McCarthy is the new speaker of House of Representatives after 15 ROUNDS OF VOTING
The Republican lawmaker received 216 votes and thanked former President Trump for his support.
The Republican legislator from California, Kevin McCarthy, finally became the speaker of the House of Representatives after 15 rounds of voting in four intense days.
"I hope one thing is clear after this week: I will never give up. And I will never give up for you, the American people," McCarthy said after receiving the gavel.
The decision was made Friday after meeting for the fourth consecutive day to elect the new speaker of the House, in a because of the number of rounds of voting that were necessary before a winner was declared.
McCarthy won after getting 216 representatives to vote in his favor. However, it was not easy for the legislator. Although the candidate was initially considered by many to be the obvious choice for this term, "hard wing" Republicans blocked the vote during the previous rounds of voting.
"Trump was with me from the beginning"
Even Donald Trump's support was not enough for the California lawmaker to become the new speaker. In fact, all the candidate's efforts seemed to be in vain. McCarthy wanted to thank the former president for supporting him throughout these last several days:
Club for Growth President David McInstosh went so far as to acknowledge that McCarthy negotiated with Freedom Caucus members and agreed to key demands so that they would stop blocking the vote and elect him as speaker of the House. However, these alleged agreements were not reflected among voting numbers that day, as the Republican candidate even lowered the number of votes in his favor.
Calls for unity within the party
Another highlight of McCarthy's speech was when he called for unity within the Republican Party:
Not to be overtaken by China
One of McCarthy's objectives will be to prevent China from overtaking the United States economically: