119th Congress Begins

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The 119th Congress of the USA was seated. Republicans took control of both the Senate and the House.

In the House, initially Republicans hold 218 seats and Democrats hold 215. After the seat vacated by Matt Gaetz’ resignation is filled, the Republican count will be 219. Conflict between factions in the Republican party caused the initial tally of votes for Speaker to be 216 Republicans for Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), 215 Democrats for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and 3 Republicans for someone else. This left Johnson two votes short of enough to be elected speaker. The vote was held open until Johnson persuaded two of the holdouts to change their votes to support him.

While the House had no Speaker, there were no rules restricting what views C-SPAN could show of the chamber. Camera operators took advantage of this to move unimpeded.

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