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
A glimmer of hope for McCarthy?
Potentially some good news for Kevin McCarthy via CNN’s Manu Raju.
Rep Chip Roy told him he has had “more productive” talks over the last two hours with McCarthy allies than he has had over the last few weeks. He expects to be part of group talks tonight.
He added that he is not a hard no on McCarthy. While he said that the “clown show” GOP conference meeting yesterday “hardened opposition” to McCarthy, he added that they are “trying to repair that damage today, and progress has been made.”
McCarthy says they intend to break soon and negotiate
Kevin McCarthy has told reporters: “We’re going to break in a little bit and go meet.”
There would have to be a vote to adjourn that would require all Republicans to vote yes on, should Democrats decide to force them to undertake further votes.
Sixth vote wraps up with same result as fifth and fourth
Rep Ken Buck votes for McCarthy for the sixth time, despite his earlier comments to reporters.
The sixth ballot for speaker wraps up with the same results as the last two.
GOP chaos goes on another day as McCarthy racks up three more losses
Kevin McCarthy has once again made history by losing his fourth, fifth, and sixth consecutive votes for speaker of the House.
The latest defeats occurred Wednesday afternoon after a brief confusion over whether the House would not simply adjourn without taking any votes.
This time, Republican rebels seeking to block Mr McCarthy from becoming speaker rallied behind Rep Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican who has only been in the House of Representatives since 2021. Twenty members backed Mr Donalds, meaning that the GOP leader failed to win over even a single one of his colleauges overnight.
Eric Garcia and John Bowden report for The Independent from Washington, DC.
Kevin McCarthy loses sixth vote despite Trump’s aid in marathon House session
No party in control of the House has failed to elect a speaker on first vote in 100 years
House adjourns until 8pm tonight
After Kevin McCarthy fails to win a sixth speaker vote, GOP Rep Tom Cole moved to adjourn the House until 8pm.
Republicans win on a voice vote. There was no recorded vote and the House is adjourned until 8pm.
It is believed that Republicans will enter into a series of smaller meetings rather than one large conference.
Watch: Boebert says Trump should tell McCarthy not to run for House speaker
Lauren Boebert says Trump should tell McCarthy not to run for House speaker
Donald Trump should tell Kevin McCarthy to withdraw from running for speaker of the House of Representatives, Lauren Boebert has said. The GOP leader lost his bid for Speaker of the House in a fourth round of voting on Wednesday, 4 January. While nominating fellow Republican Byron Donald, the Colorado representative said: "Let’s stop with the campaign smears and tactics to get people to turn against us. Even having my favorite president call us and tell us we need to knock this off — I think it actually needs to be reversed." Sign up for our newsletters.
Trump flags forged statement of support for Byron Donalds
Former president Donald Trump has posted on Truth Social that a statement purporting to be from his Save America group in support of Byron Donalds is a fake. He was however complimentary about the Florida Republican.
He wrote:
I have always supported Byron Donalds, have consistently Endorsed him for Congress and, in fact, feel that I was a primary reason he entered politics in the first place. He is a young man with a great future! With that all being said, the story and statement that was just put out that I endorsed Byron for Speaker of the House is Fake and Fraudulent. He will have his day, and it will be a big one, but not now!
Biggs senses progress
Never Kevin lawmaker Rep Andy Bigg says he senses progress and that there will be a resolution for a different speaker.
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