In a way, what we're seeing is predictable. Basically for McCarthy to secure the speakership, he had to bring on board a number of far-right conservatives from a group called the Freedom Caucus. The House Freedom Caucus has inserted some culture war issues into the Defense Bill against the wishes of center-right Republicans who are like, let's just fund the military. And Kevin McCarthy has to go along with them. We will see this again in the fall with various spending bills.
The defense bill is the latest piece of legislation to be weaponized by the far-right Freedom Caucus. It’s also the latest test for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
This episode was produced by Miles Bryan and Jon Ehrens, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard with help from Serena Solin, engineered by Patrick Boyd with help from Michael Raphael, and hosted by Noel King.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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