Good evening, Jake Tapper joining me. We do not know. This moment, whether the House is about to reconvene after Republicans for a second day tried and failed three more times to make Kevin McCarthy's speaker. A short time later, they adjourned to a turned out to be a closed-door talk between the would-be speaker and his supporters' opponents.
But so far, nothing he's been able to say or do. Nothing has managed to sway any of the 20 GOP holdouts for hardcore opponents among them. We could be about to learn whether, in fact, there will even be another vote tonight. I want to go straight to seeing as my roncho with me reporting at the Capitol.
What are you hearing? Well, actually, in a matter of minutes, the House likes to try to vote to adjourn for the night. That is the preferred course of Republican leader Kevin McCarthy after talks behind closed doors where the opponents of his, as well as some of his allies. He believes they are making progress.
He wants those talks to continue because if the vote would happen tonight, he would almost certainly fail once again to get the 218 votes to be elected speaker. So they need to actually have a vote, a majority vote of the House. 218 votes are needed to adjourn. Democrats are expected to vote against it.
They want another vote to let McCarthy twist in the wind. Some conservatives will look to see whether or not they decide to oppose it. But I'm told that the expectation among top Republicans that that adjournment resolution will pass tonight and they will return tomorrow. Now, I just caught up with Kevin McCarthy just moments ago and he indicated the deal is not yet within reach, but progress is being made.
I think it's probably best that people work through some more. I don't think vote tonight doesn't take him, but if you don't, do you have a deal with those guys right now? No, that's a lot of progress. Let me know.
I don't think voting tonight is a production. I think the people work with the more. So in a positive sign from McCarthy, some of those opponents came out sounding positive, including Scott Perry of Pennsylvania sounded that he said that their talks have been productive, as well as Congressman Chip Roy. They have been asking for some more power, some more sway over the speakership.
And some of them have been making ass such as to encourage McCarthy's super practice day out of certain Republican primaries. They did the super practice making an agreement to do just that. That may have won over some, but still his path very narrow. There are at least four Republicans who are almost certainly going to vote against him.
Bob Goode, Andy Biggs, lower and Beaufort among them saying that they absolutely will not vote for Kevin McCarthy, including Matt Gates. So he can only look forward to lose four votes. Republican votes, one more says they will absolutely not vote for him. McCarthy cannot get there, which is why these talks so critical, expected to continue through the course of the night until tomorrow, the House reconvenes at that time.
Well, no, I mean, he'd already given up an awful lot just to get the votes that he's gotten thus far. How much more is there that he can give up on? I mean, the anger of the super-back thing, obviously, is based on the money he poured into candidates that the far right believe, you know, are angry that he was supporting Trump primaries. Well, that's the big question.
How much more does he give? One of the things that he had asked for is to allow one individual to call for a vote to announce the sitting speaker. Kevin McCarthy has agreed to come down to five individuals that is down from the conference rules that are required by half of the members to call for such a vote. That is one area that they're pushing for.
Also, they want some key committee assignments, including on the powerful House Rules Committee, which sets the parameters for floor debate over legislation. Those are some key issues that they have been negotiating. It sounds like McCarthy is moving in that direction, but the concern for him is that if he moves too far in that direction, he can lose some support from some more than moderate members who do not want them to give in too much to the right wing of the conference. So that is the balancing effort of Kevin McCarthy.
As he negotiates with them, he's got to make sure he doesn't put out any of the other members, but they believe that they're making progress to getting to 218. We'll see if they're able to do just that. Let's listen in. The prayer will be offered by Chaplin Kibben.
Would you pray with me? Build this house, O Lord, lest all who labor therein do so in vain. Watch over our gathering this evening lest we stay awake without purpose. Provide wisdom, discernment, and forbearance lest we eat the food of our anxious toil and exhaust ourselves for nothing.
For you have called us together from the far-reaching corners of this great nation to uphold a vision founded on our belief in the fundamental rights endowed by you, O God, our Creator. And you have appointed each person here to represent this country's rich diversity of thought and experience, race, and creed that collectively we would serve as a city on a hill, a light to the world, revealing the strength and nobility to be found in our union. Remind us that we fulfill this divine mission only when we acknowledge that we are meant to function as one body. Nothing you ordain can be accomplished without the trust in and respect for each other.
You have graced each of us differently with passion and compassion, insight and oversight, voice and vote that we would use these gifts to build up the larger body which is these United States. Deliver us from intrangidence and impudence, free us from fear and control, that in our deliberations this night, the light that shines from the dome above us would clearly reflect the commitment we each make to freedom, justice, and peace in our world. In the name of our guardian, guide, and stay, we offer our prayer. Amen.
By now the names of the hardcore so-called never Kevin members are pretty well known. As Manu Raju mentioned a moment ago, that gate's long over, Andy Biggs and above good. Here are the entire 20 who have voted no so far. You can take a look so if it comes to another vote which Kevin Carthy clearly does not want there to be tonight, you can tally off the names and see who if anyone has changed their mind.
If not, we'll keep track of it for you. Joining us now, not one of those 20 Texas Republican congressmen Pete Sessions, who has voted now six times for Kevin McCarthy. Congressman Sessions, thanks for joining us. What's the latest you're hearing about what's going to happen?
Well, we're hearing this as you did, Jake, and that is that this negotiation that it took place with Mr. McCarthy was really a wide-ranging viewpoint, not just on his duties as speaker here, but also his campaign activities as he would engage himself in the money that he collected across the country. Also to the Rules Committee, as you recall, last been 20 years on the Rules Committee. Six years as its chairman last time, we were in the majority and to substantively change those procedures that the Rules Committee would have a wide-ranging viewpoints up into a points of orders, votes that would be on the floor, things that would be available to any member, meaning the minority.
So it really seems like to me that the discussion is for the House to look more like the Senate. And as you know, they have a close- Congressman, I'm sorry to interrupt one second. We need to hear a listen to the clerk for one second. I'm sorry, I'll bring you back in a second.
The yeas and nays are requested. The yeas and nays are requested. It's a need to reach. A sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered.
Members will record their votes by electronic device. On whether or not, I believe this is a vote on whether or not to adjourn and reconvene until noon tomorrow. Congressman Sessions, let me bring you back. Is that your understanding of what the vote is right on?
It's a motion to adjourn right now. Yeah. And Congressman Tom Emmer is recommending that House Republicans vote to adjourn until noon tomorrow. That's what the House Republican leadership is recommending.
