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How McCarthy survived the House chaos and won the President's gavel

2023-01-07T18:18:23.721Z


The detail of what happened in the 15 votes for the presidency of the House of Representatives, which lasted four days and culminated in the early hours of Saturday with the election of Kevin McCarthy. 


OPINION |

Radical Republicans want more power 6:09

(CNN) --

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz walked into House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy's office Monday night with a list of demands.

Among them: chairing a key House Armed Services subcommittee.

McCarthy turned down the offer.

That decision set in motion a chain of events that left Gaetz and McCarthy locked in an open confrontation on the House floor Friday night.

Gaetz, McCarthy's staunchest opponent, denied McCarthy the final vote he needed to become president.

But then, finally, Gaetz and the last holdouts abruptly reversed course, allowing McCarthy to win the President's Gavel on his 15th attempt.

Before the final round, pandemonium erupted on the House floor as Gaetz waited until the end of the 14th ballot to give the "present," when McCarthy needed one more yes vote.

Stunned after believing he had the necessary votes, McCarthy decided to adjourn until the following Monday in an embarrassing defeat.

McCarthy's allies surrounded Gaetz to try to find a way forward.

McCarthy joined the discussion and began interacting with Gaetz.

A worker puts up the sign indicating that Republican Kevin McCarthy is the new Speaker of the House of Representatives.

(Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

After McCarthy walked away from Gaetz, looking dejected, Armed Services President Mike Rogers walked over to the conversation and pounced on Gaetz.

So much so that Republican Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina had to hold him down.

Rogers, an Alabama Republican who earlier this week warned dissident Republicans that they would lose their commission assignments, told Gaetz that if he kept screwing up the presidential vote he would be "ruined."

Nearby, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was trying to convince Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana, another McCarthy holdout, to grab his cell phone and talk to former President Donald Trump, who was online.

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The adjournment motion reached the 218 Republican vote mark, a majority that would have sent McCarthy home over the weekend and left the House paralyzed at the hands of Gaetz and his allies.

But with less than a minute to go before the vote, Gaetz stepped to the front of the chamber, clutching a red card to trade his vote for adjournment.

Gaetz walked over to McCarthy and the two exchanged a few words.

McCarthy then raised his hand and yelled, “One more!” as she triumphantly strode forward to change her vote as well.

It was the final negotiation for the GOP leader that ended with an emotional rollercoaster over the course of four days, during which a small faction of his conference held him hostage.

Dozens of Republicans followed McCarthy and Gaetz to defeat the postponement measure, and McCarthy's victory was finally close.

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The six resisting Republicans agreed to vote "present" on the 15th round of voting, giving McCarthy a 216-212 victory that ended the longest presidential race since 1859. Rep. Tom Emmer , one of McCarthy's top deputies, walked the aisles telling Republicans on the floor not to applaud Gaetz or Rep. Lauren Boebert when they announced their votes, as they had done to others who had resisted McCarthy earlier that day.

When asked why he changed his mind with McCarthy, Gaetz said: "I ran out of things to ask for."

McCarthy expressed relief as he left the flat: "I'm glad it's over."

Later, the now Speaker of the House denied offering Gaetz the subcommittee gavel he had requested earlier in the week in exchange for his vote.

"No one is promised anything," McCarthy said.

Splitting the 'Never Kevin' movement

The chaotic fight for the presidency came after days of marathon negotiations that exposed deep divisions within the Republican Party and cast doubt on his ability to effectively govern the 118th Congress. But McCarthy's victory, after facing 20 defectors , also highlighted the successful strategy invented by him and his top lieutenants to defeat the self-proclaimed “Never Kevin” movement led by Gaetz.

McCarthy's strategy led to a breakthrough with two votes on Friday afternoon, when he managed to turn around 14 Republicans who had voted against him in marathon talks over House rules, setting the stage for the chaos of the hour. 11 with the last six holdouts.

Kevin McCarthy with the House Speaker's gavel (Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

It is too soon to tell whether the four-day crisis to elect the president will become little more than a historic footnote from the 118th Congress, or an early indicator of even more painful fights to come.

But the fight over the president's gavel exposed bitter fissures emerging in the Republican Party that will loom over the House for the next two years.

McCarthy's concessions to dissident Republicans are significant and could ultimately shorten his term as president.

