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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 speaker's clear relief. that was easy, huh? laughter i never thought we'd 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 not been elected... it took 15 ballots because right—wing republicans refused to vote for their ...

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 there's nothing about this that should make people feel good. kevin mccarthy, obviously, feels good because he's realized his lifelong ambition. but at what cost? >> you will see the film, it's going to be called knives out. and we will be subjected to it for the next two years. look, kevin mccarthy, this is a moment of high drama. the fact that he ran up to stop the adjournme...

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 party's 212, the last six holdouts all voted present. the uniqueness of this congressional proceeding is that it was the most protracted speaker election since 1859 and...

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 there's a dictatorship. in fact, this is a democracy where we can have open discussion, praise god, and discuss what's on our minds, 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're...

With his party. our washington correspondent, gary o'donoghue, 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 we'd get up. after multiple concessions, days of arm—twisting, and some tempers almost boiling over, kevin mccarthy finally persuaded enough ...