Underestimated McCarthy emerges from debt deal empowered as speaker, still threatened by far right

By LISA MASCARO
AP Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is nothing if not a political survivor. Underestimated from the start, the Republican was never taken too seriously by the Washington establishment. But with House passage of the debt ceiling and budget deal he negotiated with President Joe Biden, the emergent speaker proved the naysayers otherwise. McCarthy pushed a reluctant White House to the negotiating table and delivered the votes from his balky House GOP majority to seal the deal. While hard-right conservatives are still reviving calls for McCarthy’s ouster, complaining the deal he struck did not go far enough to cut spending, they are lacking the numbers, at least for now, to remove him from office.