Page 13 - Arm Twisting News Today

Cheering and applause ..to cheers from republicans in the house. chanting: usa! usa! usa! the democrat leader, hakeem jeffries, handed over the gavel. . .. kevin mccarthy. cheering and applause ..to the new speakers clear relief. that was easy, huh? laughter i never thought wed get up here. this should have been a straightforward process, after republicans won a slim majority in the house last year. it usually takes just one ballot. not this time. a speaker has not been elected... a speaker has ...

Embarrassing and a failure of leadership and, you know, an example of treachery. and yes, the stars of it were the people who are most closely associated with the events of last january 6th. >> yeah. >> mm-hmm. >> and so theres nothing about this that should make people feel good. kevin mccarthy, obviously, feels good because hes realized his lifelong ambition. but at what cost? >> you will see the film, its going to be called knives out. and we will be subjected to it for the next two years. lo...

To be adjourning for the weekend there was more arm twisting. suddenly mccarthy was smiling again. they undertook a 15th vote. andy biggs changed his vote to another candidate to present, got a standing ovation. then representative elect eli crane changed his vote to present. the calendar turned over from the second anniversary of january 6th to now january 7th. in the end, mccarthy had 216 votes, hakeem jeffries maintained his partys 212, the last six holdouts all voted present. the uniqueness ...

Newly sworn-in freshman, congresswoman monica de la cruz about this historic speaker vote and all she witnessed, the multiple rounds of ballots that had to be taken before mccarthy got the gavel. this is what she said about the whole experience. >> we live in a democracy. this is not cuba or china where theres a dictatorship. in fact, this is a democracy where we can have open discussion, praise god, and discuss whats on our minds, finally come to consensus and move forward. and you saw democrac...

With his party. our washington correspondent, gary odonoghue, reports. it took them four days and 15 separate ballots before they finally got there. the honourable kevin mccarthy of the state of california, having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected speaker of the house of representatives. cheering. not since the american civil war more than 160 years ago has it taken this long to elect a speaker. that was easy, huh? i never thought wed get up. after multiple concessions, days...

Matt had talked to me before. matt really wanted to get everybody there and so there -- look, through all of this peoples emotions go up and down and at the end of the night matt got everybody there to the point that it worked so it helped unite them. >> we certainly saw over the course of this week and especially in the very wee hours of this morning real-time arm twisting and negotiating going on. we saw the cameras fixated to so many members out on the floor, talking and negotiatinegotiatin. ...

Democracy. this is not cuba or china where there is a dictatorship. in fact, this is a democracy where we can have open discussion, praise god, and discuss whats on our mind. finally come to consensus and move forward. and you saw democracy play out over the last week and come to consensus in the wee hours of the morning, and now we are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work. >> so what was it consensus or was it arm twisting? how do you describe what you witnessed? >> well, look, we have ...

0 >> now theyre going through the scraps, the people that missed their vote. these are the key votes, and matt gaetz is the keyest of them all. lets listen in. >> gaetz. >> present. >> present. >> he voted present. that will not be enough to deliver the speakership to kevin mccarthy. kevin mccarthy needed matt gaetz to vote yes. they needed -- present votes dont hurt. its at least a nod in the right direction, but they needed three of the holdouts to vote present not two. lets listen in. gosar v...

Now? what is happening with -- i think it was david urban who said this and this is just my experience in covering the hill, this is dead on, i mean, look at the conversation youre seeing right now. i dont know how hard theyre trying -- >> theres rosendale on the left from montana. >> it is very likely that it is the flippers, today, the 14 flippers who are the ones on the front lines working those who are still hold-outs like rosendale who were seeing right there in the red tie. i mean, youre s...

Right now there is, obviously, a huge effort going on, as dana bash says, arm twisting, also im sure some encouragement in terms of re-election races and fund committee posts and every possible tool at their disposal. im told congressman patrick mchenry of north carolina who is a kevin mccarthy deputy is doing owemans work out there trying to convince some of these reluctant individuals. theres congressman barr who was one of the big flippers. and well see what happens. i am not hearing right no...