I'm sorry for interrupting. Go ahead, sir. That's okay. And I would be for that also as we need that time.
What I would say to you is that the appearances of what we're talking about of the Rules Committee, that the Chairman of the Rules Committee traditionally is literally the most powerful Chairman in Washington, D.C., because they have the ability to self-execute bills. That is, to take bills that amendments, they have the ability to take things that may have been handled in committee and completely change them. When I was Chairman of the Rules Committee and I self-executed, which I did, I had an obligation and I told people I would tell them, because it's hard to go through a 100 page bill or a 1000 page bill if someone doesn't tell you what has changed, because it's been vetted at the previous committee. But with that, also the Chairman of the Rules Committee can protect that and not allow it to a point of order, which many times is important not just to change the law but against procedures that necessarily people want to attack it on.
So it means that the majority cannot always have their way and each of these would be subject to a vote on the floor. Well, this is pretty much the way most state houses handle their business, where it's a more bipartisan. So it would definitely be designed to have a less powerful, not just speaker, but a less powerful majority. So it would be the majority would be like the king with no clothes.
So right now what's going on just for anyone just tuning in is earlier today, the House Republicans and the House of Representatives had a motion to adjourn until eight o'clock Eastern tonight. They have reconvened and right now they are voting on a motion to adjourn until noon tomorrow, noon Thursday and House Republicans, which are the majority, the leadership is recommending that Republicans vote to do that and you can see so far 122 Republicans have voted yay to adjourn until noon tomorrow and Democrats are generally voting nay on that. And Congressman Sessions, one of the things that's going on here is there has been talk about is there possibly going to be some other House Republican whose name gets thrown into the mix who might be able to get to 218. And I'm wondering if you've heard anything, I just heard from a House Republican who told me that there is scuttle about about somebody who has previously voted for Kevin McCarthy six times, putting forward the name of Steve Scalise, Congressman Steve Scalise.
And I'm wondering if you have heard that as that was a possibility for this evening. Well, I think the negotiation with Mr. McCarthy, if it's not successful, they'll be looking for the next able person who will agree with what Mr. McCarthy would not agree with.
So it's, you know, once again, if Mr. McCarthy does not make it, his political operations become inconsequential. What then becomes the same subject would be on Mr. Scalise.
So once again, this is a very interesting process to go through that makes our majority less able and adaptive to be able to not only get our work done, but to, I guess, be powerful because it means every day whoever is a speaker has to reach out with everybody on their boat. That's what's done in an organization where you may have a 50 on one side and 50 of another. Right. A large organization makes it way cumbersome and way different.
So we'll see. 435 is definitely more difficult than 100. But one of the questions that this House Republican with whom I'm communicating is suggesting is that if Steve Scalise was the number two House Republican, if his name was about to be nominated on the floor, is this is a question I'm asking you now, is Republican leader McCarthy's desire to not go forward with any more action tonight into a journey until noon tomorrow, is that at least partly to squash any effort to put Steve Scalise's name on the floor of the House for a vote? Well, I don't think there's any question in my mind.
That Mr. McCarthy wants to be in a position of strength and until the bitter end, until he had replied back and knew the answer of what was being asked for him, I mean, he would not want to move aside. So at the point, he realized is that he may have ended his negotiation. It would become apparent to me that he would then move to Mr.
Scalise. They are very close and very much the, I guess you would say the same in their philosophies. When Kevin McCarthy says that progress has been made in negotiations, and I certainly find that credible when it comes to some of the rebels, including Chip Roy of Texas, your fellow Texan, or even Congressman Bishop, is your understanding that the progress has been sufficient to get him to 218? Or is it just peeling off a couple of the 20?
Because as you know, there are at least four, maybe even five people that say they will never vote for Kevin McCarthy. And I find it difficult to imagine any progress being made with them. Well, I would suppose that those five or six or seven will not ever vote for Mr. McCarthy.
And the other is based upon pure and simple negotiating skills and tactics and agreements. So I would think that it still does not answer the whole question. And they'd have to come back tomorrow and figure out what that is. All right, Congressman, Pete Sessions, Republican of Great State of Texas.
Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. And Jamie Gengel, so I have been talking to this Republican Congressman, and I would hardly say that I heard anything from Congressman Sessions that makes me think like this other Republican Congressman is wrong, that their West talk of a McCarthy supporter, a tapping one, but McCarthy supporter, bringing Steve Scalise's name. And then one of the reasons that McCarthy wants to adjourn right now is they want to squash this effort.
And I'm taking it. Sounds like you're hearing the same. Exactly. And I think what you heard from Congressman Sessions there was a very carefully worded, but nuanced.
Yes. Yeah. And the important thing is they are moving forward with Scalise. It is being floated more and more.
I was told the reason that they were coming back at eight o'clock tonight that Kevin McCarthy originally wanted to adjourn until tomorrow, and that between the Democrats and the 20 rebels, those votes weren't there. They wanted to keep the pressure up. That's why we're back at eight o'clock now. Kevin still wants more time together.
But I'm hearing that it's, he keeps saying there's progress, but there's no deal. That says it all. And Sessions said five, six or seven. Hello, we've been doing the math.
Five, six or seven. Four to lose four. I said there are five sessions up to seven. Seven.
Four never. And if you look at the list, it makes complete sense. So look, obviously, if Steve Scalise is going to end up as the next speaker, and that's a big if, but if that is going to happen at Jonah Goldberg, he can't do it in a way that is seen by Kevin McCarthy supporters as stabbing him in the back or the front. He needs to let it come to him in a way.
Yeah. And so far, I think, if that's his plan, his plan has been working just fine. Yeah. He's always had to appear like he's been loyal.
And so far, he's appeared like he's been loyal. He hasn't floated any trial balloons or anything like that that we can discern. And his only way to the speakership is for Kevin McCarthy's bid for the speakership to implode. And if you're Steve Scalise, it's not bad right now for a plan.
And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, they have apparently a testy but good relationship. And like they, you know, he's not going to support you to the end until it's your call to bail out. Right.
And if you bail out, then I think Scalise is always been the obvious alternative. Right. And Abby, former congressman, Charlie Dent, said, I don't know if it was yesterday or we could go. I don't even remember when it was.
It's a similar was yesterday that he thought theoretically was going to end up with Scalise because the Republican Party is rooted in the South. Now, they're not rooted in California, even beyond the mistrust of of Kevin McCarthy and all that that that geographically makes more sense. I do think that that actually is a part of this that we haven't really talked about a lot. The distrust of McCarthy goes deeper beyond just his seeming duplicitousness of the last couple of years.
