let me be the first to tell you that there is finally a new speaker of the house, and the 118 congress has officially been convened. it took four days, and 15 tries, but in the early hours of this morning, the california congressman, kevin mccarthy, was finally elected the new speaker, putting him third in line for the presidency of the united states. it was a tough road getting there, especially last night, when tensions between republican members themselves, almost reached a breaking point. from the house reconvened at 10 pm last night, republicans appeared hopeful that they had votes to elect mccarthy on the 14th ballot, but when that seem headed for baylor, mccarthy s allied huddled around the florida congressman, matt gates, to get him to vote for mccarthy. instead, gates voted present, which is not good enough to win mccarthy in speakership. after the roll call, mccarthy himself approached gates, the two exchanged words amid a group of other lawmakers. mccarthy was the
angela garber in out of new york. he was a member of the homeland security and small business committees in the last congress, he s also the chair of the climate solutions caucus, and a member of the problem solvers caucus. congressman, good to see, thank you for being with us this morning. exhausting time for the country, and exhausting time for republicans this last week. we are starting this congress off with a bit of a big stain in the middle of our shirts. well, you know, we have a speaker and i think everybody is excited, and congress can now get to the work that the american people elected them to do. so, i think it took 15 votes, but i m excited to finally say, speaker kevin mccarthy, and i think after this week it took a couple extra days than normal, but i think the republican party is a little more unified now. like i said, it took a little longer, but now we know how to work together and move things forward. that s going to be very helpful,
evident back in 2006. a year of sleaze and corruption in congress, from 2005 to 2006, just ahead of the midterm elections, for republican congressman resigned on ethics scandals and criminal indictments. democrats portrayed the republican party as enmeshed in a culture of corruption. yet congressman joe cunningham, who resigned and she doesn t five after accepted more than $2 million in bribes and bribery, male frat, wire fraud, and tax of. asian congressman mark foley was accused of sending teenage boys sexually explicit ten messages. he denied the allegations at the time, but was never charged criminally. tom delay to violating campaign finance laws, and money laundering. delay was also connected to lobbyist abramoff pleaded guilty to
the votes when congress resumed its duties after the attack. all six, are members of, or are associated with, the fear in congress. the most ultraconservative group in the house. gates and his allies have tried to explain their actions this week as, democracy and action, arguing that they were giving voice to their constituents back home, but their actions this week were in fact a deliberate act to interfere with a regular functioning government, and to grab more power for themselves. keep in mind, if this had been the convening of congress after a presidential election, congress would not have been able to certify the votes for president because members hadn t been sworn in, because there is no speaker just for the man, there was no congress until 2:00 this morning. that s something to keep in mind, as the 2024 election cycle gets underway. now, that the 118th congress is officially in session, the question isn t just how republicans will govern, but do they want to? i m gonna put tha