Kevin McCarthy finally elected House Speaker after 15 rounds of voting as GOP rebels relent
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 stalemate on Capitol Hill ended after four days of protracted Republican Party infighting over who to elect.
Mr McCarthy’s bid was previously derailed by a group of far-right Republicans including the likes of Lauren Boebert and Matt 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.
Watch the proceedings live here.
Kevin McCarthy elected House speaker on 15th round after fight nearly breaks out
Kevin McCarthy was finally elected as House speaker amid chaotic scenes, with the 15th and final vote stretching past midnight on Friday.
The Independent’s Eric Garcia and Alex Woodward have the story.
Bevan Hurley7 January 2023 14:15
Exclusive: 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:
Namita Singh7 January 2023 13:40
Meet Cheryl Johnson
If there was an unexpected breakout star in the House this week, it wasn’t a grandstanding elected representative, it was a diligent official doing her job and rightly winning praise for keeping proceedings on track.
Oliver O’Connell7 January 2023 12:40
C-SPAN lauded for House speaker vote coverage
C-SPAN has been lauded for providing an unfiltered, transparent live feed of all the action on the floor of the House of Representatives as Republicans finally chose Kevin McCarthy as the House speaker after 15 rounds of vote.
Audiences have been treated to a fascinating insight into how Congress functions – or dysfunctions, as the case may be.
There have been hours of footage of huddling lawmakers, animated negotiations, and unexpected pairings of people with well-known quarrels.
Usually, congressional rules dictate what cameras can and cannot show in the Capitol, but with no representatives sworn in there are no such rules, leaving C-SPAN camera operators seemingly free to capture all the frustrations, laughter, and intensity of four days of voting.
Needless to say the C-SPAN team — and the still photographers present — have won the praise of political junkies across the nation for putting us all ringside.
Howard Mortman, the network’s communications director, shared some pictures of a few members of the team that brought those images to the world.
Others offered their own praise.
C-SPAN’s co-CEO Susan Swain noted that while their coverage is getting kudos, the non-profit network “doesn’t get a dime” of government funding.
“Sadly, we’re not available to all pay TV customers, importantly YouTube and Hulu,” she tweeted, adding the request: “Please help convince them to add C-SPAN to their lineups by liking and retweeting.”
Namita Singh7 January 2023 11:40
Ex-lawmaker who served time for Jan 6 attack on Congress seeks House seat
Because of course, who better to join the House of Representatives than someone who participated in an attack on it?
Oliver O’Connell7 January 2023 10:40
John Bolton vows 2024 presidential run to stop Trump
Former US national security adviser John Bolton has vowed to launch a presidential bid and confront Donald Trump, whose support he alleges is in “terminal decline”.
The 74-year foreign policy hawk has never held elected office, but has said he believes he could win in two years, by pushing for America to adopt a tougher line against nations such as China and Russia.
A longtime backer of the invasion of Iraq, Mr Bolton claimed in an interview with a British broadcaster that his run would not be a vanity project.
Oliver O’Connell7 January 2023 09:40
Former Trump aide eviscerates ‘self-serving’ Matt Gaetz for ‘political stunt’
Max Miller, former aide to Donald Trump and current representative-elect for Ohio’s 7th District, had a sharp assessment of Matt Gaetz earlier as the Republican speaker debacle entered its fourth and final day.
Speaking on Fox Business Network, Mr Miller — who backed GOP leader Kevin McCarthy in all the votes for speaker — was asked if Mr McCarthy’s struggles were reflecting poorly on former president Trump.
Here’s how he responded:
Namita Singh7 January 2023 08:40
McCarthy thanks Trump for ‘helping get those final votes’
Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected House speaker on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot early Saturday, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks and floor tensions that boiled over after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern.
“My father always told me, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Mr McCarthy told cheering fellow Republicans.
Eager to confront president Joe Biden and the Democrats, he promised subpoenas and investigations. “Now the hard work begins,” the California Republican declared.
He credited former president Donald Trump for standing with him and for making late calls “helping get those final votes.”
Namita Singh7 January 2023 08:29
Watch moment McCarthy is finally elected House speaker after chaotic Congress scenes
Watch the moment Kevin McCarthy finally elected as House Speaker in 15th round
Watch the moment Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected as the new US Speaker after winning the 15th vote following chaotic scenes in Congress. Mr McCarthy won by a margin of 216-211. Congress cannot function without a House Speaker, marking the role as one of the most powerful positions in US politics. Mr McCarthy was elected with the votes of fewer than half the House members only because five in his own party withheld their votes – not backing either him or another contender. This week’s failed votes marked the highest number of ballots for the speakership since 1859. Click here to sign up for our newsletters.
Namita Singh7 January 2023 07:53
McCarthy’s appetite for brinksmanship under question from GOP hardliners
Several Republican hardliners have questioned Kevin McCarthy’s willingness to engage in brinksmanship when negotiating with president Joe Biden, whose Democrats control the Senate. They have raged in the past when Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell agreed to compromise deals.
The hardliners, also including Freedom Caucus chairman Scott Perry and Chip Roy of Texas, said concessions they extracted from Mr McCarthy will make it easier to pursue such tactics this year – or force another vote on McCarthy’s leadership if he does not live up to their expectations.
“You have changes in how we’re going to spend and allocate money that are going to be historic,” said representative Mr Perry.
“We don’t want clean debt ceilings to just go through and just keep paying the bill without some counteracting effort to control spending when the Democrats control the White House and control the Senate.”
One of those Democrats, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, warned that the concessions Mr McCarthy made to win the job may come back to haunt him.
“Kevin McCarthy’s concessions to the extremists in his party make it far more likely that the Maga Republican controlled House will cause a government shutdown or a default with devastating consequences to our country,” Mr Schumer said in a statement.
In a sharp contrast to this week’s battles among House Republicans, Mr Biden and Mr McConnell appeared together in Kentucky on Wednesday to highlight investments in infrastructure.
Mr McCarthy’s belated victory came the day after the two-year anniversary of the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol, when a violent mob stormed Congress in an attempt to overturn then-president Donald Trump’s election loss.
Namita Singh7 January 2023 07:50
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