And he started out as a more moderate Republican and has tried to kind of move himself where the party has gone. And I think that that has mostly worked for him. But with this group, you know, I don't want to say that they're purists because I think a lot of them really honestly, it's really just about kind of giving a show of conservatism. But I think it matters to them that McCarthy really did not come from deep red stock when he first got to Congress.
So I think that's part of it. Whether or not Scalise is from the South, I mean, he could be from the West. But as long as I think his ideology is more deeply rooted in conservatism, that makes them more comfortable. I also think that he's just not named Kevin McCarthy.
And that at this point, if his name were to come up, a lot of these members would vote for him because it's an easy way to just get rid of McCarthy as an option and have another candidate. I don't think Scalise is going to have an easier time of it, but he's just more palatable at this particular question. The fact that he was shot, you talked to a lot of House Republicans, they really value that talking point as a badge of credibility for Scalise. And the idea of democratic extremism, they want to be able to have this argument that the extremism is on both sides.
And that incident with Scalise is a huge part. Well, and also, I mean, I don't think we should be careful not to politicize that shooting too much. I mean, I take your point about how they view it as a Democrat who attacked him, etc. And they can use it that way.
But the reality was he handled that with such grit and such grace in the aftermath that I think he earned a lot of respect from frankly people on both sides of the aisle. He almost died. He almost died. I mean, I covered that very closely when it actually happened.
And I think I developed a relationship with Scalise and covering him through that prism. And I think that there are other people who he would have necessarily built strong relationships with if he hadn't gone through that. So I think we should consider that. And I just think it's absolutely relevant here.
I do think the smart political play for Scalise also is to do exactly what Jonah was describing, which is to sit and wait in the wings. Because if he does something that angers, McCarthy's supporters, and there still are a bunch of them, who are standing by him, those are the people he would need to become speaker. So he needs this to happen to him. And there's a little bit of irony in this too, because I doubt we have a picture of this that we can show our audience.
But one of the things that's being passed around on the internet today is the cover of Kevin McCarthy's book, Young Guns, where he stands next to Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor. And you may remember Eric Cantor was the first one to fall unexpectedly over the immigration issue as this divide and the Republican Party just absolutely exploded. Then Paul Ryan, of course, became speaker now has become a pariah to this wing of the party. And now here Kevin McCarthy was standing with them at the beginning of his career.
He's tried to reinvent himself, do something different. And frankly, they still think that he's the guy on the cover of that book. Yeah, and if you just to make sure people understand that other people notice it, that's Kevin McCarthy right there. On the left side of your screen, as Republicans on mass vote to adjourn until noon tomorrow in Danne Bash, we've all been watching Kevin McCarthy now.
And he has gone from smiley, happy warrior to in the last few hours, very glom expressions on his face. Yeah, and just to touch on what you were asking Congressmen sessions about, which is the notion of why we're seeing this motion to adjourn right now. There's no question that it is because Kevin McCarthy doesn't want another embarrassing vote, because if they don't adjourn, which might happen, there will be another vote. But it is also because there are there are movements to push somebody else.
Maybe it is Scalia's, maybe it's another potential candidate for Speaker. While that is happening, we don't know how real it is, but there are talks going on behind the scenes. Chip Roy even, who was on with you yesterday, I believe, who's one of those holdouts is saying that they're so constructive that he might be able to get 10 people to come on board. Now, we've all become mathematicians in the last two days.
That's still not enough, because if you have 20 and then he gets 10, he still needs to convince six other people. But these talks are real. And the question is whether they are enough to get McCarthy over the edge, it's still hard to see the math. It's hard to see the math, Anderson.
Jake, thanks very much. The house vote to adjourn until noon tomorrow. We're waiting on that. Joining us now is senior political analyst, Ian Licki Henderson, senior political com trainer, former Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Charlie Dent, also seen political analyst, and New York Times senior political correspondent Maggie Haberman.
Ian Licki, do you think more time will help McCarthy here? Well, listen, I think we got to see if what Jake Tamper and he's talking about happens tonight. Is the Scalise play finally going to be introduced tonight and doesn't make any difference with those hardliners? Is this the sort of opening gambit of the Scalise bid?
And will we see a sort of slow collapse of McCarthy's vote? Total. He obviously did not want this to happen tonight. We'll see what happens with the adjournment, whether or not they're able to get it or not.
We see where the Democrats are and we see what the Republicans are doing. Let's listen. Let's just listen. Obviously, there is some confusion.
Congressman Dent, explain what is going on and what is going on. Yeah, the question would turn and it looks like the Republicans will prevail. There are four Republican no votes. I think they would need one more Republican nave vote.
Oh, here, let's listen. If you are confused at home, I think there's many people who are confused in the floor of Congress as well, particularly even the Clerk right now. I'm assuming someone baffled by what is going on. Let's see if there'll be any more clarity.
She hasn't turned her microphone on. So Congressman Dent, is this normal? No, it's not. What happened is the Chief Clerk closed out the vote and some members were upset that she closed it out sooner than they would have liked.
Apparently, they were hoping a few people would change their votes. If one more Republican were to become a no vote, then two 14 to two 14 would be a tie and it wouldn't pass. But it appears Republicans are going to prevail on the motion to adjourn at two 16 to two 13 right now. Now, again, there might be a few outstanding votes.
You can see there's still a few people, five people have not yet voted. Maybe they're waiting for those five to show up. That could be what's happening right now. Again, I think that the commotion was at the Chief Clerk was shutting down the roll call sooner than the Democrats would have liked.
That's why there's some commotion. But she reopened the vote. So we're still voting, waiting for those four people, assuming they're somewhere around the Capitol. Yeah, they're going to have my issues there.
So Congressman Dent, how does McCarthy then convince enough of the holdouts to change their votes? I mean, what more? Yeah, it appears he might be making some progress based on what we're hearing, but he's got a lot more votes. He needs to vote.
On this vote, the yay. On this vote, the yay is our 216. The nays are 214. Accordingly, the motion is adopted.
Accordingly, the house stands adjourn until noon tomorrow. That was our vote. So they're adjourned until noon tomorrow. This begins again at noon.
It's really Charlie interrupted you. What does the speaker do now? Well, I think I want to be speaker. Yeah, I think what Kevin McCarthy is going to do is they're going to keep going into these sessions and try to make concessions.
