decided they would dictate what they want. he didn't let that happen. he fought. he fought for himself, but he fought for 90% of us, too, that wanted him to be the speaker, and i appreciate that. then, of course, we had the debt ceiling deal. nobody here thought he could pass a bill. nobody in america thought he could pass a bill. he did what speakers are supposed to do, he passed the bill. then he sat down and negotiated with a democratic senate and a democratic president and came back with a good deal, a deal that will limit spending. he did the right thing. finally, last saturday on this floor, we were on the verge of a government shutdown, a government shutdown that the vast majority of members in this chamber did not want, a substantial majority on my side, an overwhelming majority on the democrat's side. he put his political neck on the line knowing this day was coming to do the right thing, the right

thing for the country without a doubt. my friends and i agree on that whether or not we agree on the speaker. he did the right thing. he did the right thing i think for this institution. he showed it could function in a time of crisis. finally, i think he did the right thing for our party. he made sure we could continue to negotiate and achieve some of the very objectives my friend from virginia laid out and achieve them in divided government which calls for some degree of give and take. so i'm very proud of this speaker. i'm very proud to stand behind him. tomorrow morning, whether i win or lose, i'm going to be pretty proud of the people i fought with, and i'm going to be extraordinarily proud of the person i fought for, the speaker of the house, kevin mccarthy. [ applause ] with that i reserve the balance of my time.

>> gentleman from oklahoma's time is reserved. gentleman from florida. >> mr. speaker, my friend from oklahoma says my colleagues and i who don't support kevin mccarthy would plunge the house and the country into chaos. chaos is speaker mccarthy. chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word. the one thing that the white house, house democrats and many of us on the conservative side of the republican caucus would argue is that the thing we have in common, kevin mccarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn't really mean and never intended to live up to. i don't think voting against kevin mccarthy is chaos. i think 33 trillion in debt is chaos. i think facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos. i think not passing single subject spending bills is chaos. i think the fact that we have been governed in this country

since the mid '90s by continuing resolution and omnibus is chaos. and the way to liberate ourselves from that is a series of reforms to this body that i would hope without outlast speaker mccarthy's time here, would outlast my time here and outlast either of our majority's. reforms that i've heard some of the most conservative members of this body fight for and some reforms that i've even heard those in the democrat caucus would be worthy and helpful to the house, like open amendments, like understanding what the budget is. we have been out of compliance with budget laws for most of my life, most of many of your lives. by the way, if we had single-subject bills, if we had an understanding on the top line, if we had open amendments, if we had trust, honesty and understanding, there would be times when my conservative colleagues and i would lose, might be a few times when we'd

win. there would be times that we'd form partnerships that might otherwise not be really predictable in the american body politic, but the american people would see us legislating. the last few days we suspended the momentum we established the week earlier, where we were bringing bills to the floor, voting on them, staying late at night and working hard. that's what the american people expect. it's something speaker mccarthy has president delivered. that's why i move to vacate the chair. mr. speaker i yield two minutes to my good friend from minnesota. >> gentleman from minnesota, mr. emmer is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you. kevin mccarthy has earned this. under speaker mccarthy's leadership our house republican majority has actually defied all odds and overperformed expectations again and again and again. it all started with the speaker's race. when our speaker kevin mccarthy

showed the american people how he would never give up. it carried over into the speaker spearheading a rules package to create the most transparent, member-driven legislative process i've ever seen since i've been here. since then speaker mccarthy's republican majority has been successful in bringing common sense back to our nation's capital by passing legislation a parent's right to be involved in their child's education, fully fund veterans care and benefits, fight back against the regulatory state and continue delivering on our promise to rein in democrats' reckless spending by passing physically responsible appropriations bills. we've also achieved historic conservative wins, like passing the strongest border security legislation in history, passing the first republican-only ndaa in history and passing the first republican-only state and foreign operations

appropriations bill. so many americans are better off of kevin mccarthy's leadership. american families, job creators, entrepreneurs, service members, law enforcement officers, and the list goes on and on. these are just a few of our house republican majority successes. make no mistake, we need kevin mccarthy to remain speaker if we're going to stay focused on our mission of delivering common sense wins for the american people. we've shown americans what success looks like when we come together as a team. now it's time for us to stand together stronger than ever so we can get back to the work our majority was elected to do. i'm proud to support the speaker as we continue championing conservative priorities that will put our country on a better path. thank you, speaker mccarthy. >> gentleman from florida. [ applause ] >> the opening line of my

colleague's speech was that speaker mccarthy always overperforms expectations, but after tweeting "bring it," and after engaging in profane-laced tirades at house conference, he just lost a motion to table. i wouldn't necessarily consider that overperforming expectations. time and again i've heard my colleagues say he deserves it because he went through a tough speaker contest. let me let everyone know he prevailed because he made an agreement to fulfill certain commitments to make this an open and honest process. he's failed to meet those commitments. that's why we're here. >> gentleman from oklahoma, mr. cole. >> i yield three minutes for my very good friend, mr. jordan of ohio. >> gentleman from ohio is recognized. >> on january 3rd we said the 118th congress is about three things. pass the bills that need pass, do the oversight work that needs to be done and stop the inevitable omnibus that comes

from the united states senate right before the holidays. we passed the bills we told the meeb we would pass. 80,000 irs agents, parents bill of rights, energy legislation passed, border security, immigration enforcement legislation, the strongest bill ever to pass the congress passed earlier this year. we have done what we told them we were going to do. we can't help the senate won't take up those good common sense bills. they'll have to answer to the american people come election day. oversight. we have done the oversight that we're supposed to do. because of our oversight, we know parents were targeted by the department of justice. because of our oversight, we know 51 former intel officials misled the country weeks before the most important election we have. because of the oversight, the disinformation governance board at the department of homeland security is gone. because of our oversight, the memo attacking pro-life catholics has been rescinded.

