memeorandum: POLITICO Playbook: Inside the 28 minutes that saved Kevin McCarthy (Rachael Bade/Politico)

4:20 PM ET, January 7, 2023

Top Items:

Rachael Bade / Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Inside the 28 minutes that saved Kevin McCarthy — Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross — DRIVING THE DAY — For the first time all week, House Republicans were jubilant and KEVIN McCARTHY's smile finally seemed genuine.

Discussion: CNN

Semafor:

Kevin McCarthy finally became Speaker of the House after one last shocking meltdown. Here's how it all happened. — It took four days and fifteen ballots, but Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the House after securing a truce with conservative holdouts who had threatened to tank his nomination.

Discussion: Insider, The Hill, BizPac Review, TheBlaze, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Washington Examiner, Plain Dealer, Just The News, Rolling Stone, The Daily Caller, Press Enterprise, Raw Story, New York Times, Fox News, Washington Examiner, Fox News, Misinformation … and The Guardian

Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times:

Kevin McCarthy ‘won’ the House speakership. Now the country will pay the price — For years, Kevin McCarthy wanted to be speaker of the House in the worst possible way, and that's precisely what he accomplished by winning the leadership post after 15 humiliating rounds of voting and days of give-away-the-store negotiations.

Discussion: Fox News, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, PJ Media, HuffPost, VICE, Vanity Fair and NPR

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

What we learned from the McCarthy imbroglio — Kevin McCarthy is finally speaker. But not before he endured 15 ballots — the most in a speaker election since the Civil War — made a series of major concessions and dealt with some ugly scenes overnight on the House floor.

Discussion: Forbes, Jezebel, Outside the Beltway, FOX 2, New York Times, Politico, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg and CBS News

The White House:
Statement from President Joe Biden on the Election of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, UPI and Vanity Fair

Chris Pandolfo / Fox News:
McCarthy thanks Trump after House speaker vote: ‘He was with me from the beginning’

Discussion: Breitbart, BizPac Review, Vanity Fair, National Review, CNN and Insider

Sahil Kapur / NBC News:
How Kevin McCarthy got the votes for speaker — and why it could haunt him

Discussion: Metro, Insider, Barbados Today, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Daily Beast, RedState and Fox News

Rolling Stone:
Sex Trafficking Row Helped Fuel Gaetz's Hatred for McCarthy

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Misinformation …, RedState, Althouse, Fox News and BizPac Review

Hayes Brown / MSNBC:
Kevin McCarthy should get used to this feeling

Discussion: Mother Jones, NBC News, Vox and The Hill

Bob Good / New York Times:
I'm One of the Last Holdouts Against Kevin McCarthy — and I Won't Back Down

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Texas Tribune, Roll Call and New York Post

Roll Call:
McCarthy wins speaker election, finally

David L. Chandler / MIT News:

Riddle solved: Why was Roman concrete so durable? — An unexpected ancient manufacturing strategy may hold the key to designing concrete that lasts for millennia. … The ancient Romans were masters of engineering, constructing vast networks of roads, aqueducts, ports, and massive buildings …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Hill, Ars Technica and The Guardian

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Proposed GOP select panel would be empowered to review ‘ongoing criminal investigations’ — A proposed subcommittee to investigate “weaponization” of the federal government — a key demand of House conservatives who delivered Speaker Kevin McCarthy the gavel — would be given sweeping investigatory powers …

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Mock Paper Scissors and Political Wire

Zachary Petrizzo / The Daily Beast:

Mike Lindell Turns on Marjorie Taylor Greene Over Speaker Vote — TRUMP FOR SPEAKER — MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell isn't pleased with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) over her fervent support of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for House Speaker. Instead, he argued Friday night …

Discussion: Insider, The Hill, Fox News and Washington Examiner

Fox News:

Rogers confronting Gaetz on House floor ‘completely out of line,’ Greene says: ‘Lost his temper’ — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says, 'I'm sure it'll be dealt with,' after Rep. Mike Rogers confronts Rep. Matt Gaetz — Mike Rogers lunges at Matt Gaetz during House speaker voting, other members intervene.

Associated Press:

Police: 6-year-old shoots teacher in Virginia classroom — A 6-year-old student shot and wounded a teacher at his school in Virginia during an altercation inside a first-grade classroom Friday, police and school officials in the city of Newport News said. Experts said a school shooting involving …

WTKR-TV:
6-year-old student in custody after shooting teacher at Richneck Elem. School: Police chief

Discussion: BizPac Review, WAVY-TV, Hampton Roads Daily Press, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Virginian-Pilot, Metro.co.uk, The Hill and CBS News

UN News:

New US border measures ‘not in line with international standards’, warns UNHCR — Plans by the Biden administration to expand restrictions on people seeking refuge in the United States are “not in line with refugee law standards”, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.

JONATHAN TURLEY:

“We Don't Do This”: Adam Schiff and the Underbelly of American Censorship — Below is my column in the Hill on the recent disclosure of efforts by Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Cal.) to pressure Twitter to censor critics, including a columnist. This effort occurred shortly after Schiff's office objected …

Discussion: New York Post, Slay News and RedState

Brian E. Frydenborg / Real Context News:

Biden's and Democrats' Historic Awesomeness Cannot Be Denied: Midterms Edition — As we watch the escapades of the incoming Republican House majority of the 118th Congress broadcast to the world the most dysfunction for an incoming House majority or plurality since the 1850s …

Chris Pandolfo / Fox News:

Conservatives pan Jefferies ‘rambling disaster of a speech,’ yet gets high praise from left — Jeffries went A-Z through how Democrats have better values than Republicans, drawing boos from the GOP side of the aisle — Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats will ‘never compromise our principles’

Discussion: RedState, BizPac Review and Mother Jones

United States Capitol Police:

Woman Charged with Blocking and Obstructing Roadways, Obey an Order — This afternoon a group of demonstrators were illegally blocking traffic on Independence Avenue, SW, near First Street, SW. — The group did not have a permit to demonstrate on Capitol Grounds.