Staff throughout the West Wing wouldn’t cop to watching live coverage of Rep. Kevin McCarthy failing to get enough votes to become speaker of the House. But, to a person, they were more than aware of the fiasco that was unfolding on the House floor throughout the day, and on the TV sets in practically every office.
At Tuesday’s briefing, the first of the year, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to comment on the speaker’s election, demurely batting away several...