Republican Kevin McCarthy Becomes The US House Speaker

Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the Republican party in the House, was appointed as speaker of the House on Saturday morning, January 7, after a historic 15th ballot.

He overcame party holdouts and tensions on the floor that flared after a chaotic week that put the Republican party majority’s ability to govern to the test.

A party that has just achieved majority control usually finds it easy and joyous to choose a speaker, but this time, roughly 200 Republicans were stymied by 20 far-right colleagues who claimed McCarthy was not conservative enough.

The House was suspended until late Friday night, in order to allow for last-minute negotiations and to give two missing Republican colleagues the chance to travel back to Washington.

Speaking to his fellow cheering Republicans, Kevin McCarthy said, “My father always told me, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”

He promised subpoenas and investigations in an effort to confront President Joe Biden and the Democrats.

The California Republican said, “Now the hard work begins.” He gave former President Donald Trump credit for supporting him and making urgent phone calls to “help get those final votes.”

Republicans erupted in jubilation following the announcement of his victory, shouting “USA! USA!”

The House was eventually able to swear in freshly elected MPs who had been waiting all week for the house to properly open and the 2023–24 session to start when McCarthy, who had finally been elected, took the oath of office.

McCarthy won over more than a dozen conservative holdouts, including the leader of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus, after four days of arduous voting.

Democrats voted for leader Hakeem Jeffries, and six Republican holdouts to McCarthy simply cast present votes, resulting in a final score of 216-212.

The shocking turn of events that evening occurred as a result of McCarthy giving in to many of the demands made by the far-right elements of his party, including the restoration of a long-standing House rule that would have allowed any one member to initiate a vote to remove him from office.

Therefore, McCarthy will become the speaker with fewer authorities than before, given that only one House Republican member needed to call for a vote to remove McCarthy from office.

The number of voting rounds for a speaker’s vote has not been this high since the Civil War era.