Now you hear some people say that they maybe have moved a few people that move a lot of people. By my count, they need 16, maybe 17 since Sparks is a present vote. They need her back. So they need to move them.
So let's say they move 10 people. They still have six or seven that they need. They can only lose four votes. And it seems to me, they still aren't near the number that they need.
If they lose the vote, you know, by five or 10, it doesn't matter. They lose in either case. So like I said, it sounds like they're making progress. It sounds like a chip Roy and maybe a few others are coming McCarthy's way.
But we'll see. We don't know. I don't know if there's any kind of an agreement. They certainly haven't announced it publicly.
So they're still negotiating. We'll see. We'll see how far they get between now and noon tomorrow. I want to go to the Monoraju who's standing by.
Mona, what are you hearing? Yeah, we'll get the names of the four Republicans who were voting against who did vote against. This motion to adjourn until noon tomorrow. That includes Congressman Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, and Elijah Crane, who's a new member, one of the 20 who have been voting against Kevin McCarthy.
So four of the opponents of McCarthy voted against a journey. It's unclear where some of the other opponents are, Bob Goode, not on that list. It's unclear if he didn't miss that vote or a handful of people who missed the vote, but we'll get a sense of what happened here. So that gives you some idea of where things are.
The hope among Kevin McCarthy's that tomorrow could be the decisive day. They really feel momentum finally shifting in their direction. They believe that Congressman Chip Roy has been essential, who has been opposed to him for all these ballots so far. Now is signaling potentially getting behind him after a number of concessions McCarthy has made further in his direction.
I talked to Congressman Mike Cloud, who's a Texas Republican, someone who has opposed Kevin McCarthy through these six ballots. He told me that he is encouraged by the direction of the talks. Also Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican leader of the House Freedom Caucus, someone who's opposed Kevin McCarthy, also sounding positive, saying the talks have been encouraging so far, but still very little margin for Aaron from McCarthy there and just showing you they barely got the votes to simply adjourn until tomorrow, let alone being to elect the next speaker. So still significant work from McCarthy, but noon tomorrow will be a key moment.
That will be the time in which Kevin McCarthy, if he loses more votes, if he does not, will make any progress, will face even more questions about his path to the speakership. But they hope between now and then a deal can be iced. I asked McCarthy, can you get the deal tomorrow? He said, I don't want to put any time frame on it, but he said the talks have been productive.
It's his conference. They're moving in his direction. All right. We're gonna go to Melanie's and no thank you.
Monica Melanie, it's a no-no Scott's and information. What are you here, Melanie? Yeah, so there are some glimmers of hope as Monty said, and we have some evidence to back that up. Chip Roy, who has been in these negotiations with McCarthy allies and McCarthy holdouts told GOP leadership that he believes he can bring along 10 members as long as these negotiations pan out.
And he also says that he believes that there are additional holdouts who might be willing to vote present. Now, of course, that is a big if they first have to have these negotiations be successful. And then all those 10 members would have to vote yes. And even if that were to happen, if we were to see movement doing the math here, that doesn't get McCarthy to 218.
So he would still have a lot of work to do. But there's a lot of reason for optimism. And we did see one very significant breakthrough just in the last hour or so. That is that a McCarthy-aligned pack has agreed to not play in primaries, open primaries in safe districts.
That is something that conservatives have been asking for and asking for. It's a really big deal. McCarthy had resisted it up until now. I mean, obviously the pack made this deal on its own.
McCarthy technically can't control spending decisions made by the pack, but it obviously had his blessing. And so conservatives see this as a big win for them. They are excited about this. Jim Jordan says he thinks this does help and that this is going to move some votes.
But there is still certainly more work to do Anderson. Yeah, I know that about it. Maggie Haberman, I want to go to you. I mean, what's interesting about the backdrop of this is you have the former president Donald Trump making a public endorsement of McCarthy today, saying he supports McCarthy.
And what he doesn't support is allowing this chaos to continue. That doesn't seem to have changed any minds. In fact, kind of when Lauren Beaubert, who has been down to Mar-a-Lago and is kind of a creation of Trump world in many regards, distim essentially saying that he has it all wrong. That's right, Anderson.
There's an element of a fear factor that's just not present right now for Donald Trump with these members. You know, it's worth recalling Anderson that this energy, this House Freedom Caucus energy, grows out of the Tea Party, which predates Donald Trump. Donald Trump seized on it and Donald Trump capitalized on it and fueled it and benefited from it and found common cause with these folks. But he didn't create this kind of energy in the house.
And I think that he believes he did. I think he believes that these are all those people who like him and will do whatever he wants. They're not seeing it that way right now. If anything, McCarthy actually lost one vote after Trump reissued his support this morning.
Now, look, if McCarthy ends up getting a deal and becomes the speaker, Trump will claim credit. He will say he was there all along. If McCarthy loses support, Trump will be quick to support whoever looks like he's going to be the winner because that's how Trump behaves. He goes, you know, where he sees the wind blowing.
It'll be no different. This is, this says more about McCarthy than does about Trump. What's happening in the House right now? But it's not a good sign for Trump.
He appears weak and he didn't have to. He jumped into this. He also appears just isolated in a beach resort, a Gulf War club in Mar-a-Lago. I mean, he's not part of this at all.
Now, he's been, look, he is part of it to the extent that he's been making calls. Actually, my colleagues and I reported a couple of weeks ago that he was making whip calls on McCarthy's behalf and he was surprised. Lauren Boebert said that she got a call from her. Right.
He was surprised that he was finding that he wasn't actually getting anywhere with folks. Now, I think initially he wasn't doing that hard to sell, but he got there and did do a stronger push on McCarthy's behalf. He has been running, you know, some, a campaign that has looked nothing like anything we've seen him do before. He announced his candidacy in November, right after midterms that were a disappointment for Republicans, even when they won the House, it was by a very slow majority.
They are now proceeding to make Nancy Pelosi the person that Republicans reviled over the course the less, more than a decade. They're highlighting why she was able to get stuff done and why she was effective. This is the opposite of where Republicans want to be. And Trump makes everything about himself.
And yet to your point, he's been doing nothing. He is something of a diminished presence. Now, again, he's the only declared Republican presidential candidate right now. So we can't say he's off the stage entirely, but he is not commanding at all the way we have been used to in Republican politics over the last six years.
Yeah. I mean, it's fascinating to see kind of the winds of change, you know, and they're not blown in the direction of the swamp of Marlaga. No, I think that's right. Lauren Boebert, they're getting on the floor of the House in name checking Donald Trump and essentially saying you're wrong to back Kevin McCarthy, you should actually be asking him to withdraw from the race was a real movement and a real moment, I think for his movement and a sign that it is diminished.
