For the first time since 1923, no candidate for House Speaker won a majority in the chamber’s first vote.

Nineteen Republicans voted against Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) giving him only 203 votes for Speaker. Comparatively, Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) got 212 votes from Democratic representatives. However, since neither McCarthy nor Jeffries received a majority of votes from the 435-seat House, a second ballot will have to be conducted.

McCarthy served as the House Minority Leader and is presumed to be the most likely candidate to become Speaker since Republicans now control the chamber. He needs at least 218 votes to be voted in. Republicans have 222 House seats. This means that if even just 4 Republican representatives don’t support him, he won’t be voted in.

However, McCarthy has so far been unable to win over far-right candidates who oppose his speakership. Ten Republican representatives voted instead in favor of Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), six voted in favor of Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), one voted for Rep. Jim Banks (Ind.), one voted for Rep. Chip Roy (Texas), and one voted for Rep. Lee Zeldin (N.Y.) even though Zeldin is no longer a Congress member.

It’s entirely likely that McCarthy will still end up as the House speaker. In fact, he has already moved into the speaker’s office. However, to win over the far-right holdouts, he’ll likely need to make concessions to far-right GOP representatives like Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), and others who will want him to pursue far-right demands.

On Monday, an influential conservative organization called The Club for Growth issued a list of demands for the new speaker.

While it didn’t mention McCarthy by name, the group said that GOP representatives should not support any candidate for speaker unless the candidate agrees to pursue a constitutional amendment limiting House members to three terms and Senate members to two. The group also wanted the next speaker to guarantee that all party members to be able to bring their legislative amendments to a floor vote and to guarantee that all Republican Super political action committees (Super PACs) won’t campaign against a Republican incumbent.

On Sunday, McCarthy said he would agree to various new rules meant to win over his far-right colleagues. These rules include a way for them to easily vote him out of the Speaker seat and a promise to ensure that key House committees will “more closely reflect the ideological makeup of our conference” — a line which possibly means ensuring greater representation for far-fight hardliners.

“I think what he’s trying to do is the bare minimum that he needs to try and get to where he can get the votes. And that’s not indicative of somebody that really wants to embrace new ideas, reject the status quo and unify all members in the conference,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said, according to The Hill.

Subsequent votes for the House Speaker will happen imminently.

Michael Fanone — the police officer who was almost killed by ex-President Donald Trump’s followers during the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — has referred to House Minority Speaker Kevin McCarthy a “f**king weasel b**ch.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Fanone noted that McCarthy “deflected his way through a meeting with Fanone and Jan. 6 casualty Brian Sicknick’s mother — the dead man’s mother … as he nixed any chance of a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission because of so-called political factors.”

Fanone said of McCarthy, “I think at night, when the lights are turned off, Abe Lincoln and Ronald Reagan have some pretty choice words to say about the fact that they have to hang on Kevin McCarthy’s wall.”

“They did some f**king above-average things. And they’ve got to adorn the wall of this f**king weasel b**ch named Kevin McCarthy, with his fake f**king spray-on tan, whose f**king claim to fame, at least in my eyes, is the fact that he amassed a collection of Donald Trump’s favorite-flavored Starburst, put them in a Mason jar, and presented them to f**king Donald Trump. What the f**k, dude?”

When asked to suggest Republican congress members to sit on the January 6 committee, McCarthy had initially suggested five people, including Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.).  Both voted against certifying the 2020 election. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought the men would undermine the committee’s mission.

After refusing to accept the men, McCarthy withdrew all of his nominees for the panel and said, “This panel has lost all legitimacy and credibility and shows the Speaker is more interested in playing politics than seeking the truth.”

The Rolling Stone article notes that, on January 6, 2021, Fanone was “pulled into the crowd, beaten with pipes and the pole of a Blue Lives Matter flag, tazed at the base of his skull, suffered a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury, and fended off attackers with pleas of ‘I got kids’ before losing consciousness for more than four minutes.”

Right-wing media has since claimed he is oversensitive and a “false flag liberal” while other random people have told him that they hope his children are raped and killed.

Fanone said of the Capitol, “F**k that place, and f**k the people inside it too.”