January 8, 2023, updates on Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Our live coverage has wrapped up for the day. Go to CNN.com for our latest updates on the 118th Congress.

President Donald Trump and House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy are seen in the Rose Garden of the White House on January 4, 2019.

Kevin McCarthy’s seven-year-plus dream to become House speaker finally became reality early Saturday morning. The California Republican’s tumultuous journey concluded after six Republican holdouts voted “present,” allowing him to win on the 15th ballot with a lower majority threshold.

McCarthy credited Donald Trump for his support in the speaker’s race, and the former president was quick to bask in the glory of McCarthy’s victory.

Make no mistake, though: McCarthy’s struggle to win the speaker’s gavel is only the latest indication that Trump’s brand among Republicans has been significantly weakened. Trump is no doubt still a powerful presence in the GOP, but he’s very vulnerable in his bid to win the Republican presidential nomination for a third time.

Let’s state the facts of what unfolded. McCarthy was backed by Trump from the beginning in his speakership campaign. McCarthy trumpeted Trump’s endorsement, and Trump, in turn, made his preference well known.

It would be difficult to imagine Republicans defying Trump at the height of his power. But that’s exactly what happened this time around. Despite the many appeals from Trump, this year’s speakership process was the longest in over 150 years. It was the first time in a century that more than one ballot had been needed to elect the speaker.

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House Republicans are gearing up to investigate the Department of Justice and the FBI, including their “ongoing criminal investigations,” setting up a showdown with the Biden administration and law enforcement agencies over their criminal probes, particularly those into former President Donald Trump.

The new House GOP majority has proposed that a new select subcommittee be formed – a result of one of the key concessions House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made to his opposition to secure the gavel.

In addition to having the power to investigate all ongoing criminal probes of the executive branch, the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government would also “be authorized to receive information available to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,” giving it access to the most highly classified information in Congress, according to the proposal.

An earlier draft of the select subcommittee proposal gave it less power and was much narrower in scope: It would have only been able to focus on the FBI, DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security, and made no mention of getting access to ongoing criminal investigations.

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, an early holdout against McCarthy who became a key negotiator for the hard-liners, said on Fox News that changes made to the select subcommittee proposal, particularly seeking a budget as big as the January 6 select committee, was key to getting those initially opposed to McCarthy on board.

“So we got more resources, more specificity, more power to go after this recalcitrant Biden administration,” Roy said Friday. “That’s really important.”

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Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama said Sunday he regrets losing his temper on the House floor Friday night during a confrontation with Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Rogers had to be restrained from Gaetz after the Florida Republican failed to support Kevin McCarthy for speaker during the 14th ballot of the dayslong process. Gaetz later voted “present” on the 15th ballot, along with five other Republican holdouts, which lowered the majority threshold for McCarthy to win the speaker’s gavel.

Gaetz said Sunday that Rogers has his “forgiveness” after their confrontation.

In a tweeted a response to Gaetz, Rogers said: “@RepMattGaetz and I have a long and productive working relationship, that I am sure will continue. I regret that I briefly lost my temper on the House Floor Friday evening and appreciate Matt’s kind understanding.”

Chip Roy waits in the House Chamber during the second day of elections for Speaker of the House at the Capitol in Washington, DC on Wednesday.

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who was a key holdout-turned-negotiator in Kevin McCarthy’s fight for the House speakership, indicated Sunday that he could support the use of C-SPAN cameras to film House floor proceedings.

“I think drawing the American people into the conversations, the debate on the floor – I mean if you’re going to have cameras there, let’s look at the action,” Roy told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

During the drawn-out election for speaker, C-SPAN had cameras dispatched around the chamber that captured raw and contentious moments among lawmakers – a rarity for the public. Two of those key moments were when McCarthy confronted Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on the House floor during the 14th round of voting, followed shortly by Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers needing to be restrained when he also confronted Gaetz.

Independent media coverage of proceedings in the House is normally forbidden, and television networks rely on a government feed for coverage. But when there are special events taking place in the House, such as the election for speaker, independent coverage is allowed.

Ben O’Connell, C-SPAN’s director of editorial operations, told CNN’s Oliver Darcy last week that the network would like to be able to do this far more often. C-SPAN has petitioned Congress dozens of times throughout the years to allow it greater editorial discretion over the camera shots it chooses to air.

Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who will lead the House Oversight Committee in the new Congress, pushed back Sunday on charges of partisanship against his panel.

“The only people that see this as a partisan investigation are the media and the hard-core Democrats,” Comer told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet The Press.” “Let me be clear, we’re not investigating Hunter Biden. We’re investigating Joe Biden.”

He continued, “We need to know what is allowable and what isn’t allowable with respect to foreign adversarial intervention among family members of presidents of the United States. That’s something that the Democrats complained about with (Jared) Kushner, and certainly, the Republicans, myself included, have complained about with Hunter Biden and Jim Biden, the President’s son and brother.”

“This isn’t political,” Comer said.

House Republicans have vowed to launch investigations targeting the president and his family dealings now that the party has the majority in the chamber.

With the fight for speaker of the House finally resolved, the House GOP Steering Committee will meet Monday at 10 a.m. ET to select their remaining committee chairs. 

Here are the remaining races that have yet to be decided, along with the names of the Republican lawmakers seeking the respective gavels in parentheses.

Asked Sunday by CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” if he would be the next chair of the Homeland Security Committee, Crenshaw said, “Not up to me.”

The House rules package, which establishes the rules and committees for the 118th Congress, is set to receive a vote on Monday, with the chamber expected to reconvene at 5 p.m. ET.

James Comer speaks during a House Oversight Committee hearing in Washington, DC on December 14, 2022.

Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Sunday that “the overwhelming majority” of House Republicans believe “that Kevin McCarthy needs a chance to govern and we’re going to give him a chance.”

Responding to host Chuck Todd’s assertion that Comer’s support for McCarthy has been tepid, the Kentucky Republican replied that he had given the new speaker “a robust endorsement,” while acknowledging that his constituents “constantly seem disappointed that Republicans aren’t able to do the things that Republicans say they’re going to do.”

“We’ve got to start taking steps to make fundamental change in America,” Comer said about planned votes on congressional term limits and a balanced budget amendment, which were part of the deal to bring along holdout House Republicans to back McCarthy’s speakership bid.

When asked why House Republicans would use the debt ceiling to try to secure spending cuts, Comer said, “The American people need to see that there are people in Congress who are serious about the federal debt.”

“We’ve got to have the debate, whenever and wherever, on the House floor to the federal debt,” he said.

Rep. Jim Jordan, left, speaks with Kevin McCarthy in the House chamber on January 4.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the incoming House Judiciary Committee chair, defended the drawn-out process of getting Kevin McCarthy elected speaker, saying, “Sometimes democracy is messy, but I would argue that’s exactly how the founders intended it.” 

“Whether it’s one vote, or 15 votes, Kevin McCarthy is still speaker of the House. I’ve seen all kinds of games go into extra innings and overtime, that’s just how it works,” Jordan said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

Jordan was nominated for the speakership by several conservative hard-liners over multiple rounds of voting last week, but the Ohio Republican maintained his support for McCarthy.

Jordan also said Sunday that “we’ll see tomorrow” what happens with the House rules package and how many moderate Republicans will come out against it but said he thinks the GOP will get the 218 votes needed to pass it.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise speaks on the House floor on January 3.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Sunday that the internal disputes among Republicans in the chamber that were on public display this past week have “been coming to a head for a long time” but “that’s healthy” for the GOP Conference and for the country.

Scalise later added, “This game has got to end, and those were the discussions we’ve had. And I think that’s healthy, by the way, that we took a few days to make sure that we can set up a Congress that can work for the American people. I wish that had happened years ago.”

Scalise’s remarks echoed the message pushed by many Republicans in the aftermath of the speaker election.

Scalise spoke generally about the party’s priorities going forward and seemed confident Republicans would pass the House rules package on Monday. He was not asked about concerns he might have over potential GOP defections or obstacles in getting enough support for the rules package.

“Well, number one, people know that the madness is over,” he said, when asked about specific measures of relief Americans should expect to experience first under Republican control of the House.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries speaks in the House chamber early Saturday, January 7.

