Congress in 2023 was a wild ride. McCarthy's ouster, Santos' expulsion and other key moments

The past year on Capitol Hill provided several historic and unprecedented moments.

Just perhaps not in the ways lawmakers expected.

Between Kevin McCarthy's rise and fall from the speakership, to several censures and a dramatic expulsion, here are some of the highlights from Congress in 2023.

Kevin McCarthy goes 15 rounds

Trouble started at the very start of the 118th Congress with Kevin McCarthy's fraught path to becoming speaker of the House.

Things got so heated that at one point a lawmaker, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, had to be physically restrained by colleagues as he attempted to lunge at GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, the chief critic of McCarthy.

After 14 rounds of voting that spanned Monday through Friday, McCarthy finally clawed his way to victory in a post-midnight ballot.

"I hope one thing is clear after this week: I never give up" McCarthy said as he finally held the gavel -- a phrase that would be put to the test again in just nine short months.

Last-minute deals on debt limit, government funding

Twice, the government looked as if it were heading for financial calamity.

First, paralysis between the two parties threatened the first-ever U.S. default on the nation's debt in the first half of 2023. After months of back-and-forth negotiations, McCarthy and the Biden administration struck a deal with just days to spare until the estimated June "X" date.

Then, in late September, the U.S. seemed to be barreling toward what would have been one of the largest government shutdowns in history but again struck an eleventh hour agreement to keep the government open.

Lawmakers will face this problem again this upcoming January and February, with two key funding deadlines to keep government agencies in operation.

Age questions dominate political discourse

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the chamber's longtime Republican leader, experienced alarming episodes twice in separate news conferences, one in which he appeared to freeze for more than 30 seconds. McConnell's office attributed the pauses to lightheadedness and put out a letter from the Capitol attending physician saying the 81-year-old McConnell was medically cleared to continue with his schedule.

Questions about how old is too old to hold office also made headlines with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died in September at the age of 90, was sidelined for months due to a case of shingles that resulted in serious complications.

It continues to be a topic of debate with the presidential election, as Biden (81) and Donald Trump (77) appear the front-runners for their party's nominations.

Bob Menendez indicted

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, at the time chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife were indicted in September in connection with an alleged bribery conspiracy scheme in which prosecutors said he acted improperly as a foreign agent.

The investigation focused on a luxury car, gold bars and an apartment allegedly received by Menendez and his wife. According to the indictment, agents found hundreds of thousands of dollars "hidden in clothing."

Menendez stepped down from the committee but rejected calls from his colleagues to resign altogether, saying: "I am not going anywhere."

McCarthy's ouster and the fight over who'll succeed him

In the fall, a small group of conservative hard-liners rebelled and forced a vote to remove McCarthy as speaker -- a historic first.

The final vote on Oct. 3 was 216-210, with eight Republicans joining Democrats in stripping McCarthy of his title. McCarthy insisted at the time he wasn't giving up or leaving Congress, saying there was still work to be done.

The race to succeed him started from the moment the gavel came down on the vote, and it proved even more difficult than the first time around.

Rep. Steve Scalise, the second-ranking House Republican, was the first to be nominated but dropped out after the House Republican Conference failed to coalesce around him. Then came Tom Emmer's nomination, though the majority whip dropped out just hours later. The third bid was mounted by Ohio's Jim Jordan, whose nomination went to the floor but failed in three votes before he, too, left the race.

After three weeks of intraparty fighting, Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson emerged victorious and became the next House speaker.

By early December, McCarthy announced he was resigning at the end of the year. On his way out, McCarthy reflected on his career and swiped at his critics -- calling Gaetz "crazy" and listing off members he said he helped get elected with his fundraising prowess. He said he had no regrets.

"In the end, history will write what's true," he said.

George Santos gets the boot

The House on Dec. 1 voted to expel the New York Republican, a move that hadn't happened in more than 20 years and only five other times in history.

Santos admitted to lying about where he went to school, as well as where he worked and other aspects of his background.

His removal came two weeks after a scathing House Ethics Committee report detailed what investigators said was Santos' use of campaign funds for his own personal benefit on things such as luxury clothing, travel and Botox injections. He called the report a political "smear" and claimed he was denied due process, though has yet to refute specific allegations.

Santos also faces 23 criminal charges as prosecutors allege he stole other people's identities, made charges on his campaign donors' credit cards without their approval and illegally received unemployment benefits. He has pleaded not guilty to the counts, and a trial is set for 2024.

One lawmaker's 10-month hold on military nominations

Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville single-handedly held up hundreds of military promotions for nearly a year. He did so over objections to the Pentagon policy on compensating travel expenses to get abortions.

At first, he had support from some in his party. But by November, any such goodwill appeared to be fading fast.

On Dec. 5, Tuberville -- despite zero changes in Pentagon policy -- told reporters "it's over" and finally cleared the way for action. In the end, it took just a matter of minutes to push through 425 nominees after the blockade ended.

Three censures

Censures to admonish members of Congress have been historically rare. But in recent years it's become a political tool, and in 2023 alone three Democratic lawmakers were censured by Republicans.

The first time was in June, when California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff was censured for comments he made several years ago about investigations into then-President Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

Then, in November, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib was censured over her comments on Israel and Hamas. The resolution, voted for by Republicans and some members of her own party, claimed she had been "promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel."

The last censure of the year was toward New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman for falsely pulling a fire alarm in a House office building. He had previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge over the incident.