alliance among them. at one point, a fight almost broke out on the house floor, but perhaps the most telling moment came at the very end. on his way out of the capital, at around two a.m. after finally taking his oath of office as speaker, mccarthy stopped to talk to reporters to give special thanks to a special someone. i do especially think president trump. i don t think anybody should doubt his influence. he was with me from the beginning, somebody wrote that out of what he was there, and he was all in. he was all in. kevin mccarthy maybe the speaker, but this is donald trump s house. built on the backs of trump s republican acolytes whose jobs depend on the support of donald trump s own base. but dynamics that were on display during a four-day speakership battle have continued to play out in the six months since. the chaos caucus republicans, many of whom are trump loyalists and some of whom participated in the attempt to deny mccarthy the speakership, brought the cou
brink of economic default, just a few weeks ago. encouraged by trump to stonewall efforts to reach a deal on the debt limit. but mccarthy s speakership so far it will likely be remembered for republicans many efforts to avenge donald trump, to take action against his critics, against those who would hold him to account and to rewrite the narrative of his first presidential term in order to pave the way for his reelection. in january, republicans quickly approve the so-called subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, chaired by the trump henchmen, jim jordan, and seemingly created to validate and legitimize trump s many grievances. days after that, mccarthy blocked democratic congressman alec shiffrin and alec smallwell from being reappointed to the important and powerful intelligence committee, both men have served as impeachment managers, and had earned the former presidents i are. since then, schiff has also been censured by house republicans. house republicans hav