<p>Earlier this month, a group of hard-right Republicans hijacked the floor of the House of Representatives in protest against Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The mutiny, staged by nearly a dozen members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, raised questions about whether the speaker could continue to govern his slim and fractious majority.</p><p>Annie Karni, a congressional correspondent for The Times, explains how and why this small group of members made the chamber ungovernable.</p><p>Guest: <a href=“https://www.nytimes.com/by/annie-karni”>Annie Karni</a>, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times.</p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>In early June, members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus <a href=“https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/us/politics/mccarthy-house-republicans-mutiny.html”>refused to surrender control of the floor</a>, forcing Republican leaders to scrap votes for the week and leaving speaker Kevin McCarthy facing what he conceded was “chaos.”</li><li>The group <a href=“https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/us/politics/mccarthy-republicans.html”>effectively shut down the House floor</a>, calling the speaker’s fiscal compromise with President Biden a betrayal.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href=“http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily”>nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.</p>