a warm welcome to all of your viewers in the united states and around the world. i m paula newton. coming up this hour. and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you re about to enter, so help you god? yes, i do. congratulations and god speed. and god speed indeed. with that, kevin mccarthy finally becomes speaker of the house. hear what mccarthy had to say as he takes over that gavel, and how democrats are already responding. all this comes as washington marks a dark day in its history. how the january 6th insurrection was commemorated and the latest prosecutions against those involved. and a school shooting in virginia leaves a teacher badly wounded, parents shocked and a 6-year-old boy in police custody. announcer: live from cnn center, this is kcnn newsroom with paula newton. four days of marathon voting have finally ended with kevin mccarthy as the new speaker of the u.s. house of representatives. right up unt
Conclusion to this epic political battle, and we mean epic, here s cnn s melanie. reporter: after four days, 15 rounds of voting and one ugly floor fight later kevin mccarthy has become the next speaker of the house. but the victory came after a dramatic moment on the house floor after congressman gaetz cast a present vote. that surprised leadership and everyone on the floor, some people came up to gaetz in anger, at one point matt rogers got into a heated confrontation with matt gaetz, someone had to step up, hold him back, restrain him but cooler heads prevailed and kevin mccarthy was able to go to the next round and become speaker. it s unclear how he was able to flip those remaining holdouts from the last votes but he did credit donald trump. take a listen. i do want to especially thank
Here in the united states and around the world, i m paula newton and you are watching cnn newsroom. u.s. house republican kevin mccarthy now wields the speakers gavel following days and days of failed votes. he finally secured the speakership on the 15th ballot early saturday. the final vote coming after mccarthy confronted key holdout matt gaetz on the floor. the hard liners holding up the process were ultimately swayed by phone calls apparently from former president donald trump and a series of concessions. among the promises, the ability for any member to call for a motion to vacate the speaker s chair, requiring any debt ceiling hike be paired with spending cuts and the creation of an investigative committee to probe the so-called weaponization of the federal government. with a new congress under way, hakeem jeffries is officially house minority leader.
With andy biggs and matt gaetz, two of the holdouts. and this picture now of marjorie taylor greene, it shows that she also received a call from someone with the initials dt. we ll assume it might have been donald trump. good call there. she was a mccarthy supporter from the beginning and was clearly trying to lend a hand. julie norman teaches politics at university college of london, and joins us now. i m breathless from the last few hours. i don t know about you. i don t know how much you ve been observing it from there. they ve been extraordinary, what s gone on there. but more so because this perhaps may not be a one-time thing. it seems republicans realize governing could be a bruising spectacle for the next two years. that s right. there s certainly a huge sigh of relief today and mccarthy will try to frame this as a comeback victory. i think what s interesting about this is it underscores a lot of
My question to you, a book about donald trump. do they matter anymore, because trump fans probably won t hear about them. i think they matter by incentivizing people who would otherwise not vote to come out and vote. honestly, i can t really say. i mean, i think it s important to continue to shed light on things that happened in the trump administration and, you know, hope that the information reaches the people that it needs to reach. but trump supporters, they already live in a parallel universe. that information is never going to reach them and it s very unlikely they re going to change their mind, so it s about informing and reaching audiences who are still engaged with reality and with serious journalism and who understand the importance that journalism plays in our democracy. jean and will, thank you both