Jan. 5, 2023: Inside McCarthy's brewing speaker deal

After spending the last 48 hours on life support, Kevin McCarthy's bid for the speakership is seeing a potential revival.

Following a rollercoaster of a Wednesday during which the California Republican failed three more times to secure the 218 votes for the gavel, McCarthy and some of his critics finally got in a room and had what both sides are describing as productive conversations.

This morning, after slamming coffee at midnight and working the phones until the wee hours, we have a readout of new concessions McCarthy has offered his critics and where things stand.

Will this be enough to land McCarthy the speakership? That’s TBD. 

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

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