After a chaotic week of harsh rhetoric, backstage maneuvering, and brinkmanship politics, Rep. Kevin McCarthy became the 55th speaker of the House on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot early Saturday, finally breaking the impasse and overcoming a fierce challenge to his leadership by hard-right defectors that led him to make steep concessions. For better or worse, this exercise represented the most thorough review of House rules and processes since the chamber’s reorganization efforts in the mid-1970s.

On a somber two-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, Patrick Martin, Towner French, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss the stalemate not seen on the House floor since 1923 that laid bare the divisions among House Republicans and tested McCarthy’s and the new GOP majority’s ability to effectively govern in the 118th Congress.

NOTE TO LISTENERS: this episode was recorded at 9 a.m. on Friday, after the House had just finished its 11th Speaker vote.