There have been a lot of demands made and McCarthy has given in on some of those demands, but as they like to say on Capitol Hill, nothing's agreed to until everything is agreed to. The key question is how many are in each camp. He really doesn't have much room to spare. Even if there are only five truly dug in really anti McCarthy votes, then he can't get there.
The 118th Congress has begun with a showdown over who will be elected House speaker. Vox’s Andrew Prokop argues that this is the culmination of a decade-long trend of stonewalling in Congress.
Today’s show was produced by Amanda Lewellyn and Victoria Chamberlin. It was edited by Amina Al-Sadi and was fact-checked by Serena Solin. It was engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey and hosted by Noel King
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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