American people. he added, in fact, that americans want bipartisan cooperation in congress, not more gridlock. now that that marathon battle is over, cnn s manu raju has the details on how the final vote went down. reporter: after the longest speaker vote since 1859, kevin mccarthy finally secured the speaker s gavel following a chaotic several days, including a near altercation on the house floor late friday night when he was surprised that he ultimately did not get the votes angering some of his closest allies leading to a feud on the floor but ultimately getting to where he needed to go, getting the votes to become the next speaker of the house. mccarthy claiming the speaker s gavel after making a range of concessions to members of the far right part of his conference who are not convinced that he would lead them amid changes to this institution. he did offer several changes on
Cnn s presidential historian joins me now. he is the former director of the nixon presidential library. is there any magic to this snb they say the concessions they extracted they claim are transformational. they claim it will bring more accountability to congress. is that true? and is that something that they re going to be able to sell to the american people given historically what the speaker s role is supposed to be and what the role of congress is supposed to be? that s a great question because it depends how you define accountability. after all, every single member of congress is accountable to the american people. the that includes democrats. and what the ultra conservatives have achieved is they re trying to get a veto power. that s a small minority, a sliver of the american electorate wants to get a veto power over the actions of the entire house. i m not sure that makes the house more accountable.
Committee, and that s significant. former president donald trump also helped mccarthy seal the deal apparently. the new speaker gave him credit after being sworn in. listen. i do want to especially thank president trump. i don t think anybody should doubt his influence. he was with me from the beginning. somebody wrote the doubt he was there. he was all there. he would call me and he would call others and he really was i was just talking to him tonight helping get those final votes. what he s really saying really for the party and the country, that we have to come together. now democrats officially have a new leader as well as house minority leader hakeem jefferies, the first black lawmaker to lead a party in congress. listen. out of many we are one. that s what makes america a great country. and no matter what kind of
Get this. it s unfortunate and it s going to make governance for both democrats and republicans much harder in the 118th congress and apparently the ultra conservatives don t care. yeah. that really helps us to see what this fight for the role of the speaker means in the here and now as we see, you know, the incredible events unfold there in congress. thank you very much. we appreciate it. thank you. thank you very much. a pro russian official says a drone was shot down over the occupied crimea this morning and it happened during what russia promised would be a peaceful orthodox christmas during a unilateral cease-fire. something ukraine said it never really took hold of. that was a ukrainian tank opening fire as russia reportedly attacked ukrainian positions across the country s east and south.
Go up against the senate democrats who control their chamber across the capitol, not to mention the democrat in the white house that will have the power of the purse as well as the senate but they also have investigative powers in the house. i expect them to wield subpoenas very early on in their new majority. for kevin mccarthy, he is relieved that after this very, very tense several days he finally has claimed the speaker s gavel. manu raju, cnn, capitol hill. joining us now is natasha lucet. she is a professor of government at the university of england. at times i felt we were doing a sport play by play just on the floor with everything going on. what did you take from this extraordinary process? i mean, it s been called many things, chaotic, historic. what do you think is the underlying message here what we re about to see in congress? well, like you and i agree,
Powerful, more powerful than speaker pelosi, for example, and there are times in american history where the speaker has been very weak. speaker, soon to be or likely speaker mccarthy is going to be one of the weakest speakers in american history. the issue is whether we can have compromise in washington. we ve just had the 117th congress a series of bipartisan successes moving the ball forward for the nation, moving the ball forward on issues like support for some green policies, support for infrastructure, support for marriage equality, support for ukraine. there have been a series of remarkable bipartisan achievements in the 117th congress. what the ultra conservatives want to prevent in the 118th congress is any similar bipartisan achievement. if we can t seek compromise as a country, then we all suffer. the ultra conservatives don t
Speaker we can continue to advance an agenda that puts people over politics just as we did in the 117th congress with the majority as slim as theirs. [speaking spanish] madam clerk, in accordance with the vote of the house democratic caucus, i m honored to present for election to the office of speaker of the house of representatives for the 118th congress, the name of a man of integrity and intellect who is bold and brilliant and most importantly, a man who leads with love. the honorable hakeem jeffries, representative from the state of new york. [cheers and applause]
What impact will that have on our economy or on the global economy? and in less than nine months in september, we have a vote to fund the government, to pay for our military, social security, medicare and other obligations. what happens on september 30th when government funding runs out and they re in charge? with hakeem jeffries as our speaker, we can continue to advance an agenda that puts people over politics, just as we did in the 117th congress, with a majority as slim as theirs. [ speaking non-english ] madam clerk, as co-chair of the house democratic policy and communications committee and in accordance with the vote of the house democratic caucus, i m honored to present for election to the office of speaker of the house of representatives for the
What impact will that have on our economy, or on the global economy? and in less than nine months in september we have a vote to fund the government, to pay for our military, social security, medicare, and other obligations. what happens on september 30th when government funding runs out and they re in charge? with hakeem jeffries as our speaker, we can continue to advance an agenda that puts people over politics. just as we did in the 117th congress with the majority as slim as theirs. madam clerk, as co-chair of the house democratic policy communications committee, and in accordance with the vote of the house democratic caucus, i m honored to present for election to the office of speaker of the house of representatives for the
Without david, he only needed three more of those rebel votes, as steve kornacki has been explaining to me. with david, he needs four more votes. we will watch to see if he gets that. there are i believe seven left who are still voting no for kevin mccarthy. so four of those seven is what kevin mccarthy needs. let s go back into james comer nominating kevin mccarthy. we ll see if anybody gets up to nominate somebody else within the republican conference. will we see lauren boebert again try to nominate kevin hern? let s watch. a republican majority under speaker kev, this broken congress will finally be fixed and we will return to regular order, and we will drag those senators kicking and screaming along with us every step of the way. [ cheers and applause ]