The Speaker's Election - Is Kevin McCarthy a Speaker?

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The House has been voting on a speaker until they come up with one. Because of rules, there is no speaker to tell them not to do that. A breakaway faction did not vote for Kevin McCarthy and voted for rotating cast of characters who they allegedly would prefer to be speaker over him. The group includes ideological hardliners as well as the 'fringe,' says Andrew Kuchins.

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

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