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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House speaker vote moves to 10th ballot
The House speaker fight moves to its tenth ballot after Kevin McCarthy failed to secure a majority for the ninth time.
Rep Juan Ciscomani of Arizona nominates Mr McCarthy.
Democratic Caucus Chair Rep Pete Aguilar again nominates Hakeem Jeffries for House Speaker in the 10th round of voting.
Rep Anna Paulina Luna nominates Byron Donalds and makes the extraordinary claim that the media is trying to pitch Republicans against each other.
Rep Lauren Boebert nominates Rep Kevin Hern again.
Watch: Rep Aguilar shades GOP calling Democrats ‘governing party'
Biggs and Crane switch votes to Hern
Reps Andy Biggs and Brent Crane have switched their votes from Byron Donalds to Kevin Hern joining Lauren Boebert, Josh Brecheen, and Matt Gaetz.
Separately, Michael Cloud and Andrew Clyde have voted Donalds.
This brings the number of votes against Kevin McCarthy to seven indicating he will not win the tenth ballot.
Voting continues.
The most memorable images of three days of House speaker votes and negotiations
With C-SPAN providing an unfiltered live feed of all the action on the floor of the House of Representatives as the votes continue to name a speaker, audiences have been treated to an interesting insight into how Congress functions – or dysfunctions, as the case may be.
Usually, congressional rules dictate what cameras can and cannot show, but with no representatives sworn in there are no such rules.
There have been some memorable still images captured by photographers present in the chamber as lawmakers have laughed, cringed, appeared frustrated and huddled in tense negotiation between ballots as Kevin McCarthy suffered defeat after defeat.
The most memorable images of three days of House speaker votes and negotiations
Lawmakers have laughed, cringed, appeared frustrated, and huddled in tense negotiation between ballots
Could a deal be near as McCarthy appears to lose 10th ballot?
With Kevin McCarthy having lost 10 votes so far on the 10th ballot, Punchbowl News reports that a deal could be near with the holdout representatives.
Jake Sherman reports that Reps Chip Roy and Patrick McHenry have been negotiating it and something may be put in writing tonight.
Kinzinger: Vote after vote for speaker like a computer rebooting
Former Rep Adam Kinzinger has a brief analogy to why the House has to keep having votes to name a speaker.
He tweeted: “A brief analogy on why the House keeps having votes. In order to function, it must have a Speaker and all other functionality flows down from there. Imagine a computer booting, then rebooting, then rebooting. Something isn’t right, and it can’t operate... the house is similar, its only function is to try to function, so as the vote fails it starts rebooting. You can unplug a computer or adjourn a house, but when you plug it back in or come back into session, all you can do is reboot.”
More on possible deal with holdouts
CNN’s Manu Raju reports that the possible deal won’t get Kevin McCarthy to 218 votes, according to GOP sources, but it will get him closer and then individuals can be worked on.
Some representatives can vote present which would lower the number of votes needed.
Voices: Why the insurgents trying to torpedo Kevin McCarthy’s speaker bid are not serious
Eric Garcia writes that Matt Gaetz nominating Donald Trump for House speaker proves this is nothing to do with serious policy divisions.
Why the insurgents trying to torpedo Kevin McCarthy’s speaker bid are not serious
Matt Gaetz nominating Donald Trump for House speaker proves the GOP logjam is not about serious policy disagreements
McCarthy loses again
Kevin McCarthy has once again lost the vote in the House to become the next speaker.
He came in second place once again, still trailing Democrat Hakeem Jeffries in the race for the top House post.
It’s a reminder that once again GOP divisions have kept the Republican party from exercising its new majority in the lower chamber.
Here are the final vote totals:
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