Will Kevin McCarthy become speaker?

The 118th Congress has begun with a showdown over who will be elected House speaker. Vox’s Andrew Prokop argues that this is the culmination of a decade-long trend of stonewalling in Congress. Today’s show was produced by Amanda Lewellyn and Victoria Chamberlin. It was edited by Amina Al-Sadi and was fact-checked by Serena Solin. It was engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey and hosted by Noel King Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices