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
Matt Gaetz vows to resign over speaker chaos
On Thursday, Matt Gaetz vowed to resign from his role in Congress should a moderate Republican be elected as new House leader.
The Florida congressman was asked by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Thursday night about the possibility of Republicans striking a deal with moderate Democrats in order to get the 218 votes needed to elect a Republican as House leader.
“If Democrats join up to elect a moderate Republican, I will resign from the House of Representatives. That is how certain I am. I can assure your viewers that won’t happen,” he said.
The threat to resign was welcomed by several social media users who urged Democrats to help him make good on his word.
“Now is our chance: matt gaetz says he will resign if democrats help kevin get elected. I’m all for it, kevin won’t be able to do anything anyway,” one person tweeted.
Another chimed: “YOU HEARD HIM GUYS.”
Trump posts joke about becoming House speaker himself
At this point, anything could happen, so why not have some fun?
That seems to be the mindset from Donald Trump at the moment.
Even though the former president isn’t a member of Congress, he made a Truth Social post on Thursday superimposing himself into the House speaker’s chair.
The rules around the speakership don’t technically bar Mr Trump from taking the post – and his ally Matt Gaetz has even nominated him to lead the House – but it’s unlikely the former president would ever win the role, especially because he has already endorsed Kevin McCarthy.
For now, all we have is this...uh...very creative image from Mr Trump.
CNN host calls out Republican over ‘young lady’ remark
A CNN host called out a Republican representative on live TV for addressing her as a “young lady” while answering a question amid ensuing chaos over the election for a new House speaker.
Representative Troy Nehls, who appeared on CNN for the first time on Thursday, was asked by anchor Erin Burnett if negotiators in his party were making any progress on the vote.
The interaction took place as California Republican Kevin McCarthy lost an 11th vote in his bid to become speaker and before the House adjourned for a third day with a stalemate.
Read the full story here:
CNN host calls out Republican over ‘young lady’ remark
GOP member also refers to CNN as ‘Clinton News Network’
McCarthy declares he’s ‘not putting any timeline’ on speaker vote
After 11 unsuccessful votes, Kevin McCarthy says he’s “not putting any timeline” on when he might become Speaker of the House.
“I’m not putting any timeline on it,” he told Punchbowl News on Thursday after the House adjourned. “We’ve got some progress going on. Members are talking.”
There was chatter on the hill that a deal between different factions of the GOP had been reached to allow Mr McCarthy to take the high office, but details of the rumoured pact have not been made public.
Jamie Raskin evokes Shakespeare to make dig at GOP speaker turmoil
Outgoing Democratic Rep Jamie Raskin evoked Shakespeare as he made a dig at the House speaker vote turmoil caused by infighting in the Republican party.
“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time... Macbeth 5, 5,” he simply tweeted, quoting from William Shakespeare’s MacBeth.
His jibe came as Kevin McCarthy failed to secure enough votes in an 11th roll call vote on Thursday.
More George Santos jokes as House speaker fiasco rolls on
It was only a matter of time before we heard about George Santos again.
Representative Jamie Raskin quipped on Thursday evening that Mr Santos, whose nascent term in the House has been marred by a series of outrageous, disproven claims about his biography made on the campaign trail, has had a more successful go of things than Kevin McCarthy, who has lost 11 straight votes on taking over as the House speaker for the GOP.
“We never had to deal with this much chaos when George Santos was Speaker,” Mr Raskin wrote on Twitter.
Every lie disgraced incoming Congressman George Santos has been accused of
The New York Republican’s list of fictions is long and keeps growing as more reporters join the investigation
Trump posts joke picture of himself as Speaker after Matt Gaetz nominated him
Donald Trump has responded to Matt Gaetz casting a vote in the one-time president’s name for the House of Representatives speaker’s post in an effort to thwart Kevin McCarthy.
Read more:
Trump posts joke picture of himself as Speaker after Matt Gaetz nominated him
One-time president seen in photo on speaker’s chair with his tongue out
House speaker deal being struck, say reports
A deal is reportedly being struck between Kevin McCarthy and Republican holdouts to try to get his House speaker bid over the line, according to reports.
A source close to Mr McCarthy told Reuters that a deal has been struck but that it still isn’t enough to get him the 218 votes needed to be elected speaker.
Rep Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told Punchbowl News on Thursday that he had been asked to review an agreement that is now in writing.
The deal was reportedly negotiated by Rep Chip Roy – who is part of the “Never Kevin” group agasnt Mr McCarthy’s bid – and Rep Patrick McHenry – who supports Mr McCarthy’s bid.
Twitter users troll Matt Gaetz after he threatened to resign over House speaker chaos: ‘Do you promise?
Social media users are trolling Matt Gaetz after he threatened to resign over the ongoing House speaker chaos, with some asking the MAGA Republican “Do you promise?”
On Thursday night, Mr Gaetz vowed to quit his role in Congress should a moderate Republican be elected as the new speaker of the House of Representatives.
The Florida congressman – who is one of the main figures derailing Kevin McCarthy’s speaker bid – was asked by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham about the possibility that Republicans could strike a deal with moderate Democrats in order to get the 218 votes needed to elect a Republican as House leader.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Twitter users troll Matt Gaetz after he threatened to resign over House speaker chaos
On Thursday, Mr Gaetz made the chaos around the House speaker vote yet more farcical when he decided to cast his vote for former president Donald Trump
Matt Gaetz says Trump is ‘wrong’ to support McCarthy
Matt Gaetz has said that Donald Trump is “wrong” to support Kevin McCarthy in his bid for House speaker.
The former president has endorsed Mr McCarthy for the role and urged Republicans to also support him.
Staunch Mr Trump supporter Mr Gaetz has broken rank with the former president being one of the most vocal critics of Mr McCarthy.
When asked about their disagreement on the matter, Mr Gaetz said that the former president was “wrong”.
“I love President Trump. I defended him a great deal in Congress, but HR wasn’t always his strong suit,” he said.
“President Trump got us folks like Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr and Jim Mattis and Mark Esper – people who didn’t always advance an America First policy.”
“So you say he’s wrong on that?” Ms Ingraham asked.
Mr Gaetz replied: “I do. I think President Trump is wrong to the extent that he supports Kevin McCarthy. I’m gonna support President Trump when he runs for election in 2024, but I’m not going to back him on this play.
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