House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday that Democrats are willing to work with “reasonable” Republicans in Congress and again criticized what he called the “dysfunction” of the GOP during this past week’s chaotic speakership vote.

Jeffries said that he was “very, very troubled” by how Congress began this year but that Democrats would “extend the hand of partnership to the other side of the aisle.”

“We’ll see how that all unfolds,” said the minority leader, the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress.

Asked about his relationship with new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Jeffries said that he has had “positive, forward-looking conversations” with the California Republican over the past couple of weeks and that he is “hopeful” they can build on those conversations for the benefit of all Americans.

“That is what I believe the American people would like to see,” Jeffries said.

Rep. Katherine Clark conducts a news conference on Thursday, January 5.

Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, the No. 2 House Democrat, said Sunday that her party is “ready at all times to work for the American people” and that Republicans’ focus on process changes is nothing but a “smokescreen.”

Asked if Democrats would accept any spending cuts as part of any future agreement on raising the debt ceiling, Clark declined to answer directly but criticized the Republican tax cuts under former President Donald Trump.

“We have to look past their rhetoric around ‘This is about process and amendments.’ This is about continuing to rig the system. What has rocketed our deficit is the tax policy they put in place last time they had the majority. And they cannot wait to do it again,” Clark said.  

Rep. Scott Perry speaks in the House chamber on Wednesday, January 4.

Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican who is being investigated by federal prosecutors for his role in trying to impede the transfer of presidential power in 2020, would not rule out serving on the select panel House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has agreed to create that would investigate federal probes by the Department of Justice and the FBI.

He later continued, “I get accused of all kinds of things every single day, as does every member that serves in the public eye. But that doesn’t stop you from doing your job. It’s our duty and it’s my duty.”

Federal investigators have obtained access to several email accounts, a draft autobiography and other writings in which Perry, Donald Trump elections attorney John Eastman, and former Justice Department officials Jeffrey Clark and Ken Klukowski discussed the 2020 election, according to an order in the DC District Court that was released last month.

The order indicates how broad a net federal prosecutors have cast for information from top Trump backers as part of the sprawling criminal investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and efforts to disrupt the transfer of presidential power.

Perry said Sunday he has not appeared before a grand jury up to this point and would not speculate about whether he would plead the Fifth if he did appear.

Perry, who was among the initial holdouts against McCarthy becoming House speaker, said his opposition “was never about Kevin McCarthy” but about seeking “power for the American people.”

Rep. Chip Roy speaks with CNN on Sunday.

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a key holdout-turned-negotiator in Kevin McCarthy’s fight for the House speakership, did not want to speculate Sunday when asked by CNN if he would vote to oust McCarthy as speaker should the California Republican fail to carry out promises he made regarding the debt ceiling.

Roy’s answer underscores the precarious road ahead for McCarthy who agreed to a rule that any individual member can force a vote to oust him as speaker. McCarthy agreed to this rule change as part of a broad list of concessions he made in order to secure the votes necessary to win the speaker’s gavel. 

Tapper asked Roy specifically if he would force a vote against McCarthy as House speaker if the California Republican failed to follow through on another concession he made to appease the right-wing holdouts: a promise not to raise the debt ceiling without some accompanying spending cuts.

The prolonged opposition to McCarthy, and the deals he made to clinch the speakership, has raised concerns for how House Republicans will govern in the majority, particularly as Congress races toward decisions that need to be made about the nation’s debt ceiling, which is about paying the country’s bills.

Congress had a similar showdown to try and force spending cuts in 2011, which led to America’s credit rating getting downgraded.

Asked specifically if McCarthy or his allies in the negotiations had said anything about cutting Medicare and Social Security, Roy said, “We’re not going to touch the benefits that are going to people who are relying on the benefits under Social Security and Medicare. But we all have to be honest about sitting at the table and figuring out how we’re going to make those work.”

McCarthy also agreed to allow for more members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus to serve on various committees, including the powerful Rules Committee, which dictates the legislation that makes it to the floor. While Roy revealed he has not been promised anything, he said he may end up on the Rules panel “if that’s what my colleagues want.”

Reflecting on the unprecedented 15-ballot floor fight that culminated in McCarthy getting the speaker’s gavel, Roy said, “A little temporary conflict is necessary in this town.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw speaks with CNN on Sunday.

