Inside the craziest Congress in recent memory

In the first days of the 118th Congress, amid a grueling 15 rounds of voting — the longest speaker floor fight since before the Civil War — Kevin McCarthy began privately expressing doubts to his staff that he would be successful.

That’s when he got a call from his longtime friend, the legendary sportscaster Jim Gray. “You do Al Davis: ‘You just win, baby,’” Gray told him.

McCarthy said the pep talk re-energized him, and in the early morning of Jan. 7, 2023, the California Republican finally prevailed.

Being counted out, then defying his critics has been a constant theme throughout McCarthy’s life. As a young man in Bakersfield, he was rejected from a summer internship in his local congressman’s office. He would later get a job in that office and then win the seat himself in 2007. Eight years later, he abruptly quit a speaker’s race amid a different rebellion on the right, and pundits declared his political career dead. It would take him another eight years to secure one of the top prizes in American politics.

“Go 15 rounds? I’ll go 15 rounds. … Perseverance matters,” McCarthy said in an interview.

By May, McCarthy had struck a massive deal with President Joe Biden to extend the debt ceiling for two years and modestly cap spending.

His speakership would be short-lived. McCarthy became the first speaker ever to be removed in the middle of his term through a motion to vacate, forced out by his archenemy, then-Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. His 269-day speakership was the third-shortest in history.

His running feud with Gaetz has been one of the nastiest on Capitol Hill in recent memory. “He’s a real sociopath,” said McCarthy.

And McCarthy pushed back on 269 days, saying he served in nearly every major leadership position — chief deputy whip, majority whip, majority leader, minority leader and speaker — over 14 years.

“I look at being leader that entire time,” he said.

Once floated as a potential White House chief of staff or Cabinet member in Trump’s second term, McCarthy said he told the president-elect early on, “I don’t want anything.”

He’s now giving speeches in places like Tokyo and Abu Dhabi and advising wealthy business leaders. But as he peered at the Capitol in the distance, McCarthy said he still gets “goosebumps” whenever he sets foot in the building.

“Regrets? No. … Your stumbles, the good and the bad, make you who you are, and those are the things I learned from,” he said. “I enjoyed every minute of it, every challenge.”

“I’d do it all again tomorrow.”