Good morning at Saturday, January the 7th. I'm Ali Velsi. If you didn't stay up late last night, like some of us did.

Let me be the first to tell you that there is finally a new speaker of the House, and the 118th Congress has officially been convened.

It took four days and 15 tries, but in the early hours of this morning, the California Congressman

Kevin McCarthy, was finally elected the new Speaker, putting him third in line for the presidency

of the United States. It was a tough road getting there, especially last night when tensions

between Republican members

themselves almost reached a breaking point. When the House reconvened at 10 p.m. last night,

Republicans appeared hopeful that they had votes to elect McCarthy on the 14th ballot. But when

that seemed headed for failure, McCarthy's allies huddled around the Florida Congressman Matt

Gates to get him to vote for McCarthy. Instead, Gates voted present, which is not good enough

to win McCarthy the speakership. And after the roll call, McCarthy himself approached Gates.

The two exchanged words amid a group of other lawmakers. McCarthy wasn't the only one who seemed frustrated with Gates.

At one point, the representative, Mike Rogers of Alabama, watch this. Look what's about to happen.

He approaches the group shouting at Gates. He has to be physically held back and led away. Just minutes

after that tense confrontation, Gates approached McCarthy on the floor, and they appeared to strike a deal.

Then, shortly after midnight, McCarthy received enough votes to become the Speaker.

He was sworn into his new position after 1 a.m.

And so was the rest of the 118th Congress.

McCarthy was elected with 216 votes, enough to win him the Speaker's gavel on the 15th try.

The last day of McCarthy's Speaker Stalemate saga happened against the backdrop of the second

anniversary of the January 6th insurrection.

And noticeably, the last six Republican holdouts who voted present allowing McCarthy to win

...