The Daily

Speaker McCarthy. But at What Cost?


Listen Later

Representative Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker of the House turned into a rolling disaster last week, played out over five long days and 15 rounds of voting. 

Today, the inside story of how it went so wrong — and what he was forced to give up in order to finally win.

Guest: Catie Edmondson, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

  • Mr. McCarthy’s slog to the speakership ended with a remarkably public show of intraparty strife during a history-making overnight session.
  • The speaker’s concessions have given the rebels on the right flank of his party more tools to sow disarray.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The DailyBy The New York Times