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
Calls for C-SPAN to be given greater freedom in the House after wild speaker election scenes
Just after midnight on Saturday, Kevin McCarthy was finally elected speaker of the House by his Republican colleagues, after an astounding 14 previous unsuccessful rounds of voting. The incident not only put a spotlight on the division and dysfunction within the GOP.
It also, after numerous, drawn-out, dramatic votes, highlighted how rare it is for the public to actually watch the work of Congress live, inspiring calls to give C-SPAN more control over its cameras inside the House.
As the House struggled to get its normal business underway, cameras from C-SPAN, the nonprofit public affairs network backed by large cable companies, caught all kinds of notable scenes.
Wild scenes from Speaker vote inspire calls for C-SPAN to always control cameras
Public access network has given new visibility to messy work of Congress
Speaker McCarthy: A weakened leader or emboldened survivor?
“Republican Kevin McCarthy is the new House speaker, but as bruising as it was for him to seize the gavel in a history-making election, it may be even more difficult for the embattled leader to do much with the powerful position — or to even keep it,” writes Lisa Mascaro for The Associated Press.
“Like the two most recent Republican speakers, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, McCarthy takes the helm of a restive, rebellious majority split in much the way as the party itself, between what’s left of the Grand Old Party conservatives and a new generation of tea party-to-Donald Trump hard-liners preferring almost no big government at all.”
Full report below.
Speaker McCarthy: A weakened leader or emboldened survivor?
Republican Kevin McCarthy is the new House speaker, but it took day and days, and 15 roll call votes, ending early Saturday
Kevin McCarthy’s concessions to far-right Republicans risk tanking the global economy
House Republican Kevin McCarthy’s numerous concessions to the most right-wing members of his conference risk setting the House of Representatives and Congress up for a series of crises over the next two years.
At the top of the list is the US debt ceiling, which far-right lawmakers may hold hostage to extract policy concessions and spending cuts, while endangering the full faith and credit of the US and global economy.
Mr McCarthy and Republican leadership released its proposed rules package on Friday evening ahead of another round of votes to elect a speaker of the House. This came after 14 Republicans who had previously voted against Mr McCarthy flipped their votes to support him during the 13th ballot.
Eric Garcia reports.
McCarthy’s concessions to far-right Republicans could end up tanking global economy
The US defaulting on its debt would risk tanking the US and global economy
Marjorie Taylor Greene boasts of ‘perfect phone call’ from Donald Trump
Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Green boasted of “the perfect phone call” from former president Donald Trump shortly before Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the US House of Representatives early on Saturday.
The GOP member elected from Georgia shared a picture of herself holding out her smartphone to colleague Matt Rosendale, with “DT” flashing on the screen, likely referring to the former president.
He could be seen holding his hand out and waving it away, as Ms Greene attempts to hand the phone over to him.
Read on below.
Marjorie Taylor Greene boasts of ‘perfect phone call’ from Trump amid speaker crisis
Greene shared a picture with her phone flashing ‘DT’
Republican held back in confrontation with Matt Gaetz during Speaker vote
A near-brawl broke out between Republicans on the House floor late on Friday night as four days of frustration at Matt Gaetz’s refusal to back Kevin McCarthy’s teetering bid for Speaker boiled over.
Republican House member Mike Rogers had to be physically restrained after lunging at Mr Gaetz amid chaotic scenes on Capitol Hill.
Congressman Richard Hudson, of North Carolina, grabbed Mr Rogers from behind around his face and shoulder and pulled the irate Alabama Congressman away.
Full story below.
Republican held back in confrontation with Matt Gaetz during Speaker votes
Chaos reigned during the final House speaker vote on Friday night, as Rep Mike Rogers had to be physically restrained after apparently lunging towards holdout Matt Gaetz
Matt Gaetz reveals why he flipped on House speaker vote
Matt Gaetz said he finally agreed to vote “present” after Kevin McCarthy agreed to all of his demands.
“I ran out of things I could even imagine to ask for,” Mr Gaetz told CNN reporter Melanie Zanona after Friday night’s dramatic vote.
After previously vowing to never vote for Mr McCarthy, Mr Gaetz was one of six holdout Republicans who changed their vote to present on Friday night.
Full story below.
Matt Gaetz says he ran out of things to ask for as McCarthy kept caving
‘Never Kevin’ holdouts were given a series of concessions before McCarthy could become Speaker
Watch: Key moments from a chaotic House Speaker election
Trump phone-ins, near-fights and 15 votes, here are the key moments from a chaotic House speaker election.
Confrontations and near-fights: Key moments from a chaotic House Speaker election
From confrontations and anger to lawmakers being restrained, here are the highlights from the night a new US House Speaker was elected. Kevin McCarthy was voted as House of Representatives speaker last night after 15 rounds of voting in four days. The night saw Mr McCarthy confront Matt Gaetz for withholding his vote in the 14th round before he later changed his mind in a dramatic turn of events - solidifying him as Nancy Pelosi’s successor. Rep Richard Hudson was filmed restraining Alabama’s Mike Rogers when he confronted Gaetz. The role is second in the United States presidential line of succession, after the vice president, marking the position as one of the most powerful jobs in US politics. Click here to sign up for our newsletters.
Kevin McCarthy thanks Trump for ‘helping get those final votes’
New House speaker Kevin McCarthy credited the former president’s 11th hour lobbying with helping him secure the gavel in a speech delivered in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Namita Singh has more.
Kevin McCarthy thanks Trump for ‘helping get those final votes’
McCarthy had earlier blamed Trump for encouraging his supporters to attack the US Capitol two years ago
AOC says GOP chaos shows how reasonable progressives are
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has told The Independent that Republicans’ chaotic efforts to elect a speaker for the new Congress serve to highlight how grounded and reasonable she and other members of the so-called ‘Squad’ of progressive Democrats have been.
Read more on what she had to say:
AOC says Republican chaos shows how reasonable progressives like the Squad are
‘I mean I think it just highlights how how extraordinarily bad faith those accusations of progressive unreasonableness are, even when they come from our side of the aisle’
Kevin McCarthy’s concessions to far-right Republicans risk tanking the global economy
House Republican Kevin McCarthy’s numerous concessions to the most right-wing members of his conference risk setting the House of Representatives and Congress up for a series of crises over the next two years.
At the top of the list is the US debt ceiling, which far-right lawmakers may hold hostage to extract policy concessions and spending cuts, while endangering the full faith and credit of the US and global economy.
Eric Garcia has more.
McCarthy’s concessions to far-right Republicans could end up tanking global economy
The US defaulting on its debt would risk tanking the US and global economy
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