Dem
51
GOP
49
Donald Trump used to refer to Kevin McCarthy as "My Kevin," as though he were referring to a dog. Which, to be honest, is not far from the truth. Now, "His Kevin" won, even though it was very close on the 15th ballot, with McCarthy getting 216 votes, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) getting 212, six members voting "present" and one person who was elected to the House not voting because he is dead. A landslide it was not. Yet apparently Trump is proud of his Kevin, as indicated by a post to his boutique social media site in which he wrote: "Thank you. I did our Country a big favor."
What he apparently meant is that he placed calls to Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) after the 14th failed vote to try to get them on board. A widely circulated photo shows Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) trying to pass her cell phone to Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) during the voting:
A close-up of the photo shows she was in a call with "DT" (Donald Trump) at the time and Trump wanted to talk to Rosendale, one of the MAGA 20.
If Trump really had so much influence, one could ask why getting his Kevin over the hump took 4 days and 15 ballots and he made it by only four votes. But we're not going to ask that. (V)