On Friday afternoon, it was clear that key conservative Republicans had wrung every concession they were going to get from speaker-in-waiting Kevin McCarthy in their “bruising” quest to change the way the U.S. House of Representatives does its business. So, when the 14th 15th vote for House speaker came early Saturday morning, the key holdouts gave overt and tacit approval to hand McCarthy Nancy Pelosi’s big-assed gavel.
Some of the behind-the-scenes drama was more interesting than the vote itself.
Newly elected Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) boomeranged back to D.C., flying back for the vote after his son was born prematurely. Even as his son was in a neonatal care unit, he came back to Capitol Hill to provide a key vote.
Earlier Friday evening, Never-Kevin House firebrands Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program to signal a dramatic softening of their views.
This has never been about me or Kevin McCarthy. It's about the American people.
America wants to know that the rules of the House of Reps would never allow something like this horrendous omnibus bill to ever pass ever again.
That's what @RepBoebert and I have been working on. pic.twitter.com/TpBr2xZs0X
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) January 7, 2023
Indeed, as the votes were called, both Boebert and Gaetz voted present to provide McCarthy with two key votes that were at least not against him. But it turns out that wasn’t the plan.
Related: BREAKING: Kevin McCarthy Elected 55th Speaker of the House. Here’s How It Went Down.
At one point, there were heated arguments at the back of the House chamber that captured the attention of many congressional representatives. Brett Baier of Fox News reported that a source characterized it as being “hot in here.” Democrat reps such as Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee stopped everything, stood up, and rubber-necked to watch the heated debate.
Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) walks away from Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as an altercation with Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) breaks out during a session of the House of Representatives to elect a Speaker of the House. Jack Gruber-USA TODAY @guygruber @usatoday pic.twitter.com/iUiXbdp9RV
— Andrew P. Scott (@apscott) January 7, 2023
It appears that Boebert and/or Gaetz were at the center of the dispute. It’s unclear what the dispute was about. But read on, because there could be an explanation.
As The Hill reported, one of the present votes was unexpected.
In a stunning display on the chamber floor late Friday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) cast a dramatic present vote for Speaker, which is preventing Rep. Kevin McCarthy from securing the 217 total votes he needs to win the Speakership.
McCarthy has 216 votes, with 212 for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and four Republicans voting for other candidates. Gaetz and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) voted present.
Democrats played a big role in the drama as well. Newly minted Maryland Democrat David Trone was called back from his surgery sickbed to be a seat-filler to increase the denominator to force McCarthy and Republicans to get to the requisite number of votes.
7AM: Surgery
2PM: Back at the Capitol, still wearing my slippers and hospital socksTime to vote for Hakeem Jeffries! pic.twitter.com/Xvyg8VL4Wp
— Rep. David Trone (@RepDavidTrone) January 6, 2023
At one point, Gaetz and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) “nearly came to blows… as frustrations exploded on Friday night in the House of Representatives, with the 14th ballot for speaker leaving Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) one vote short,” according to The Washington Examiner.
It got worse:
Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) was seen physically restraining Rogers from barreling toward Gaetz after a heated exchange in which Gaetz seemingly refused to switch his vote from “present” to one in favor of McCarthy, putting an end to four days of stalemate.
Reportedly Hudson yelled at Gaetz, “I won’t forget this, Matt!”
According to Fox News, Boebert was a Never-Kevin vote who was expected to change her “present” vote to “McCarthy” and failed to do so when the 14th vote was called. As the night wore on, that claim grew murkier.
Andy Biggs, a Never Kevin, switched his 15th-round vote from “other” to “present.” Biggs, an Arizona conservative, had vowed not to “participate in the continuation of the Uniparty.”
Among the later concessions agreed to by McCarthy was the creation of a special committee that would investigate the U.S. intelligence agencies ala the 1970s-era Frank Church committee.
Marjorie Taylor Greene at one point displayed her phone to other congressional reps showing a “DT” identifier. It seems Donald Trump was busily making calls in real time to representatives during the votes.
She called it “the perfect phone call.”
It was the perfect phone call. pic.twitter.com/aRpf5pefoU
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 7, 2023
At 12:29 a.m. McCarthy got the crucial vote to become speaker.
Here’s the one thing to remember: the holdouts didn’t ask for earmarks for their districts or personal gratification. They held out for rules to make legislative moves more transparent, spend less taxpayer money, and put conservatives on a more even election playing field in the future.
Congratulations, Kevin McCarthy. Let the investigations begin.
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