WASHINGTON — The 118th Congress is now in session after the historic vote for Kevin McCarthy overnight.
It took five days and 15 rounds of voting for him to seize the gavel just past midnight. Early Saturday morning, the sign marking McCarthy’s House speaker role was installed on Capitol Hill.
Republicans from the Tri-State Area are being credited with helping end the stalemate.
“My father always told me, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, and now we need to finish strong for the American people,” McCarthy said.
It almost didn’t happen. The prior session ended with tensions boiled over as Alabama’s Mike Rogers had to be pulled away from Florida’s Matt Gaetz and other members who did not vote for McCarthy.
As the House was preparing to adjourn until Monday, Republican Long Island Congressman Andrew Garbarino was one of the first to vote for them to stay, along with other New York Republicans.
“Congressman Garbarino and I and Nicole Malliotakis and Nick LaLota and others we just thought, you know, the time has come,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito said.
Watch the full interview with D’Esposito
Video shows Garbarino speaking to McCarthy, who then goes over to Gaetz, who sources say also said he didn’t want to adjourn. Garbarino tells him to go over and speak to McCarthy. They talk, and shortly after that, McCarthy alerts the Republicans to vote to stay for what would be the historic stalemate-ending 15th session.
Immediately after, all members were sworn in, including embattled Long Island and Queens Rep. George Santos. The first-time lawmaker dodged our questions all week about his message to voters disappointed he lied about his life story.
Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries was sworn in as the Democratic House Minority Leader, the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress.
“Raised in a working class neighborhood in Crown Heights,” he said. “Somehow survived the violence of the crack cocaine epidemic and wound up here in the United States Congress as the highest ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. America, truly a land of opportunity.”
“I kind of was a little bit like his mentor when he first got here, but he’s gone far beyond where my leadership could help him, so now I look to him,” New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne Jr. said.
“Hakeem’s a good friend, and it was an historic moment,” New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer said. “He really, I think, showed how he is going to lead, which is in a Big Ten way with an outreached hand to the other side.”
There have not been this many voting sessions to name a speaker in more than a century.