I also think, though, that he isn't really pressing on them as much as he could, right? He's not threatening them. He's not saying, you know, I will put somebody up against you, for instance, a primary challenger, for instance. So he isn't going that far.
But the fact that he can't even move Lauren Boebert at this point is, I think, a sign of his diminishment. I do think we should highlight that in some ways Kevin McCarthy, I think, had a better day to day than he did yesterday. There are some signs that he's being able to peel. Some of these folks away, certainly not the never Kevin core, which is 567 people, which would still be enough to block him.
So, you know, the fact that they were able to get this adjournment tonight was, I think, a good sign for Kevin McCarthy. And we'll see what happens overnight with these discussions with Chip Roy. He said he can bring maybe 10 folks along. Again, you still have seven, eight people, 10 other people or so that they've got to talk to to see if he can seal this deal.
Yeah, Jake, a lot of very tired people at Capitol Hill today, you're here to go home. A lot of very, very tired people, no question. But I do want to go to Manu Raju who I heard just talk to the man of the hour Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and Manu, what I'm hearing from the speaker, would be Speaker's team, is a real progress is being made. Yeah, and that's how we feel.
See, he's been sounding upbeat this whole time, even he's gone down, vote after vote after vote. He's been upbeat, but this time no different. Actually, the mood has certainly changed in McCarthy's camp. It's certainly going to have the votes.
Yeah, he himself acknowledges that he said does not have a deal yet, but he does believe there has been movement. He pointed to the deal that his outside group cut with another conservative group, the club for growth to essentially allow his super packer for it, but ensure that his super pack does not engage in competitive and competitive open primary seats are safe for public seats. That's a lot of words for saying that he's moving the direction that conservatives want. He said that that was a big development.
He wouldn't get into other details about what they may have agreed to. I asked him whether they have agreed to the idea of what's called known on Capitol Hill's motion to vacate, which is such a eject sitting speaker from his position. As if one member calls for such a vote, they would have to get a majority of that as well. Conservatives have been demanding.
McCarthy would not say if he has come to their position on that issue or other issues such as giving them key committee assignments, but he did indicate that he is having productive discussions. He said they're going to have more discussions from tonight until tomorrow at noon. He didn't predict that he would have the votes by tomorrow at noon, but that is going to be a critical moment. Also a question is what does Byron Donald do?
The Florida Republican, the person who has been nominated to run, the person who has been siphoning off those 20 votes to all day today. Will he continue to be a candidate tomorrow? I asked McCarthy if he has asked Donalds to drop out of the race. He said no, he hasn't, but Donalds had told me earlier that he had planned to talk to McCarthy today.
So that discussion will be critical to ultimately getting a resolution on Carly knows he has virtually no margin for error here, but they believe in the moment things are moving in their direction after days of losing vote after vote after vote. They believe they could potentially get there as soon as tomorrow. All right, Monty Raje, thank you so much. And so let me let's just dissect Dana Besh.
I'll start with you. It sounds obscure, but it's actually relatively important. There is supposedly an independent leadership pack that Kevin McCarthy has endorsed although, of course, there's no coordination. Right.
And this is a bunch of McCarthy people who work there. Right. So this independent leadership pack goes out there and gives money to incumbent Republicans and races. What the rebels and the club for growth, which is a Koch brothers organization that is very mega right now, what they wanted is a pledge from this McCarthy back super pack.
Don't not only should you continue to back incumbent Republicans, but if there's an open seat in a Republican district, don't play it all. Why? Tell me why? Because they feel that they are at a disadvantage with money and in every other way politically in these campaigns when they are up against a from their point of view, an establishment group that has a ton of money and has a ton of influence.
And when I use the pronoun they, I'm talking about in many of these cases, like minded Republican candidates, like minded to the Boberts of the world, the mega Congress, right? It's like, Maggie plus plus. I mean, I don't even know. I mean, we have to come up with a new name for it, maybe by the end of the book, mega, mega mega.
You could call them mega, mega. Yeah, all right. All right. So, and so that's one of the ones that one that needs, mega mega, in congress and they don't want.
They don't want Karthy going in there and picking a more establishment because if you kind of take a step back and look at the makeup of the house, the Democrats and the Republicans, they have very gerrymandered, very solidly blue, solidly red districts for the most part. And in these red districts, whoever wins the primary wins the seat. And so that's why who plays in these primaries is the ball game for these Republicans. Right.
You're exactly right. They want to have more like-minded Republicans who end up in Congress. And this is- And McCarthy said, Uncle, fine. Well, yes, but why did we only get here now after six of these ballots?
Why is this something that he hasn't caved in on before? And that's because this also matters in open swing seats, right, where there's a Republican, the Republicans are trying to get the majority. And that's what Kevin McCarthy has spent his entire career focusing on. I think this pledge is just unsafe Republican seats.
Am I wrong? I saw the word safe. I mean, there's gonna be an argument in what- What is that? What is that?
There aren't that many swing seats left there. There are not. Right. But either way, it's- They've also come to focus on it.
This has really been the central grievance of a lot of these anti-mccarthy ids or these anti-establishment types in the house. The entire way along that the establishment comes in and crushes their candidates- Candidates before they have a chance to get off the ground. And a couple of them have made them into Congress anyway. Like Bob Good, it's part of the part of the reason why he is angry at that.
That was a convention in Virginia. That's a whole lot. It's not another thing. But part two of this wing of the Republican Party taking completely different lessons away from the party's electoral losses of 2022 and 2020 and 2018.
And the way that was a trickle. The way that was a trickle. They are interpreting the same facts in radically different ways. And it's not totally different from what you might see at times on the left when maybe the progressives will say, well, if we just had more of us, we would be better off.
The American people would support us. I think that's where some of these ultra conservative mega-maga folks feel. But the problem, if you're Kevin McCarthy, even in a safe Republican seat, what happened in this last cycle? When you have crazies running for Congress, it affects the entire brand.
It affects the entire atmosphere of an election cycle. And Democrats in this past cycle successfully ran on Republicans being too extreme. And so it matters whether it is a deep red district or a swing district, the candidates do matter even beyond the four corners of that district. I think I was absolutely correct about that.
And I agree with all of this analysis. The thing that drives me crazy is that there is this widespread myth among many of my conservative brethren that being electable makes you more moderate. That being electable makes you part of the establishment. There is no fucking establishment.