Among the rule changes, McCarthy agreed to restore a rule that allows a single Republican member to call a vote to remove him as president, the same rule that led John Boehner to resign as president in 2015.

Even so, McCarthy's victory this Friday now gives him the long-awaited president's gavel and the opportunity to lead a House that will quickly focus on investigating President Joe Biden, his government and his family.

More challenging for McCarthy and his conference are fights looming later this year over public spending and the debt ceiling, where the Republican struck deals on spending in negotiations this week that are likely to be unacceptable to both Democrats and the White House as well as for Senate Republicans.

This account of how McCarthy ultimately won the fifth longest presidential fight in history is based on dozens of interviews throughout the week as the drama played out on and off the House floor.

'We are going to war'

The morning after McCarthy's meeting with Gaetz on Monday, things got even worse for the Republican leader.

In a tense meeting in the Capitol basement with the entire House Republican Conference, McCarthy and Gaetz got into a shouting match.

McCarthy yelled at critics of him for asking for personal favors, including Gaetz, whom he said he informed him he didn't care if Democrat Hakeem Jeffries was elected president as long as he didn't get the job.

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The Florida Republican later accused McCarthy of acting in bad faith by asking him for a list of demands and then berating him for it.

"He was very unseemly," said Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina, one of 20 who initially opposed McCarthy.

That meeting — where Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado yelled "bullshit" about McCarthy and the Republican leader engaged in heated exchanges with Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania — set the stage for four furious days of the battle to come.

Later, McCarthy and his allies knew they had a problem.

They saw their opposition grow amid anger over the threats and harsh words the leader had spoken.

So they began working on a strategy: turn down the heat and separate Gaetz from the rest of the detractors and make concessions to far-right members of the conference who want more say in the legislative process.

At noon, legislators packed the House floor, children in tow, for what was supposed to be a day of pageantry.

In a sign of the new Republican rules, the magnetometers installed by outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the wake of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol were removed from the doors to the House floor.

The first order of business quickly revealed the depth of the Republican opposition to McCarthy's presidential bid.

McCarthy needed 218 votes, a majority in the House, meaning he could only lose four of the 222 Republican majority, provided all Democrats voted for Jeffries.

The secretary called out the names of the 434 members to vote in alphabetical order.

McCarthy was denied a majority before the House Clerk passed the "Cs", and 19 Republicans would have already voted for someone other than McCarthy, leaving him 15 votes short of what was needed.

Jeffries, the new Democratic leader, got the most votes, with 212.

McCarthy's camp hunkered down, preparing to go through multiple votes for House speaker for the first time in a century.

"We're going to war," a senior Republican source told CNN.

McCarthy's opponents were equally entrenched.

“We will never back down,” said Rep. Bob Good of Virginia.

On the second ballot, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Republican firebrand turned McCarthy ally, rose to nominate McCarthy, having received six votes from his resisters.

Gaetz followed Jordan by nominating the Ohio Republican himself as the candidate.

The Republican 19 consolidated around Jordan and the count ended in the same place as in the first round.

McCarthy celebrates after the election.

(Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Before the third ballot, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who had voted for McCarthy on the first two ballots, told CNN that McCarthy failed to "close the deal."

When his name was called minutes later, Donalds announced that he would vote for Jordan, in McCarthy's first defection.

McCarthy's opponent list grew to 20 when the third ballot was announced and the House adjourned for the day.

"This is our fight. It is not Trump's"

After the three failed votes on Tuesday, McCarthy had discussed having another joint meeting of the Republican conference.

But he was advised not to, because he might not be productive and lead to another heated venting session leaking to the press in real time.

Instead, McCarthy's team eventually decided that small meetings would be more fruitful after the two factions retreated to their corners.

McCarthy made his own round of calls Tuesday night, including to former President Donald Trump.

Before leaving the Capitol, McCarthy told reporters that he believed he was "not that far off" from getting the votes he needed.

McCarthy said the former president "reiterated his support" for his candidacy for president.

The day before the vote, the former president had refused to issue a statement reiterating his support for McCarthy, despite a behind-the-scenes effort by several of his allies to get him to do so.

Finally, on Wednesday morning, Trump issued a statement on his social media site urging the House GOP to "VOTE KEVIN."

But the former president's message had little effect.

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“I don't agree with Trump.

This is our fight.

This is not from Trump,” said South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman, one of McCarthy's dissidents.

Trump kept the House drama at bay until Friday, when he called Gaetz and Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona while they were in the House.

