at long last, kevin mccarthy is the new republican speaker of the house. but to say it didn t come easy, would be a massive understatement. mccarthy scratch out a victory in the early morning hours with just barely more than the absolute minimum support he needed. it took him 15 rounds of voting to get to the finish line. including a scuffle on the house floor on the anniversary of the january six insurrection. the contrast between the two parties has never been clearer. while republicans created new chaos at the capitol, president biden honored the men and women who protected the building and his its occupants from an angry mob just two years ago. and, while gop lawmakers bigger with one another, democratic representatives rallied around their leader, akeem jeffries. while the white house has confirmed that president biden reached out to congratulate mccarthy earlier today, the 118th congress is off to an unforgettable start. we are talking about what comes next, tonight, on
Voting for speaker. This time louisiana congressman mike johnson is the fourth nominee for republicans. Hello, and welcome. Im sandra smith in new york, a big welcome back to you, john. John good to be back, john roberts in washington, and this is america reports. Remains unclear whether mike johnson will have the support to win the job. Chad pergram, of course, has been watching this for what feels like weeks now, because it has been weeks. Chad, whats the latest . They are getting very close to taking yet another ballot here for Speaker Of The House. What they have been doing the past couple of minutes here is putting into nomination the candidate for this particular round, of course mike johnson, the new one here and pete aguilar, the chair of the Democratic Caucus is again nominating Hakeem Jeffries, the democratic leader. This feels different than some of the other chapters we have been through over the past couple of weeks. I talked to a couple members a few minutes ago, members
but, he spoke with the cadence of a baptism editor and a hip-hop artists. it was just incredible be dignity and the grace that he showed. but also, he reached out ahead of the republican side and said, when we can work together, let s try to work together. let s try to find compromise to do things that benefit the american people. i am only concerned that that might be a bridge too far for the republicans. mara, let s finish by talking about trump. who was absent last night, literally and figuratively. a photographer the house chamber caught one of the republican dissenters waving off what appeared to be a phone call from the former president during the vote. could this be a the year when republicans are forced to find new figures to push the party forward, or will they continue to wallow in the divisions trump helped to create?
session? how did you pull off such a big surprise? andrea, thanks for having me. this was a collective decision by the majority of democratic caucus. i give credit to them and we have been unified all session long in fighting these bills republicans continue to push. several members had already left and walked out. we were trying to extend debate on the floor to push the vote closer to the midnight deadline. that was the hard deadline to pass any bills in this legislative session. about 10:30 it was clear that republicans would attempt a procedure maneuver to force a vote and cut off debate. and it was at that point the rest of us left the house chamber. tell me, how are you going to deal with the fact that the
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