Friday, kevin mccarthy, the republican leader of the us house of representatives, was able to gain enough support to become the next speaker of the house. fifteen of the twenty holdouts changed their votes in his favour, leaving only six diehard dissidents. congressman scott perry of pennsylvania changed his mind on the eleventh ballot, which proved to be a turning point. republican representatives who had missed the earlier votes were flying back to washington, dc to cast their ballots in support of mccarthy’s bid.
Events transpired on friday, when the house reconvened in washington, dc. in an effort to appease the rebels, mccarthy had offered various concessions, including a seat on the influential rules committee, and had agreed to lower the threshold for triggering a vote on unseat the speaker to only one house member. democrats warned that the same extremist forces that had disrupted president biden’s certification two years ago, were still impacting the house republicans.
Vote count exceeded that of hakeem jeffries, the first black person to ever lead a party in congress. in order to gain the majority of votes needed to become speaker, mccarthy had to turn the tide in his favour by offering concessions and getting republican defectors to change their votes in his favour. this was the first time since 1860 that the house had voted this many times in order to pick a speaker. ultimately, mccarthy was able to gain the support he needed to become speaker of the house, setting the agenda and overseeing legislative business- second in line to the presidency after the us vice-president.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64193932?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
