Kevin McCarthy finally won the position of speaker of the House.
It was a wild scene that played out in front of the cameras.
And then Kevin McCarthy said three words that no one ever thought they would hear.
Kevin McCarthy secured enough votes to become the next speaker of the House on the 15th ballot that concluded shortly after midnight on January 7.
McCarthy reached the vote threshold when his remaining conservative opponents agreed to vote “present” after extracting massive concessions that checked the swamp and enabled conservatives to play a bigger role in dictating the direction of the Republican majority.
Conservatives held out for four days because McCarthy and his establishment allies would not fully meet their demands.
The members opposing McCarthy believed McCarthy worked on behalf of the swamp and that after four years of Nancy Pelosi’s disastrous and dictatorial leadership, it was time to make the House function again.
Conservatives secured rule changes limiting bills to one subject, allowing for open amendment votes, permitting just one member to propose a motion to vacate the chair and get rid of the speaker, as well as key committee assignments that increase the power of conservatives to stop massive spending bills.
For much of the process, the media mocked Donald Trump for his supposedly waning influence in the GOP.
Trump endorsed McCarthy’s bid for speaker of the House, but Trump supporters like Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert declared that Trump was wrong and Trump should instead tell McCarthy to drop out of the race.
But before the final vote, President Trump called the holdouts and urged them to support McCarthy.
What they did was all vote “present” which lowered the threshold of votes McCarthy needed to 215 which was enough to put him over the top.
After the vote McCarthy wanted to “thank President Trump” for help with his victory.
McCarthy stated:
But I do want to especially thank President Trump. I don’t think you should doubt–anybody should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning… And he was all in. He would call me and he would call others.
And he really was – I was just talking to him tonight – helping get those final votes. And what he’s really saying really for the party and the country, that we have to come together. We have to focus on the economy. We’ve got to focus, make our border secure. We’ve got to do so much work to do, and he was a great influence to make that all happen. So, thank you, President Trump.
Donald Trump angered many of his supporters by endorsing McCarthy for speaker.
The media spent days claiming Trump no longer had any influence in the party.
That clearly is not the case.
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