Rep. Kevin McCarthy was elected House speaker Saturday following a divisive campaign.
In a long week of voting, the California Republican persuaded holdouts to vote for him, unlike any speaker contest since the Civil War. After negotiations earlier in the week led to a resolution, McCarthy gained 216 votes on Friday and won the gavel early Saturday.
McCarthy joked, “That was easy,” when he addressed lawmakers at 1:40 a.m. Saturday.
McCarthy’s father told him, “It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish.” “We must finish for the Americans.
His comments were bipartisan. He offered to work with everyone to improve Americans’ lives. He said he’d pursue Republican issues like crime and inflation. He vowed monitoring and investigations, mentioning Afghanistan’s pullout and the coronavirus’s origin as objectives, and a border hearing. He also claimed that the House would check President Joe Biden’s authority, saying that the first item the chamber would consider would remove funds for 87,000 more IRS agents.
McCarthy wore his tortuous journey to speakership as a badge of courage “Honesty. It’s not how I intended it, but I never give up, he remarked.
Friday night, it wasn’t certain if his faith would be rewarded. Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, and Rep. Matt Rosendale of Arizona were among the first to oppose McCarthy’s quest for speaker officially.
