I'm Rachel Bade, this is Playbook Deep Dive.

I'm standing outside House Majority Whip Tom Emmer's office.

In just a few minutes, the bell will ding, calling lawmakers to the house chamber to take

the final vote on the bipartisan debt ceiling deal.

And I just got finished talking with the two men responsible for getting that over the

finish line.

Emmer, the whip.

We whip this thing almost for two weeks solid.

And his chief deputy whip, Guy Russian Baller.

What we were doing in our role was we were communicating with members where the deal

was, what provisions were being discussed, and then relaying thoughts and concerns back

to Speaker McCarthy.

This is the behind-the-scenes story from inside the Republican whip office.

Of how Kevin McCarthy's leadership team convinced House Republicans to raise the debt ceiling

for two years and embrace his agreement with Joe Biden.

An agreement that many on the right decried as they betray all of the base.

It's a story of how Emmer and Russian Baller pulled together a divided and fractious conference,

dodging a ballooning effort to House McCarthy from the Gabbell and ultimately putting the

ball back in Democrats' court.

What can we take away, I guess, from these past few days and the fact that Republicans

are going to be able to rally behind a debt ceiling bill?

Just to play devil's advocate, I mean, is this a real victory given that you guys have

...