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.
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Shock scenes as Republican held back in confrontation with Matt Gaetz during Speaker vote
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Gaetz: ‘Gallagher for speaker!'
Rep Matt Gaetz shouts out: “Gallagher for speaker!”
“Definitely out of order,” Mr Gallgher quips back.
“Sure it looks messy. But democracy is messy. Democracy is messy, by design. By design. And that’s a feature — that’s a feature, not a bug of our system. We air it all out for the American people to see,” says Mr Gallagher.
Watch: Gallagher calls out Democrats for tweeting pictures of popcorn
Aguilar nominates Hakeem Jeffries
For the fourth time, Rep Aguilar nominates Hakeem Jeffries as the Democrat nominee.
Rep Chip Roy nominates Rep Byron Donalds
Texas Rep Chip Roy nominates Florida Rep Byron Donalds for speaker.
Mr Roy appears to have switched his vote again. First from Kevin McCarthy to Jim Jordan, and now on to Mr Donalds.
He notes that there are for the first time two Black men nominated for speaker.
Voting gets underway
The fourth roll call vote for the Speaker of House is now underway.
Biggs, Bishop (NC), Boebert, and Breechen all vote for Donalds over McCarthy.
One more and McCarthy will lose for a fourth time assuming that there are the same number of members present as yesterday.
Donalds votes for himself to cheers from his band of supporters.
Appears likely we will see a fifth ballot.
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