Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty

U.S. Rep.-elect Katie Porter (D-CA) reads a book in the House Chamber during the fourth day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives is meeting to vote for the next Speaker after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to earn more than 218 votes on several ballots; the first time in 100 years that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot.

Days after going viral for reading a book titledThe Subtle Art of Not Giving a F—on the House floor, Democratic Rep.Katie Portersays the moment was more than a photo op.

“I was absolutely reading that book,” Porter, 49, toldLawrence O’Donnell in an appearance on his MSNBC showThe Last WordTuesday night. “It was actually my fourth book of the week. I had read a book basically every day during those interminable, alphabetical votes, in which the Republicans struggled to find leadership.”

As Porter acknowledged, photographs taken of her reading the 2016 book came during 15 rounds of voting on House Speaker — a process that stretched for more than four days after Republicans initially couldn’t come to a consensus on whether or not to elect GOP nominee Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy was narrowly elected to succeedNancy Pelosias speaker of the House early Saturday after a dramatic showdown with members of his own party.

Porter continued: “That book I picked up at a little free library on my walk from my basement studio here in Washington to the Capitol.”

The book’s author, Mark Manson, re-tweeted a photo of Porter reading the book last week, writing: “We made it into Congress fam.”

Porter joined Congress in 2019 as a representative of Irvine, California, and its surrounding areas, and has quickly built a reputation for calling out corporations in hearings — often while holding up an oversized chart that helps demonstrate her point.

On Tuesday, she announced that she will run forDianne Feinstein’s California Senate seat in 2024, saying in a video: “The threat from so-called leaders likeMitch McConnellhas too often made the United States Senate a place where rights get revoked, special interests get rewarded and our democracy gets rigged. Especially in times like these, California needs a warrior in Washington.”

Porter continued in the video: “I don’t do Congress the way others do. I use whatever power I have to speak hard truths to the powers that be — to not just challenge the status quo, but call it out, name names and demand justice.”

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source: people.com