After bitter Republican dispute, Kevin McCarthy named US House Speaker - CNA

Meanwhile, Democratic US President Joe Biden vowed to work with rival politicians after McCarthy's appointment.

"I am prepared to work with Republicans when I can," he said. "This is a time to govern responsibly and to ensure that we're putting the interests of American families first."

The Republicans, who hold a razor-thin majority, had been mired in internecine warfare as McCarthy failed to win a majority in multiple ballots, with around 20 conservative hardliners blocking his path since Tuesday.

But the 57-year-old Californian was able to pick up more than a dozen votes among the defectors in two afternoon voting rounds on Friday after offering major concessions.

Emboldened, McCarthy predicted he would win in the 14th round – but suffered a humiliation given wall-to-wall coverage on US news channels before finally bagging his victory in the 15th.

"Just reminds me of what my father always told me," McCarthy had told reporters. "It's not how you start, it's how you finish. And now we have to finish for the American public."

MAJOR CONCESSIONS

There were more rounds of voting in the fractious 2023 contest than in any Speaker election since the Civil War.

McCarthy had projected confidence all week, even as he was bleeding votes rather than adding to the base of around 200 Republicans who have backed him all along.

His party's takeover of Congress is expected to herald the end of cross-party cooperation, with the legislative process gridlocked and Republicans promising an aggressive agenda of investigations into most aspects of President Joe Biden's administration and his family.

Democrats and some of McCarthy's own supporters, in private, are concerned that he has been offering his far-right critics radical policy commitments that will make the House ungovernable.

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2023-01-07 06:22:00Z
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