SOME SNAPSHOTS OF HELL ON EARTH ON JANUARY 6, 2023

Posted on January 7, 2023 by abyssum

 
POLITICO Playbook
BY RACHAEL BADE
Presented byInstagram
With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
DRIVING THE DAY
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) holds up the Speaker's gavel after winning the House speakership election.Speaker Kevin McCarthy holds the gavel. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
For the first time all week, House Republicans were jubilant and KEVIN McCARTHY’s smile finally seemed genuine. It was 10 p.m. Friday night, and word had spread that after days of painful negotiations and 13 failed ballots, McCarthy finally had the votes to be speaker.But as the clerk started to call the roll, there was a problem. Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) approached McCarthy’s top floor lieutenant, JOHN LEGANSKI, and told him they needed to adjourn the House. The six McCarthy holdouts had discussed a plan to back the GOP leader by voting “present” in tandem so none of them could be fingered as the final vote giving McCarthy the gavel — but Gaetz didn’t have the entire group sold at that moment.If they waited until Monday, Gaetz said, he could probably deliver.That wasn’t an option, Leganski told him. There was no guarantee all 222 Republicans would be in attendance Monday, with several members dealing with family emergencies. The wife of Rep. ROGER WILLIAMS (R-Texas) was undergoing treatment for a newly discovered brain tumor, and Rep. WESLEY HUNT (R-Texas) had left his wife’s bedside to fly back for the expected final vote. She has struggled with medical issues, Hunt said Friday, after giving premature birth to a baby boy.Gaetz went back to his seat, but he wasn’t about to deliver McCarthy the deciding vote for the gavel. Just days before, he had suggested he’d rather be waterboarded. So he voted “present” — leaving McCarthy just short of a majority on the 14th ballot.McCarthy made a beeline for Gaetz. “Matt, come on,” he told him, according to a person present. “You’ve made your point. People have to go home.” Gaetz replied this wouldn’t be happening if they’d adjourned as he’d suggested.So began a wild, 28-minute floor scramble that salvaged an unimaginably messy start to the new House Republican majority and finally fulfilled McCarthy’s long dream of wielding the speaker’s gavel.At 11:03, after confronting Gaetz in the back benches, a defeated and dejected McCarthy headed back to his seat at the front of the chamber. A top ally, Rep. PATRICK McHENRY (R-N.C.), moved to adjourn the House until Monday — a risky plan that would send the GOP’s leadership turmoil into a second week.Then McCarthy’s whips went back to work. McHenry, who had been leading negotiations with conservatives, reiterated to Gaetz the concessions that his fellow conservative hard-liners had won. What more, he demanded to know, could they do to break the logjam?Earlier that week, Gaetz had insisted on a House Armed Services subcommittee gavel as his prize for backing McCarthy. McCarthy told him he couldn’t give him that position — that decision was up to committee Chair MIKE ROGERS (R-Ala.). But as they struggled to nail down votes that night, leadership talked through the idea again — even after Rogers had confronted Gaetz on the floor in one of the night’s most dramatic moments.As McHenry tried to fix the problem, Rep. MATT ROSENDALE (R-Mont.) came into the aisle to cheer Gaetz on. “We got your back,” he said, according to a person present. “Hold the line. You’re not on your own.”Meanwhile, Majority Whip TOM EMMER sat next to Gaetz, with Chief Deputy Whip GUY RESCHENTHALER standing on the aisle — blocking Gaetz from leaving but keeping other angry Republicans (some of whom had been drinking) from approaching and making things worse. The whips pulled on the holdouts’ heartstrings, reminding them about Rogers and Hunt and their wives.“Think about the human element of this,” one McCarthy ally told Gaetz.At one point, Reschenthaler turned to Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) with a request: “I need you to get [DONALD] TRUMP on the phone right now,” according to a person who overheard the remark.Greene did just that, calling up the former president and putting him on the line with both Gaetz and fellow holdout Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT , as CNN’s Kaitlan Collins first reported. He would later talk to other holdouts, though one McCarthy foe, Rosendale, refused to talk to him, a rejection captured in a striking photo by Al Drago. “Don’t put me in that situation!” he yelled at Greene.
Twitter screenshot
Trump angrily told the group to knock it off, according to a person familiar with the conversations, arguing that the televised mayhem was making him look bad. “He ripped them a new asshole,” the person said.Amid the full-court press, the holdouts ping-ponged between huddles before finally agreeing that McCarthy would ultimately get the gavel one way or another and that they should let fate take its course.Gaetz, who had already voted to adjourn until Monday, walked to the clerk’s desk at 11:31 and pulled a red slip to change his vote. He found McCarthy and told him the group would clear the way for him to get the gavel.McCarthy immediately yelled for a 15th and final vote, sparking an eruption of cheers from his rank-and-file. Members chanted “One more time! One more time!” as dozens went to change their votes for adjournment.An hour later, McCarthy prevailed. He won 216 votes, with the six holdouts all voting present. Not a single GOP vote was cast against him.It was a remarkable and suitably dramatic ending to the wildest speaker race in modern congressional history. We highly recommend diving into the killer accounts of the floor spectacle from our Olivia Beavers, Sarah Ferris and Jordain Carney; from Mel Zanona and the rest of the CNN team; and from WaPo’s Paul Kane and Dylan Wells.Good Saturday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook. Sorry we’re so late sending today! We were working the phones trying to get a full tick-tock on all of last night’s drama! Drop us a line anytime: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.The must-see video clips, via C-SPAN: The McCarthy-Gaetz-Rogers scuffle… McCarthy and Gaetz talking before the final vote… The winning moment… McCarthy sworn in… McCarthy swearing in the membersThe deets: “What’s in McCarthy’s emerging deal with conservatives — and why it could work,” by Olivia Beavers, Sarah Ferris, Connor O’Brien and Meredith Lee HillThe view from back home: “‘Kevin Who?’ In McCarthy’s Hometown, a Different Take on His Fate,” by David Siders in Bakersfield, Calif. … “Kevin McCarthy wins his dream job, but at a humiliating and stifling cost,” by L.A. Times’ Jeffrey Fleishman and Melanie Mason … “Column: Kevin McCarthy ‘won’ the House speakership. Now the country will pay the price,” by L.A. Times’ Mark BarabakThe view from the other side: “How Democrats could exploit the McCarthy situation,” by WaPo’s Aaron BlakeKnowing Eli Crane: “How the last freshman holdout against McCarthy made it to Congress,” by Ally MutnickThe media lens: “The flailing, tedious thrill of reporting on the House leadership fight,” by WaPo’s Paul FarhiMore reads: “Speaker Fight Could Preview Months of Turmoil in Congress,” by WSJ’s Lindsay Wise, Andrew Duehren and Kristina Peterson … “McCarthy speaker battle shows a party still incoherent, ungovernable,” by WaPo’s Michael Scherer … “Speaker McCarthy: A weakened leader or emboldened survivor?” by AP’s Lisa Mascaro… “This congressman carried his baby around the Capitol all week,” by WaPo’s Roxanne Roberts
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NEW JMART COLUMN: “Gingrich and Pelosi Agree: The GOP Is Rudderless”: “NANCY PELOSI was never shy about her skillset — she often called herself ‘a master legislator’ — yet when I caught up with her this week in the Capitol she downplayed her talents to make a point about the structural differences between the two parties.“‘People always give me credit, “Oh you keep them together,”’she recalled of her days leading House Democrats, though still using the present-tense. ‘I said I really don’t, our values keep us together. We’re committed to America’s working families. If you don’t have that, what’s your why?’ Republicans, Pelosi said, lack that why. …“NEWT GINGRICH said his party is contending with a band of ‘deranged disrupters’ in the House, a cadre of ‘Biden Republicans’ enabling the president in the Senate and ‘a grassroots base that wants anger.’ Stuck in the middle, Gingrich said, is the sunny son of 1970s Bakersfield.”PHOTOS OF THE DAY …It was an historic day inside the House chamber on Friday. While much of the action unfolded live on C-SPAN, a host of ace photographers were also on hand to capture the couldn’t-miss moments for history.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Ga.) argues with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on the House floor.Gaetz speaks to McCarthy after voting “present” on the 14th ballot. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., left, pulls Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., back as they talk with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and others during the 14th round of voting for speaker as the House meets for the fourth day to try and elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. At right is Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) pulls Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) back as he spoke with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
House Speakership ElectionGaetz flexes. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: U.S. Rep.-elect Katie Porter (D-CA) reads a book in the House Chamber during the fourth day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives is meeting to vote for the next Speaker after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to earn more than 218 votes on several ballots; the first time in 100 years that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot.Rep.Katie Porter (D-Calif.) reads a book during speaker votes. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., laugh in the House chamber as the House meets for the fourth day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries laugh in the House chamber. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
 
