BREAKING WASHINGTON (AP) - Kevin McCarthy clinches votes to become House speaker, breaking through GOP opposition on climactic 15th ballot.
on a 14th ballot late Friday, falling one vote short as tensions boiled over in a chaotic scene on the House floor.In the raucous 14th, even after two key Republican holdouts voted present to lower the tally McCarthy would need, it was not enough. 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.
There then was a vote to adjourn - but Republicans led by McCarthy started changing their votes to stay in session, and a 15th round of voting began as the clock neared midnight. 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's vote dragged through so many rounds of voting.
And an upbeat McCarthy told reporters as he arrived at the Capitol, "We're going to make progress. We're going to shock you." On the 12th ballot, McCarthy won the most votes for the first time 213. A 13th was swiftly launched, this time, just between McCarthy and the Democratic leader, and he picked up one more detractor, to 214.
Without a speaker, the chamber is unable swear in members and begin its 2023-24 session, a sign of the difficulty ahead for the new Republican majority as it tries to govern. At the core of the emerging deal is the reinstatement of a House rule that would allow a single lawmaker to make a motion to "vacate the chair," essentially calling a vote to oust the speaker. McCarthy had resisted allowing a return to the longstanding rule that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had done away with, because it had been held over the head of past Republican Speaker Boehner.
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