House speaker vote: McCarthy thanks Trump for final votes as fight nearly breaks out on floor

Social media users are trolling Matt Gaetz after he threatened to resign over the ongoing House speaker vote chaos, with some asking the MAGA Republican “Do you promise?”

Here’s what they said:

The longest contest for speaker of the House of Representatives in more than a century has come to an end with the narrow, dramatic election of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to the role.

More on this developing story here:

New House speaker Kevin McCarthy credited the former president’s 11th hour lobbying with helping him secure the gavel in a speech delivered in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Namita Singh has more.

House speaker Kevin McCarthy ushered in a new GOP majority after a historic post-midnight 15th ballot early on 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.

“Now the hard work begins,” he said in his first comments after being elected.

Republicans roared in celebration, then embraced their new speaker, chanting “USA! USA!”

With a speaker elected, the House finally was able to start swearing in newly-elected lawmakers who had been waiting all week for the chamber to formally open and the 2023-24 session to begin.

After four days of gruelling ballots, Mr McCarthy flipped more than a dozen conservative holdouts, including the chairman of the chamber’s far-right Freedom Caucus.

Republican Kevin McCarthy has now been elected House speaker after an historic four-day run of gruelling repeated ballots, a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern.

Mr McCarthy flipped more than a dozen conservative holdouts to become his supporters on Friday, including the chairman of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus.

He still fell one vote short on the 14th ballot, leading to an uproar in the chamber as scenes between Republicans became raucous and unruly.

Shortly afterwards the few Republican holdouts began voting present, dropping the tally he needed. It was the end of the bitter standoff that had shown the strengths and fragility of American democracy.

The final tally was 216-212, with all Democrats voting for their minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and six Republican holdouts to Mr McCarthy simply voting present.

The late turn of events came after Mr McCarthy agreed to many of the detractors’ demands - including the reinstatement of a longstanding House rule that would allow any single member to call a vote to oust him from office.

Even as Mr McCarthy secured 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.

Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Green boasted of “the perfect phone call” from former president Donald Trump shortly before Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the US House of Representatives early on Saturday.

The GOP member elected from Georgia shared a picture of herself holding out her smartphone to colleague Matt Rosendale, with “DT” flashing on the screen, likely referring to the former president.

He could be seen holding his hand out and waving it away, as Ms Greene attempts to hand the phone over to him.

More in this report:

Joe Sommerlad takes a look at the history of speaker votes and those that didn’t go as smoothly as planned.

As Kevin McCarthy was finally elected House speaker after midnight last night, fingers were pointed, words exchanged and outright violence apparently narrowly averted.

At one point, Republican Mike Rogers of Alabama started to charge toward Matt Gaetz before another Republican, Richard Hudson, physically pulled him back.

“Stay civil!” someone shouted.

Order restored, the Republicans fell in line to give Mr McCarthy the post he had fought so hard to gain.

The few Republican holdouts began voting present, dropping the tally he needed. It was the end of a bitter standoff that had shown the strengths and fragility American democracy.

As he took the gavel for the first time, Kevin McCarthy hailed the end of president Joe Biden’s Democrats’ hold on both chambers of Congress.

“Our system is built on checks and balances. It’s time for us to be a check and provide some balance to the president’s policies,” he said in his inaugural speech, which laid out a wide range of priorities from cutting spending to immigration, to fighting culture war battles.

Mr McCarthy secured the gavel only after agreeing to a demand by hardliners that any lawmaker be able call for his removal at any time.

That will sharply cut the power he will hold when trying to pass legislation on critical issues including funding the government, addressing the nation’s looming debt ceiling and other crises that may arise.