speaker of the house, kevin mccarthy has finally been sworn in after waiting on the historic 15th ballot. it is not my solemn responsibility to hand over the peoples gavel. look to a son of bakersfield, a former small business owner, a proud product of a firefighters household. but the gentleman from the great state of california and the next speaker of the 118 congress, kevin mccarthy. [applause] that was easy, you write? i never thought we d get up here. my father always told me, it s not how you start it s how you finish and now we need to finish strong for the american people. to leader jeffries, there will be times we agree, and many tanks we will defer. i promise our debates will be passionate, but they will never be personal. but that s my commitment to you. after taking his own oath of office says the speakers were in the members of the 118th congress and despite making a broad range of concessions, speaker mccarthy only won his office with 216 votes. too short