his first speech as speaker, Mr McCarthy thanked former president Donald Trump for “helping get those final votes”.
Mr McCarthy’s bid had been delayed by a group of far-right Republicans including the likes of Lauren Boebert and Mr Gaetz.
However, on Friday he made significant progress in the 12th ballot, managing to flip a total of 14 representatives-elect in his favour after lengthy negotiations.
Exclusive: AOC says Republican chaos shows how reasonable progressives like the Squad are
Shock scenes as Republican held back in confrontation with Matt Gaetz during Speaker vote
How Matt Gaetz and AOC cleared the air on their positions over Kevin McCarthy voteTrump phone-ins, near-fights and 15 votes: Key moments from a chaotic House Speaker election
McCarthy loses second round of voting for House speaker
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy lost a second round of votes to become House Speaker after a coterie of House conservatives voted against his bid.
A coterie of conservatives voted for Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio despite the fact that Mr Jordan gave an impassioned speech urging his colleagues to support Mr McCarthy. In all, only 203 Republicans voted for Mr McCarthy for Speaker, 15 votes short of the requisite 218 votes needed to obtain the gavel.
Conversely, all 212 Democrats voted for Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Eric Garcia reports from the House of Representatives.
Kevin McCarthy loses second round of voting for House speaker amid GOP defections
Nineteen Republicans vote against his nomination to lead the House
Raskin sees ‘once-in-a-century humiliation’ is ‘chickens coming home to roost' for McCarthy
Democratic Maryland Rep Jamie Raskin tweets:
“This once-in-a-century humiliation of a party’s nominee for Speaker is chickens coming home to roost for McCarthy, who whitewashed right-wing insurrectionism on the House floor. Nobody’s getting killed now, but the House GOP now sleeps in the bed they made with Trump and Bannon.”
‘Oh to hear this conversation right now'
Observers praised New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for appearing to have a long, cordial conversation on Tuesday in Congress with Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican who was censured in 2021 for posting a violent anime parody video showing him killing AOC with two swords.
Josh Marcus reports.
AOC praised for response talking to GOP rep who posted video of her assassination
Conversation came as House of Representatives voted on new leadership positions
McCarthy remains confident
After huddling off the floor with Kevin McCarthy, Rep Jim Jordan says Mr McCarthy is still confident he has the votes.
Mr McCarthy said as much: “We’re staying in until we win.”
Steve Scalise nominates McCarthy
As we move into the third ballot, Kevin McCarthy is nominated by Majority Leader Stev Scalise.
“We all came here to get things done. To get big things done,” he says. “Not just talking about what the problems are — we know what the problems are — but how do you fix those problems?”
Chip Roy: ‘I’m not blinking'
Rep Chip Roy says he is not backing down in his opposition to Kevin McCarthy becoming speaker.
“I’m not blinking,” he told Fox News.
Third ballot voting now underway
After Rep Aguilar once again nominates Hakeem Jeffries (to big chants from the Democrats), Rep Chip Roy nominates Jim Jordan for the third ballot.
Voting is now underway.
Democrat lawmaker wants GOP to consider coalition
Rep Jim Costa told CBS News that if the GOP fails to get it together then the rank and file should consider a coalition government in the House and that he has spoken to fellow lawmakers Fred Upton and Frank Lucas about the idea.
In the first sign of movement in the Republican ranks, Rep Byron Donalds has switched his vote from Kevin McCarthy to Jim Jordan in the third ballot. This is yet another setback for would-be Speaker McCarthy.
Could this be the beginning of a fracturing of support for Mr McCarthy?
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