After McCarthy won the presidency, Trump congratulated him on his social media site.

“It is shameful for the country”

When the House returned to session this Wednesday, McCarthy lacked the votes to lift it, as some of his allies wanted to do to continue negotiating.

So McCarthy had to move to a fourth ballot.

Jordan urged McCarthy's opponents not to nominate him again.

Instead, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas ran to nominate Donalds, the same Republican who had defected the day before.

Although the holdouts did not swell their ranks, which gave McCarthy a sigh of relief, the California Republican lost a vote: Rep. Victoria Spartz, an Indiana Republican, voted present.

Spartz told reporters that her vote was intended to encourage the two sides to return to the negotiating table.

There were other signs that some of McCarthy's backers were unwilling to stick with him forever.

Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican and member of the House Freedom Caucus, told CNN that "at some point" McCarthy needed to step aside and let now-Majority Leader Steve Scalise show up.

"What I asked him is that if Kevin can't get there, that he step back and give Steve a chance to get there," Buck said.

President Joe Biden.

The atmosphere on the House floor this Wednesday was animated by the second vote.

While Tuesday's session was relatively quiet, the opposing factions met on the floor for real-time talks between votes.

At the same time the House voted, Biden was at an event in Kentucky alongside Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell promoting the 2021 infrastructure bill McConnell helped pass.

Biden's speech gave the White House and Senate Republicans a split screen that laid bare the stark contrast to the infighting of Republicans in the House.

"It's embarrassing to the country," Biden said of the House chaos.

'We burn the boats'

After the sixth ballot ended with an identical result to the fifth, the session was adjourned for several hours.

The break gave the two sides more time to negotiate, and some of the hardliners said they saw some progress.

A group of Republicans headed to the office of Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the new House Majority Discipline chief.

Bishop said things had changed in the last few hours and he was "uplifted" by the talks.

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But it was not clear that the meeting would lead to a breakthrough.

Gaetz promised that McCarthy dissenters would continue to vote "until the cherry blossoms fall from the trees."

Boebert said that we "burned the boats" regarding future negotiations with McCarthy.

When the House returned to session, Republicans moved to adjourn it for the night rather than move forward on another failed vote for president.

Republican leaders were hopeful that the ongoing talks would convince McCarthy's opponents to vote for the postponement, but with just a four-vote margin, the roll call vote was close.

All of the Democrats and four of McCarthy's opponents voted against adjourning the session and the motion was in danger of failing, forcing the House to continue voting for president.

But two Democrats did not show up, and the House clerk ended the vote, 216 to 214.

McCarthy had at least one more day to try to get his detractors to say yes.

'We are making some progress'

On Wednesday night, McCarthy agreed to several key concessions to try to change the minds of at least some of his opponents.

McCarthy had been in talks with Roy, who told Republican leaders he thought he could get 10 holdouts to come along.

McCarthy also met separately Wednesday night with fresh members who had voted against him.

In perhaps the biggest concession, McCarthy agreed to allow only one member to call a vote to remove the sitting president.

McCarthy had initially proposed a threshold of five members, below current conference rules that require half the GOP to request such a vote.

McCarthy also pledged to allow more members of the Freedom Caucus to sit on the Rules Committee and vote on bills that were priorities for the holdouts, including border security and term limits.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on Capitol Hill on January 4, 2023. (Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

In another sign of a breakthrough, a McCarthy-aligned super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, agreed to sit out the Republican primary for Republican-safe seats, one of the demands they had called for. the Conservatives but which McCarthy had resisted.

“I think we're making progress,” McCarthy said Thursday morning as he arrived at the Capitol for the third day of voting.

Republican dissidents also struck a positive note.

"We're making a little bit of progress," Bishop told CNN as he walked into a meeting Thursday morning with other hardline Republicans.

"If it takes a little longer, that's fine"

Despite upbeat talk on Thursday morning, the House went into session at noon without a deal.

And while McCarthy's allies had considered trying to postpone additional votes to reach a deal, McCarthy lacked the votes to adjourn.

Instead, lawmakers went two ways overnight: vote on the House floor for president, while negotiations continued behind closed doors.

The result did not change during the plenary vote.

While the GOP holdouts shifted who got their votes against McCarthy (Boebert nominated Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma on the 9th ballot and Gaetz nominated Trump on the 11th ballot), neither sided with McCarthy.

