It took four days, a call from former President Trump and visibly chaotic exchanges on the House floor between GOP leaders before Kevin McCarthy became Speaker of the House.
It took four days, 14 losses, a call from former President Trump, and visibly chaotic exchanges on the House floor before GOP leader Kevin McCarthy finally wrangled enough votes to become Speaker of the House.
McCarthy did not get the position without making many concessions. Eventually, the last holdout votes of the session came down to six members of McCarthy’s own party; Reps. Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona; Lauren Boebert of Colorado; Matt Gaetz of Florida; Bob Good of Virginia; and Matt Rosendale of Montana.
After the 13th round, McCarthy told reporters he was confident he’d have enough votes in round 14. At the last minute, Rep. Matt Gaetz threw a monkey wrench into McCarthy’s statement by voting present, which pushed the ordeal into a 15th vote.
That is when further chaos ensued, as cameras were rolling when GOP Rep. Mike Rogers physically lunged at Gaetz. Rogers had to be restrained by his colleague, Rep. Richard Hudson.
In the 15th round of voting, all six holdouts changed their votes to present, which allowed for McCarthy to step into the role.
The concessions McCarthy made to get here include:
- Any single member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair.
- Congress must be given 72 hours to review a bill before it can be brought to the floor.
- The House will vote on key conservative bills.
- Create a committee to investigate the “weaponization” of the federal government.
- Raising the debt ceiling must be coupled with spending cuts.
“That was easy, huh?" McCarthy joked. "I never thought we'd get up here."
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