After Gauntlet Of Humiliation, McCarthy Finally Wins Speakership

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After a bruising few days and a gauntlet of failed votes, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) finally became speaker of the House just after midnight on Saturday.

It can’t have been the victory lap he imagined, seven years after he, as heir apparent to the exiting John Boehner, had to withdraw his name from contention so as not to risk the shambolic spectacle of this last week.

Even his triumph was mired in humiliation, as he strode into the chamber for the 14th vote Friday night, projecting confidence. After telling reporters that he had the votes, he lost again, with Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) “present” vote leaving him one short.

In the end, McCarthy’s speakership was nearly lost to the same faction of the party he’s empowered during his time in leadership: the far-right wing. While he managed to win over a few from that contingent, the crux of the Never Kevins all came from its ranks.

The struggle portends the chaos to come, as McCarthy will have to manage the right-wing trolls, while not sending the newly elected purple district Republicans (and some blue district Republicans, particularly from New York) directly into the meat grinder in two years. It also gives a clear indication of how this group of Republicans — thanks to the party’s disappointing midterm results, a big enough bloc to completely disrupt business — will operate in the majority. They’ve already indicated a desire to hold the debt ceiling hostage, threatening to spark total financial collapse in exchange of political concessions — chatter about which reemerged during McCarthy’s talks with the hardliners. None of it spells an easy time for Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Staking his political value and longevity on amenability and ideological flexibility, McCarthy has made a career out of avoiding punishing his party’s right flank when its members did everything from trying to overturn an election to posting threatening pictures of other members. The burn-it-all-down caucus repaid him by opposing his speakership for days, making him a historic figure through the sheer number of attempts it took for him to win the gavel.

Momentum finally started to swing McCarthy’s way Friday afternoon, when he picked up 15 new supporters and fell only a few votes shy of the majority needed. The improved performance came after furious whipping and negotiations within the caucus; Perry said he’d only changed his vote because there was a “framework” for a deal “in place.”

But McCarthy didn’t win the two votes after that either, losing the 14th round in an absolute stunner, after Gaetz voted “present,” leaving McCarthy a vote short. McCarthy immediately walked over to Gaetz, and the two had a tense conversation. McCarthy walked away with his hands up. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) came flying in to confront Gaetz seconds later, and was physically restrained by his colleagues.

So, after days of embarrassing Republican disarray, McCarthy has been named speaker. What was once a near-automatic promotion came at the cost of days of publicly losing, kowtowing to the most radical part of his party, offering forced smiles for the cameras and putting a couldn’t-make-this-up coda on Nancy Pelosi’s reign.

McCarthy got the gavel — but it couldn’t have been the triumph he pictured. And it doesn’t bode very well for his two years ahead.

More on other news below. Let’s dig in.

— Kate Riga

The Fake Electors Are Key To What Happened On Jan. 6

It’s been two years since the violence of January 6, and there’s still a lot we don’t know about the breadth of the plot that led to the breach of the Capitol. But what’s come into focus through interviews, the Meadows Texts, and the release of evidence gathered by the January 6 Committee is that the fake electors were central to the plot.

What’s odd about this is the new evidence has changed my understanding of how Trump’s attempt to overturn the election result played out in a few ways. Namely, the fake electors more and more seem to be the glue that held many of the disparate attempts to cling to power together; they provided justification for Trump to keep pressuring people to reverse the election result after Dec. 14, they may have played a role in Jeffrey Clark’s attempt to hijack the DOJ, and they were the people who Mike Pence would have called forth had he caved into pressure on January 6 itself. We’re still digging into the full story of the break in our country’s long, interrupted streak of peaceful transfers of power, and will have more for you on the fake electors and the full role they played shortly.

— Josh Kovensky

Santos In Limbo

You’ve no doubt read at least a fraction of the lies and half-truths sprinkled throughout Rep.-elect George Santos’s (R-NY) resume: that he worked at several top financial institutions before his bid for Congress; that he earned a degree in economics and finance at Baruch College; that he’s Jewish (as opposed to “Jew-ish”). Prosecutors seem to think some of these lies may have been covering criminal activity, but they are still unraveling those details.

Now that he’s being tailed by law enforcement federal, state, and international authorities, Santos has found himself in a peculiar limbo: not yet sworn in, not yet arrested.

He’ll almost certainly still be seated. A 1969 SCOTUS ruling prohibits people elected to the House from being excluded from office, no matter what they’re accused of. On the flipside, he gains no immunities: He can still be charged for any crimes he may have committed before election. But how much his dishonesty could have violated the law remains to be seen.

“What’s the line between a falsehood that’s typically recognized as part of a political give-and-take, and what’s a lie that goes to the heart of your ability to be elected?” former federal prosecutor Stanley Brand told TPM. “That’s never been litigated.”

— Kaila Philo

‘Tis The Season For Corruption

The odds were never in their favor.

In case you missed it last week, head here to check out TPM’s Golden Duke winners for 2022 — the ones who did the worst the best.

Thanks for Duke-ing with us and join us again next year! New scoundrels, same place. 

— Nicole Lafond