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WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 07: U.S. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) greets Rep.-elect Lance Gooden (R-TX) and his children Milla and Liam in the House Chamber during the fourth day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 07, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives is meeting to vote for the next Speaker after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to earn more than 218 votes on several ballots; the first time in 100 years that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot.Rep.Lance Gooden’s (R-Texas) daughter high-fives McCarthy. | Win McNamee/Getty Images
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reacts after winning the 15th vote in the House chamber as the House enters the fifth day trying to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, early Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023.McCarthy celebrates winning the 15th vote for speaker. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo
Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., are sworn in by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy of Calif., as members of the 118th Congress in Washington, early Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023.House members, including Reps. George Santos (R-N.Y.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), are sworn in. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: U.S. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (L) embraces Rep.-elect Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in the House Chamber during the fourth day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives is meeting to vote for the next Speaker after McCarthy failed to earn more than 218 votes on 13 ballots over three days; the first time in 100 years that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot. McCarthy embraces Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 07: U.S. Rep-elect Tim Burchett (R-TN) (2nd-L), Rep.-elect Matt Gaetz (R-FL) (C) and Rep.-elect George Santon (R-NY) (R) congratulate House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (L) after he is elected Speaker of the House in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 07, 2023 in Washington, DC. After four days of voting and 15 ballots McCarthy secured enough votes to become Speaker of the House for the 118th Congress.McCarthy and Gaetz shake hands. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., gestures towards the newly installed nameplate at his office after he was sworn in as speaker of the 118th Congress in Washington, early Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023.

About abyssum

I am a retired Roman Catholic Bishop, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, Texas
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