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas apologized Sunday to hard-liners in his party he previously said were acting “like terrorists” amid the contentious negotiations within the House GOP Conference to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

Crenshaw said the frustration leading to this remark arose because the rest of the conference felt like they had reached an agreement in the speaker negotiations by that point.

“Early on in that week, before we had taken a single vote in a conference with everyone there, Kevin McCarthy had asked one of the leaders of this group, ‘What else do you want? Let’s make this work. What else do you want?’ Crenshaw recalled.

“They couldn’t answer in that moment. And that was a real turning point for a lot of people. That was what created all of that animosity throughout the week because it’s not as if we were fighting over something. It wasn’t as if we were trying to stop them from getting what they wanted. It’s that we didn’t know that they wanted,” the congressman added.

Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr, a close ally of new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, said Sunday that he doesn’t believe the California Republican made too many concessions in order to win the gavel but that there will be challenges to governing.  

“It’s going to be a challenge to have a conference full of independent thinkers with a thin majority,” Barr told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.” 

House Republicans hold a narrow majority in the new Congress after they won 222 seats last fall, falling short of pre-election expectations.

But Barr also said that he believes last week’s drawn-out process to electing McCarthy as speaker was “quite healthy” and that the House GOP Conference is in better shape after resolving issues this week. 

Pushed on this by Stephanopoulos, Barr said: “I think we are committed to being unified going forward.” 

Kevin McCarthy and Marshall Dillard in 1992.

The young man smiling in the last Bakersfield High School student newspaper for the 1983 school year was captioned – “Most Likely to Succeed.”

That graduating student wasn’t then-senior Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who on Saturday became the House speaker for the 118th US Congress, a powerful position that puts him second in line to the American presidency.

The lighthearted teasing traces back to Dillard and McCarthy on the high school football field in Bakersfield, California. The team was and is still called “The Drillers,” a reference to the oil industry of the district. Bakersfield sits in the southern end of California’s Central Valley and is one of the largest cities in the state’s 20th Congressional District.

It’s the district McCarthy represents as one of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in the country. With House Republicans holding a slim majority in the 118th Congress, a group of GOP hard-liners prompted a messy and historic floor fight for control of the speaker’s gavel. After voting had spilled into a fifth day, McCarthy broke through by conceding to a series of demands that weakened the power of the speakership. But ultimately, he won the gavel.

This was the sort of well-worn political knuckle fight of the DC scene – but far from the region that raised a young Kevin McCarthy.

Here, he’s known as the son of a firefighter whose less-than-stellar grades would suggest a far less powerful career path. But like the working town that raised him, the lack of polish would impart lessons that follow McCarthy today and offer clues into his speakership.

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A worker replaces a sign over McCarthy's office on Saturday.

Now that a House speaker has been selected following a days-long stalemate and members have finally been sworn in, the chamber can look toward picking back up business and organizing GOP-led committees.

Every new Congress must pass a new set of House rules, and doing so will be the top of the 118th Congress’ to-do list when the House reconvenes Monday.

With House Republicans’ majority, comes a newfound power to set the agenda — investigative and legislative.

Legislative agenda: House Republicans will be limited in their ability to pass bills through Congress with Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House — where the president can exercise veto power over legislation. Still, House Republicans will be able to push messaging bills that highlight their agenda.

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with CNN ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy outlined his plans for power.

Those plans include:

There will also be some must-pass policy issues — like funding the government — that will test the ability of Republicans and Democrats to work together.

Read more about what Republicans plan to do with their new House majority here.

President Joe Biden spoke with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to congratulate him on winning the gavel in a call Saturday afternoon, according to the White House. 

The president also released a statement in the early hours of Saturday after McCarthy was elected House speaker in the 15th round of voting. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy delivers a speech after he was elected on Saturday.

In a major shift, Rep. Kevin McCarthy and his allies successfully flipped more than a dozen GOP votes into his column Friday afternoon – the first sign of serious momentum in support of his speaker bid after a series of failed votes over the course of multiple days.

Here is a list of key concessions and promises McCarthy and his allies have made over the course of the negotiations, based on CNN reporting: