Chaos at the Heart of US Government
Americast
BBC
4.3 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2023
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The House of Representatives tries (and so far fails) to elect a Speaker.
The US House of Representatives has been in deadlock for days after the new Republican majority failed to elect their leading contender Kevin McCarthy as the new Speaker. Americast chats to one of the Republicans voting against him, Representative Ralph Norman, about why they think McCarthy isn’t the man for the job.
And the team goes over the key findings from the conclusion of the Jan 6 committee’s inquiry with one of the panel members, Democrat Representative Jamie Raskin.
Americast is presented by North America editor Sarah Smith, Today host Justin Webb, the BBC's Ssocial media and disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring, and North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher.
Email Americast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments and send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, to 03301239480.
Find out more about our "undercover voters" here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63530374.
This episode was made by Phil Marzouk and Alix Pickles. The studio director was Emma Crowe. The assistant editor was Simon Watts. The senior news editor was Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, we're back, New Year, New Congress. |
| 0:07.3 | House will be in order. |
| 0:09.0 | And as is tradition of this time of year, it's out with the old. |
| 0:12.4 | The chair declares the second session of the 117th Congress |
| 0:17.2 | adjourned, senai dai. |
| 0:20.0 | And in with the new. |
| 0:21.2 | For the meeting of the 118th Congress of the United States, |
| 0:26.8 | the House will come to order. |
| 0:29.1 | But this time, the House of Representatives was anything, but in order. |
| 0:33.4 | They want us divided. |
| 0:34.9 | They want us to fight each other. |
| 0:36.8 | That much has been made clear by the popcorn and blankets and alcohol. |
| 0:40.0 | It is coming over there. |
| 0:42.3 | The House is not in order. |
| 0:45.4 | That was Republican cat camac from Florida. |
| 0:47.8 | She's making a case for Kevin McCarthy to be speaker. |
| 0:50.6 | Now, he has wanted to be speaker for years and years. |
| 0:53.1 | And thought he would be, as soon as Republicans got a majority |
| 0:56.0 | in the House of Representatives. |
| 0:57.6 | But it's not gone smoothly for him at all. |
| 0:59.9 | For the first time in 100 years, the speaker hasn't been elected on the first round of voting. |
... |
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