Twenty-one Republicans did not support McCarthy on ballot number seven.

The same in round eight, nine, ten and 11.

Behind the scenes, however, holdouts not in the "Never Kevin" camp continued to talk to McCarthy and his allies, inching closer to an agreement.

On Thursday night, there was an offer written "on paper."

Three of the key negotiators, Emmer, Roy and Donalds, met with McCarthy in his ceremonial office, following a session in Emmer's office for a group to review the written agreement to break the impasse they were in.

Another group met in the dining room on the first floor of the Capitol to discuss a separate part of the written agreement.

“We're still working on it,” Roy said as he walked out of Emmer's office.

“Each meeting is more positive than the last.

And that's a very good sign," Rep. Patrick McHenry, a key negotiator on McCarthy's side, told reporters.

Discussions in Emmer's office continued late into the night on Thursday in an attempt to reach a yes.

They brought them Chipotle food for dinner.

One factor complicating the talks was that a handful of Republicans were expected to leave Washington because of family problems.

Buck was absent Thursday afternoon for a planned medical procedure.

Representative Wesley Hunt flew back to Texas to be with his wife and his newborn, who had to spend some time in the neonatal intensive care unit.

'McCarthy'

This Friday morning, House Democrats celebrated the two-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021 assault on the steps of the Capitol.

Only one Republican attended: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

The Republicans once again met as a conference for the first time since Tuesday's heated meeting.

This time, McCarthy arranged a conference call, which could be more easily handled, rather than an in-person session.

On the call, McCarthy said no deal had been reached yet, but progress had been made.

He specifically thanked Roy, a key holdout, for playing him.

Before the House returned to session, McCarthy predicted that he would win over some holdouts, though there was still reason to be pessimistic.

"I'm voting for Byron Donalds," Norman told CNN on his way into the room, implying that he was still reviewing the recent deal.

The 12th ballot for president began the same as the previous 11.

Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona was the first Republican to vote against McCarthy.

Then Bishop, McCarthy's next opponent on the roll call, rose to cast his vote.

“McCarthy,” Bishop said, prompting his fellow Republicans to leap from their seats to a standing ovation.

New Rep. John Brecheen of Oklahoma was the next to change his vote, prompting another round of Republican cheers.

By the end of roll call, 14 holdouts, including Norman, had said McCarthy's name.

He was still short of votes to become president, but the tide had turned.

Only seven opponents to McCarthy remained.

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On the 13th ballot, the Republican leader eliminated one more detractor, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland.

The House voted to adjourn the session until 10 pm ET, providing time both for McCarthy's two missing supporters to return to Washington and for McCarthy allies to increase the pressure on remaining opponents.

McCarthy needed two more votes.

He and his allies targeted Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana and freshman Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona to support McCarthy or vote present, lowering the vote threshold needed to win a majority.

There were multiple paths to a majority and the McCarthy presidency.

The simplest path was to get two more votes to 218. But if McCarthy's remaining Republican opponents did not vote for him, he could still get a majority if three of six detractors voted "present."

In addition to Rosendale and Crane, McCarthy allies considered Boebert as a possible present vote.

Gaetz and Boebert seemed to acknowledge that the end of the presidential race was near before the House returned to session.

The two participated in a joint interview with Fox's Sean Hannity and expressed vague optimism that the rule changes had been won by the holdouts.

But when the House returned to session, Gaetz approached McCarthy's top aide and asked if the House could adjourn until Monday.

Gaetz's offer was rejected, leading to final chaos over the course of ballots 14 and 15.

Early Saturday morning, after 14 losses and more than 84 hours after the opening of the 118th Congress, the House Secretary finally announced that McCarthy was elected House Speaker.

Before the chaos over the final vote, McCarthy had expressed optimism Friday that the long-running gavel fight would actually be a positive for Republicans.

“So this is the important thing.

Because it took so long, we have now learned to govern," McCarthy said.

“So now we can do the job,” he added.

Gaetz, however, suggested that the historic dispute would have a different impact on McCarthy's oratory.

Because of the concessions, Gaetz argued, McCarthy will rule in a "straitjacket."

CNN's Jessica Dean, Kristin Wilson, Morgan Rimmer, Phil Mattingly, Nicky Robertson, Katherine Sullivan, Kit Maher and Clare Foran contributed to this report.

House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2023-01-07

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