If there was an establishment, this wouldn't be happening. There's Mitch McConnell, and that's about it. The Donald Trump is the establishment of the Republican Party to the extent of the establishment. But these guys, they have this fantasy, this sort of Don Quixote fantasy that the Nelson Rockefeller's are not only still alive, but running everything.
Kevin McCarthy, I'm a huge critic of and is not reliable and I understand why conservatives are just like him in all sorts of things and why smarts is like him. But Kevin McCarthy would be, by all his any objective measure, one of the two or three most conservative Republican speakers in US history, at least for the last 100 years. Paul Ryan was the most conservative speaker. This idea that being part of the establishment makes you a rhino squish loser is this fantasy that these guys are getting high on on their own farts and like Fox Greenrooms on.
And it's a nonsense. It's absolutely. This is how you turn what should be a majority party into a minority party. It's where one part.
I think that's first, by the way, but I'm not going to ask you what part. We're going to have a McCarthy to your point would also be speaker at this point and wouldn't have be on facing a seventh ballot. I just like to go back to the prayer that started this evening. It was very specific.
Again, lest we stay awake without purpose, right? I saw some Democrats feeling about that work together, deliver us from in transigence. That was my favorite line. And impudence.
Transigence and impudence. But I think Abby's point is a very salient one. Everybody's point is a salient one. But the idea that like the idea that more mega mega candidates is the solution is an interesting one.
And also it is so short sighted of Kevin McCarthy to give in on this deal, even though also by the way, this is an independent super pack. There's not supposed to be any coordination, but nobody cares anyway, because nobody at the federal election commission, but the forces that lost names getting to this point about not learning the lessons from 2022. Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy were allowed to sit in a room and figure out who the candidate, the GOP candidate should be in the last election. Mitch McConnell would be the majority leader in the Senate.
Kevin McCarthy could write off a lot of these no votes because he would have a big enough majority. But the Republican Party has determined to, I think one of the best heuristics for understanding American politics sometimes is to think these parties are doing some of the things they're doing because they're determined to be minority parties, because they would rather be pure and raise money off of their purity than compromise by actually putting competitive candidates in swing and competitive districts. And the GOP is really round down into this. Raising money, that part of your sentence is key.
Because there are institutions on both sides of the aisle, but they're much more fervent right now, I think, on the Republican side that exist for one reason and one reason only to cause problems, to throw bombs and to raise money off of it. And it's the small donors, small dollar donors, and that ends up being the base and the fringes. And it's a self-affailing proposition. Well, and Jonah, I mean, you said this last night when we were talking about this.
I mean, this stopped being about ideology a long, long time ago. I mean, just Chipparoi, we could sit here and explain what does Chipparoi want from this process. And he's got these demands. And there are probably some people that would follow him who agree.
But like, Matt Gaetz isn't in this because he cares about some sort of policy, right? And that's what this used to be about. That's what this split started off as years ago. And with the rise of Donald Trump, all of a sudden you've got all these members who saw what Trump did.
He became a celebrity. And they think that they can do it too. And that's all they care about. One other note I want to make, because we're talking about the progressive wing of the party, the mega-megawing of the party.
There's all this talk in the last couple days of, are the Democrats going to do anything to help Kevin McCarthy? Is there going to be some sort of compromise candidate who governs from the center? Are the Democrats going to do any fact? Congressman Paul Gosar, the white supremacist adjacent Republican from Arizona.
We saw him talking on the floor of the house with Congresswoman Alexandria Acasio-Cortez, which was quite a sight and has launched a thousand liberating memes that have been amusing. But what I'm told he was asking about is that McCarthy forces were telling the rebels, he's a rebel, the Democrats are going to vote president so as to bring down the thresholds that McCarthy can win. And Gosar wanted to know if that was true. And why would Democrats do anything to help?
A, they love this. They're literally eating popcorn and watching this. B, all of these rule changes that the Republican conservatives are demanding, the progressives want too. They also want the process liberalized.
They also want an easier way to strip things out of bills and amend it and have an open debate. She said something like, okay, if you give me a committee chairman, you can imagine Paul Gosar saying, sure, Alexandria, I'm not going to do that. Go ahead. I will say this is as a point of contrast.
It's important to note the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is incredibly fervent. But what they've demonstrated, especially in the last two years, is a willingness to do what the the mega-wing of the Republican Party is not willing to do, which is to play with the team. And get some wins. And that has been, I think, one of the most important developments in the last couple of years, because it didn't have to be that way.
They were fully expecting Nancy Pelosi's five-seat margin back in 2020 to end in disaster, and it didn't. Because they all understood the politics of the situation and knew that being on board with the rest of the team would give them more benefits. The Republicans are not going that route, and I don't think that's going to change. It's not just about Republicans though, Anderson, there is something specific to Kevin McCarthy as a figure, as a singular figure, versus a Nancy Pelosi.
I don't know if there is a Nancy Pelosi of the right of the Republican Party, but it certainly isn't Kevin McCarthy. And by that, I mean, somebody who can unify the party and be feared. Yeah. And then so, Pelosi certainly was feared and was able to instill fear in others and get results based on that.
I want to check in with Melanie Zenona, who is, I know getting some more information about who Kevin McCarthy was meeting with. What do we know? Yeah. So in addition to the negotiations involving Chip Roy and some of McCarthy's allies, I'm told that Kevin McCarthy has also met with a group of freshmen Republicans who voted against him.
And during this meeting, he basically just reiterated some of the promises that he's already made and walked through some of the concessions in greater detail. But really, it was an opportunity for FaceTime with these freshmen members. They have not had the opportunity to be in the room and to be in negotiations with Kevin McCarthy, like the other members have. A lot of these negotiations were taking place prior to now, especially in the last few weeks.
And so for McCarthy, it was another opportunity to try to win over some of these holdouts. And so it really offers a window into McCarthy's thinking and into his strategy right now. He really feels determined. He is hunkered down.
He's trying to meet with as many people as possible. But he also knows that it's going to take every single vote he can get. He has no margin for error. And so it is going to come down to getting to know each and every one of these members, what do they want?
What is it going to take to get them to either vote for him or to vote present? But still a lot of work to do. But for McCarthy, this is a sign that potentially things could be moving in the right direction for him. And I assume he will be.
I mean, does he stay on Capitol Hill late into the night? Does he work the phone? How does it? What are the logistics?
Do we know? Yeah, well, for if the last night is on the indication, they probably will be here late. They've already adjourned. There probably will be a mix of meetings and phone calls and negotiations are going to continue.
They don't have them at time because they're going to adjourn again tomorrow at noon. And they're hoping at that point to be able to vote and at least show some progress. Even if Kevin McCarthy can't get there on the next ballot tomorrow for McCarthy, it is all about showing that momentum. And they want to be able to flip as I reported a little bit ago, Chip Royce says he believes that if these negotiations pan out, that he can bring along 10 members.
So that would really cut down the opposition. It would be a huge sign of momentum for having McCarthy. It would stave off, potentially people stepping in or people trying to encourage McCarthy to drop out. So he really needs this.
But the next 24 hours are going to be critical. Anderson, I'm Melanie Zoon. Appreciate it. Hope you get some sleep tonight as well.
Let's go to Charlie Dend who is standing by. So Congressman, you have, I mean, you've been watching this along with all of us. What needs to happen in these hours tonight and before the Congress starts back in this session tomorrow? Well, let me first say, Anderson, I am stunned by this by this concession on the super pack, not getting involved in open primary races and supposedly safe seats.
You know, we, you and I were sitting there listening for two days to people talk about opening up the process on the floor of the House of Representatives, 72 hour rules, more transparency. And what was the deal? Don't get involved. They don't want Kevin McCarthy super packed to get involved in in primaries.
What does that have to do with the rules? Frankly, this by not getting involved in primaries, you'll end up electing more of these ultra maggot candidates who will be part of that group who don't want to govern. You'll just grow that group of 20 people. I mean, I just think that's a terrible concession to make.
And frankly, it has nothing to do with these supposed high minded rules changes. These, these, this chaos caucus is demanding. This is just an outright naked political demand. That's something that Chip Roy in particular has been focusing on saying that he's very interested in these rules changes.
You're saying, I mean, do you believe him? No, well, it sounds to me like, Oh, great. The super pack is not going to try to stop more of our ultra maggot guys who have a hard time winning general elections. You know, this is they don't want McCarthy to back more establishment oriented candidates.
People who are more electable, they want more far right candidates to get nominated and hopefully elected and they'll become part of this group that doesn't want to govern. I mean, this is really stunning. This is really Kevin McCarthy's challenge. He has some groups, a big group of people here who do not want to govern.
You're simply going to grow that group with that concession. But again, it has nothing to do with these rules changes that we've been hearing about the last few days. And you know, I mean, Kevin McCarthy certainly did through that pack pour a lot of money into into house races, primary battles, this last election. Yeah, it was only like $350 million.
And that's one of the reasons why some of these folks are so mad at him. And in a letter a couple of days ago, that's what they highlighted is something that he wasn't willing to concede. He wasn't willing to concede that he was not going to have this super packed play in these primaries. So this is certainly a victory for their side, you know, as much as we're we may be able to see McCarthy doing better over the next hours and votes.
It's also true that the 20 are going to be doing better too. They are going to be getting more and more concessions growing their power eventually probably growing their ranks in the caucus as well. So, you know, even if McCarthy ends up winning, the house freedom caucus is going to win as well. He's going to be a very weak speaker.
He's going to be beholden to this far right group that is going to be able to yank the speakership from him with just five votes if they don't get their way. So, you know, this is something that the moderates were worried about initially and you saw McCarthy try to hold the line on some of these. But at this point, it looks like he's going to have to give away several stores at this point to appease this group of folks. They are playing this, I think, very, very smartly.
They know that this point, they are driving the bus. They are the ones that hold the key to getting the speakership and they will be the ones to hold the key to him maintaining the speakership. So, he's going to constantly have to play to this crowd of folks. Yeah.
Do you think the former president down in Morilago continues to make calls or does he wait to see which way the wind blows tomorrow? I think he's in a lot of touch with McCarthy and there's a lot of overlap between Trump's advisers and McCarthy's advisers. So, I think it's important to know that there is a concerted activity between both groups. I think that Trump is going to make some calls to people where he thinks it's not going to burn him.
I think if he thinks that he is going to be able to pressure certain people who seem like they're soft, he will. I saw Ralph Norman, apparently told reporters that he is voting for Donald's again tomorrow. So, I don't think that would be someone who Trump would call other Trump did call him previously to try to push him. But I think the Trump is going to watch and see how this plays out.
And look, I think Trump got dragged into this publicly in the last day beyond what he intended. He picked up his cell phone when a reporter called at least one, possibly two. And then he was forced to issue a stronger statement than he meant to. He likes to have a foot in every camp and he likes to then be able to say, look, that's really where I was.
And so, there are a lot of members who are opposed to McCarthy who are interpreting what Trump said as if it's sort of kneeling out. They're looking at this endorsement as if, well, it's not full-throated. He's not attacking Matt Gates. He's not attacking any of the holdouts.
Trump is going to, I think, recalibrate if it looks like this is going south. But everybody around Trump continues to insist they think McCarthy will get there. Yeah. Hey, I'm William Lincoln Henderson.
I'm Charlie Denton. Thanks so much. We're going to take a short break. Our coverage continues in just a moment and a lot more news ahead.
And welcome back to our continuing coverage of the chaos in Washington, D.C. It has been quite a day and quite a night. First given McCarthy lost his sixth vote to become House Speaker. That was an adjourned, a round of intense attempted deal making ensued.
Members then reconvened briefly, only to adjourn again until noon tomorrow with the would-be speaker now seemingly more upbeat about his chances. As soon as Monteraju first broke that news for us, he joins us again tonight from the Capitol. So why are things looking more upbeat for McCarthy? He's hearing some more positive responses from those opponents, the people that have essentially seemed immovable for the past two days.
But after a meeting in which McCarthy has made a number of concessions on range on political issues, how his outside group engages on some key issues, as well as giving them more power and more sway over themselves, the rank and file at the expense of the leadership. Some of these members sound like they're moving in his direction. Congressman Mike Cloud for one sounds like he's moving. He says he talks to moving in a positive light in his view as well as Scott Perry, another opponent of his chip Roy, another one as well.
Though, Chip Roy just mentioned to me earlier that he is still they still want to see everything they've talked to in writing. So there is significant amount work to go. Now, there is also a lot of tension within the ranks. I just talked to Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene who's a member of the far right House Freedom Caucus, but she's one who has been an outspoken supporter of Kevin McCarthy.
She told me that Republican Party looks like an embarrassment right now. And she also, those are her words. And she also went and said that she spoke to Congressman Byron Donald. So it was nominated today to challenge Kevin McCarthy who received 20 votes enough to deny him, he recorded the speakership.
