successfully take out what they called the establishment, which they really thought of as the enemy. it s funny because that wing of the party, the democrats were the opposition, but their own leadership, their own party structure, they saw them as the enemy, and they successfully took out eric cantor. he was part of this trifecta that was anointed as the young guns. paul ryan, eric cantor, and kevin mccarthy, they were going to take over. cantor goes down. boehner then a year later resigns from congress. not just vacating the speaker, he left. he took his ball and went home. mccarthy was supposed to be the leader at that point. the night before the votes are supposed to happen, the freedom caucus puts out 30 to 40 members saying they re not going to vote for mccarthy. mccarthy bows out of the race, paul ryan ascends. then paul ryan leaves gless. he didn t want to deal it with anymore because it got too crazy. here we are now, all those years later and the same play playing out. a voca
the senate, but the other piece of it that takes me back to the 1856 election, is that in this case, that was before the civil war. we now have had an attack on our capitol, domestic terrorism, and people in congress who participated in or at least supported it. some of them are now either controlled who will be speaker or in line to be speaker. the idea that jim jordan, who is mentioned in the january 6th hearings, the idea that insurrectionists are now the people who will decide who the speaker is, seems to me to be mind blowing from an historical standpoint. it is mind blowing, and i don t know how you felt, joy, but when i heard the news today that the incoming republican majority in the house is insisting on taking out the magnetometers and reducing security around the house chamber, maybe there s a benign explanation of that, but that makes me very nervous, not even two years after january 6th.
the american people. what january 6th proved to us, when a white supremacist mob seized the capitol to interrupt the peaceful transition of power is that white supremacy is a threat to everyone who calls this country home and to our democracy. and in fact, we see across the aisle with the insurrectionests that are still serving here in congress, you know, again, it is anti-democratic, it is a threat to everyone, and they do not care about democracy or the american people. so the democrats have two years to make the affirmative case that we do care about democracy, that we do care about the people. and so we ll continue to fight the good fight. i m very proud to be serving in the commonwealth of massachusetts, having just elected historic governors, lieutenant governors, attorney generals, all women. and also to be serving with the historic mayor. so i m going to be exhaustive in
york, to succeed nancy pelosi as speaker. i rise today at the direction of the house democratic caucus to place into nomination for election to the position of speaker of the house of representatives the pride of brooklyn, hakeem jeffries, of new york. the new york congressman secured 212 votes for speaker. it was the first time since 2007 that a democratic leader won support from every single member of their caucus. jefferies is also now officially the first black lawmaker to lead a party in congress, succeeding the first woman, pelosi. it was a picture of unity within the democratic party and of progress. a changing of the guard in house democratic leadership. even more diverse, younger, reflecting the promise of america. the start of a new congressional year can also be messy, and by messy, we re talking a full-on revolt against kevin mccarthy