Welcome to the beat of Mari Melburn, and we begin with what many are saying is the revelation

of something we knew but continue to see in more depth, a kind of a staggering weakness

of Speaker McCarthy.

As you see him giving out rewards to the very people who broke with him and tortured him

before finally relenting in that historically chaotic beginning to the new Congress.

There's also some Santos news.

So first, the full picture today of what McCarthy has given away to the rebels who, according

to many Republicans, and this is, again, McCarthy's allies, they say those folks were politically

extorting him.

The lesson that McCarthy may be teaching, which is why it matters in the news tonight

in the future, is that his weakness can be exploited on any number of issues.

So this caucus, which held the Speaker Pit Hostage, is now getting assignments that

they might not otherwise get.

They're getting powerful purchase.

They're being rewarded for going against him.

That includes Gates, Scosa, Bober, Biggs, who was a Neverkeven, but maybe he was just

a Neverkeven unless he got the right goodies.

That's why other Republicans say this is a kind of a swap hostage mentality here.

Some of the extremists, along with the Q-Ret Marker-Taylor Green, are on oversight, which

is a potentially powerful perch, especially dealing with government issues.

Two of them who were condemned by McCarthy for attending a white nationalist event, he

said he was appalled by that, are now on the main house investigative committee, and

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