She said she told Donald's that essentially that he needs to figure out a way for this to end. She said that I guess how did he respond? He said he sort of acknowledged that her response and she seems she says that she's getting attacked by conservatives. And even though a lot of members of the House Freedom Caucus are supporting Kevin McCarthy, they need to figure out a way to end this.
So the pressure is really growing from all sides here, but real indications that potentially Kevin McCarthy can get there. But he's just not there yet Anderson because of them, their own is the House Republican majority 222 seats, meaning he can't lose more than four Republican votes. Already, there are four very, very hard no votes. Others like Ralph Norman, who is not considering as part of those four very, very hard no votes just told reporters moments ago that his position has not changed.
Others are similar that they're still not there yet. So there will be more negotiations to be had. But nevertheless, McCarthy as he left the chamber sounded very upbeat. He has been sounding upbeat as he lost these six ballot votes, but still believes he can eventually get there.
Can you get there by noon tomorrow, Anderson? Still a question. I asked him that question directly. He said he does not want to put a timeframe on it, but he says he believes progress is being made talks will continue and that he'll eventually get there.
And Mona, it's interesting though, I was just talking to a former Congressman Charlie Dend who was saying he was that dent was surprised at the reporting that it's Kevin McCarthy's super PAC that a number of these far right rebels, I guess you would call them want to influence and want to impact on what races they actually get involved with. And that may be part of this deal. Yeah, it's going to be interesting the impact that that actually would have because really what they're talking about are safe open safe Republicans that are open safe. So what does that mean?
Not incumbent members of the current house. They're not talking about those agencies. We're talking about when there are no Republicans running for a specific seat and it's considered a safe seat. Now that the democracy that Democrats could potentially pick up so would not be essentially the makeup of the House Republican conference, but they could alter the ideological makeup of the Republican conference.
And that's really the core of that fight because those members that outside group the club for growth, which had pushed back against Kevin McCarthy's outside group wants more ideological conservatives, more far right conservatives. They don't want some of the more establishment minded Republicans that perhaps Kevin McCarthy would be more aligned with. So that is really the issue between those two that though that agreement is significant because I've heard from a number of Republicans talking pretty positively about that tonight, including McCarthy himself touting that repeatedly to reporters as he came and went back and forth from the chamber and we'll see how it influences others who are weighing whether not to support him. One of many concessions McCarthy is making and weighing as he's pushing to get to 218 votes just not there yet.
Yeah, I'm Roger Appreciate it. Thank you. I'm going to go see this million is known with more developments. She's also at the Capitol.
You very known. Well, there's been a flurry of meetings tonight. So I'm told that having McCarthy met with a group of freshmen members who voted against him. This was really an opportunity to get some facetime with these members who have not had that opportunity because they are new to Congress.
And basically, he just walked through some of the concessions that he already made and some of these promises and greater detail. But the bigger negotiations going on tonight are involving Chip Roy and some of McCarthy's allies. And I am told that these are some of the most serious and productive negotiations they've seen thus far throughout this entire saga. And Chip Roy told GOP leadership that he believes based on how these negotiations are going.
And if they pan out, that he can bring 10 members along with him and that additional members might be willing to vote present. Now, obviously, that's a big if that being, you know, negotiations going the right way. And all 10 members actually flipping to vote for McCarthy. But that doesn't bring him to 218.
He still has a long way to go. And I think it's an important distinction to separate some of these opposition, some of these opponents. You have people like Chip Roy, who seem to be trying to get something in earnest. He says he's still pushing for a number of procedural and policy issues.
He said he is still pushing to make it so that a single lawmaker can call for a vote to the opposing speaker. He's also pushing for more representation on House Rules Committee, which is important because that has sway over what bills come to the floor, how they come to the floor, that sort of thing. It's very inside base. But it matters a lot up here.
But he made a distinction. When you're talking about this earlier, he made a distinction between himself and some of these other opponents who have been trying to make more personal asks. I reported earlier today that Matt Gates, for example, went to McCarthy's office on Monday evening and made a list of demands, including wanting a subcommittee gavel on the House Armed Services Committee. But Chip Roy is seeming to try to put some distance between himself and some of those asks.
But really, it's going to come down to the math, of course. And how many members are in the Never Kevin Kemp? As of right now, we know of five Republicans who say they are firm knows as of right now that includes Ralph Norman as Monty mentioned, he came out just moments ago and said he is still going to vote for Byron Donald's on that first ballot. And so McCarthy is trying to wear down his opponents one by one.
It's starting with this group that's being led by Chip Roy, but that will only be the beginning of his path to 2018. Is there any chance if they don't feel they have the votes by tomorrow at noon that they would try to adjourn again? It's totally possible, Anderson. So McCarthy's camp right now, the feeling is they need to show momentum on the next ballot whenever that is.
So if they're getting close but they're not there yet at the next vote, which presumably will be noon tomorrow, there's a chance that they try to adjourn again. Obviously that would take 218 votes so they would need agreement to do that. But they feel like they're moving in the right direction. They want to be able to show that the opposition is shrinking.
Even if he doesn't get 218 on the next ballot, they want to show that they're moving in the right direction, not the wrong direction because if it goes the opposite way, you could start to see other candidates jumping in. You could start to see some Republicans trying to call on McCarthy to drop out. It wouldn't be good for him. So that is why you're seeing such a hard push tonight.
Appreciate it. Thank you. Joining us now, Florian, Republican, Congressman Maria Salazar, who voted for Kevin McCarthy in all six House Speaker votes. Congressman, appreciate you joining us.
What's your latest understanding of where things stand tonight? Wonderful to be with you. Well, I think that democracy is messy, but I think that the opposite is unthinkable. I represent the city of Miami.
I was a journalist for many years. And I think that one of the angles that we should be covering specifically, you being one of the top anchors in the nation, is that if these 20 holdouts were to be in Nicaragua or in Venezuela, they would be in jail and facing the fire and squad. And that's not the case here. So I know that it's uncomfortable.
We don't like what's happening, but at the same time, it's the best democracy and the democracy at its best. So what do you, are you concerned about more concessions being made to try to appease these 20? No, no, what I'm concerned about is what the rest of the country and the rest of the our enemies are going to be thinking about. I think that is why this party, our party, the Republican party should be very cognizant that we are sending the wrong message to our enemies and to those that I just mentioned, that are friends with China and Russia in our hemisphere.