What happened to Kevin McCarthy?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 January 2023
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Who will be the new speaker of the House? Republican leader Kevin McCarthy struggles to whip up the votes.
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The House met for the first day of the 118th Congress on Tuesday to swear in members and elect a speaker for the new Republican majority.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) needs 218 votes to become the speaker of the House; he can afford to lose only four GOP votes. While an overwhelming number of Republicans want McCarthy to be speaker, several have remained firm in their opposition to his bid.
Political reporter Aaron Blake walks us through the drama leading up to and during the vote for speaker - and he details the long road ahead for McCarthy.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Martin. |
| 0:05.4 | I just want to say to our listeners, happy new year, and thank you so much for ringing |
| 0:09.8 | it in with post-reports. |
| 0:11.7 | This week, we're taking you inside a new Congress. |
| 0:15.3 | And how the balance of power is undergoing some seismic shifts. |
| 0:21.5 | As House Democrats are out, and Republicans are now in control. |
| 0:25.2 | 434 representatives elect have recorded their presence. |
| 0:29.8 | A quorum is present. |
| 0:36.2 | My colleague, Christina Quinn, has been thinking a lot about what's to come. |
| 0:40.6 | Especially as House Republicans have been trying to name a new leader. |
| 0:44.8 | Christina is one of our newest colleagues on the audio team, and she'll be your guest |
| 0:48.9 | host over the next couple of days. |
| 0:51.5 | With that, here's Christina. |
| 0:55.6 | She's talking with senior political reporter Erin Blake. |
| 0:59.3 | Okay, here's the show. |
| 1:02.3 | Can you tell us what happened on the floor today at the House of Representatives? |
| 1:10.8 | The House of Representatives met for the first time in this Congress, and the first thing |
| 1:15.5 | that the House does is try to elect a speaker. |
| 1:21.4 | And I say try to, because on the first ballot, they failed to do so. |
| 1:25.5 | Kevin McCarthy, the presumptive speaker since Republicans won back the House, had to win |
| 1:31.2 | a majority of the votes, and he came up well short of that. |
| 1:34.5 | There were 19 Republican members of the House who voted for somebody else, leaving him |
... |
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