{"id":205917,"date":"2023-01-07T14:26:28","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T06:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=205917"},"modified":"2023-01-07T14:26:28","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T06:26:28","slug":"republican-mccarthy-elected-speaker-of-us-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=205917","title":{"rendered":"Republican McCarthy elected speaker of US House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kevin McCarthy was named as the new speaker of the US House of Representatives on Saturday, ending days of bitter Republican infighting that ground the lower chamber of Congress to a standstill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 57-year-old Californian needed a simple majority to be elected as Washington’s top legislator, who presides over House business and is second in line to the presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it became the longest speakership election in 160 years as the deeply-divided Republicans took 15 rounds of voting over four days to fend off a right-wing, anti-McCarthy rebellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After four days of grueling ballots, McCarthy flipped more than a dozen conservative holdouts to become supporters, including the chairman of the chamber\u2019s Freedom Caucus, leaving him just a few shy of\u00a0seizing the gavel<\/a>\u00a0for the new Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the House resumed for the late night session McCarthy had been on the cusp of victory in the 14th round but he fell one vote short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He strode to the back of the chamber to confront Matt Gaetz, sitting with Lauren Boebert and other holdouts. Fingers were pointed, words exchanged and violence apparently just averted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point, Republican Mike Rogers of Alabama started to charge toward Gaetz before another Republican, Richard Hudson, physically pulled him back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans quickly moved to adjourn, but then McCarthy rushed forward to switch his vote to remain in session as colleagues chanted \u201cOne more time!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The few Republican holdouts began voting present as well, dropping the tally he needed to finally seize the gavel in what was heading toward a dramatic finish on the fourth long day of a grueling standoff that has shown the strengths and fragility American democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarthy had declared to reporters earlier in the day that he believed \u201cwe\u2019ll have the votes to finish this once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day\u2019s stunning turn of events came after McCarthy agreed to many of the detractors\u2019 demands — including the reinstatement of a longstanding House rule that would allow any single member to call a vote to oust him from office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if McCarthy is able to secure the votes he needs, he will emerge as a weakened speaker, having given away some powers and constantly under the threat of being booted by his detractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he could also be emboldened as a survivor of one of the more brutal fights for the gavel in U.S. history. Not since the Civil War era has a speaker\u2019s vote dragged through so many rounds of voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The showdown that has stymied the new Congress came against the backdrop of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which shook the country when a mob of then-President Donald Trump\u2019s supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying the Republican\u2019s 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a Capitol event on Friday, some lawmakers, mostly Democrats, observed a moment of silence and praised officers who helped protect Congress on that day. And at the White House, Biden handed out medals to officers and others who fought the attackers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmerica is a land of laws, not chaos,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Friday\u2019s ballots, Democratic leader Jeffries of New York had won the most votes on every ballot but also remained short of a majority. McCarthy ran second, gaining no ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The longest fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged on for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kevin McCarthy was named as the new speaker of the US House of Representatives on Saturday, ending days of bitter Republican infighting that ground the lower chamber of Congress to a standstill. The 57-year-old Californian needed a simple majority to be elected as Washington’s top legislator, who presides over House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":205921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205917"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=205917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205922,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205917\/revisions\/205922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/205921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=205917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=205917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=205917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}