unannounced visits to americans' homes by the internal revenue service has stopped. that happened under speaker mccarthy. on the third one, on this side we know there's a big old ugly bill coming at the end of the year, all kinds of spending, all kinds of garbage in it. we're still in that fight. to matt's point, we don't know how that one is going to shake out. but we do know this, we know this. on saturday we didn't take the senate's bill. they tried to send it over and shove it down our throats. we didn't take that bill. it was a tough position he was in. there were five options on the table last week. option one was send a long-term cr over there that would have leveraged cuts, something a bunch of us voted for. couldn't get the votes. second option was to focus on the one issue the compuntry is completely focused on, the border issue. we couldn't get the votes for that one either. when the senate tried to send us that bill, he said no to it.

i think the speaker has kept his word. i think he has kept his word on those three things that we talked about on january 3rd and frankly that entire week. he's kept his word. i think we should keep him as speaker. i yield back. [ applause ] >> gentleman from florida is recognized. >> the problem with my friend from ohio's argument is that many of the bills he referenced as having passed are not law. we are on a fast track to an am bus bill, and it is difficult to champion oversight when house republicans haven't even sent a subpoena to hunter biden. it's hard to make the argument that oversight is the reason to continue when it sort of looks like failure theater. i yield time to my colleague from arizona. >> the gentleman from arizona is recognized. how much time? >> what he consumes. >> so much as he macon assume. >> thank you, mr. speaker. this is a serious time.

my mind immediately goes to the while trying to apprehend a runaway vehicle smuggling humans across the border suffered major injuries, transported to pima county where he's in a tucson hospital fighting for his life. i'm talking about a border that remains wide open, where drugs come through. the tucson sector, the most known and unknown of any sector along the border. terrorists coming in, people conducting criminal conduct coming in, criminal gang members, human smugglers, sex traffickers.

they're coming across our border to the tune of hundreds of thousands every month. now, i appreciate my colleagues and their position, but i would suggest something. i don't think you can just skip to last weekend and say, oh, my goodness, a cr came out last weekend on saturday. i think we need to go back to january. i'll say this. this body came together on the republican side, and we passed a good border security piece of legislation, hr 2. that's good. last week we passed the dhs bill and the dod bills which had funding for cvp, i.c.e., military men and women. but why were we successful in

doing that? what happened to motivate us to get there? for one thing, we didn't bother to pass the 12 appropriations bills as required under the budget control and i'm pounds law of 1974. do you know how many times that's not been done? 25 years in a row. you know how many crs this body has passed in that same period of time? 130. you know what that gets you? a 2 trillion plus structural deficit like we had in fiscal year '23. you know what that leads you to, a $33 trillion national debt which is where we sit today. it leads you to somewhere north of $700 billion in interest

payments. you know why that happened? because this body is entrenched in a suboptimal path and refuses to leave it. refuses to leave that path. you cannot change if you're unwilling to change. we had every opportunity to change. we were promised change, we were promised we were going to go ahead and get those 12 bills done, and if we got those 12 bills done, do you know why you do 12 bills? because it allows you to reduce spending, get rid of raceful duplicative programs. it allows you to set an agenda to restore fiscal sanity. we chose to not do it again. we were promised we'd do it. that's why at the end some people said we'll vote present. we'll go ahead. we're going to put our trust in

mr. mccarthy to become the speaker. that didn't happen. i suspected that would be the case. that was my struggle. that was my struggle last november and december. i iterated it to this body, our conference anyway. when we got to the debt ceiling, again, that seemed to spring upon everybody like a surprise. and when that happened, i was in there for some of those negotiations on where that number would be, and itches astonished how that $1.5 trillion number was negotiated. unbelievable, unbelievable. i will tell you this. to his credit the speaker told us one thing i believe to be

true. basically the ante in the poker game, he can sit down at the table, and i told my colleagues that supported that, that 1.5 trillion in eight months that you're willing to raise the debt ceiling, that's the opening marker. indeed it was. and now projections are many trillion dollars above that. yes, i think it's time to make a change. i'm not the only one, and that's somber. thus it is somber. but what have we failed to accomplish? why didn't we get this stuff done? when we're campaigning, we're talking about an extension of the debt ceiling to january of 2025. we're talking about additional ukraine funding. maybe that's good in your districts. maybe it's not.

but that money is not offset. we're not paying for it. we haven't designated how we're going to pay for them. the same with the disaster pac package. the irs remains 80% increased. it will tell you, i can go down the list. i'll tell you why this happens. when you don't do your 12 budget bills and you rely ultimately on a cr -- i'll get to the calendar northbound a second -- what happens is you cannot leverage this administration to actually enforce the border laws that you need to have enforced. this is a lawless biden regime. they will not enforce border law s. we can pass them until we're blue in the face. until you leverage the budget and the spending, you will not see enforcement by this administration. so take a look at the calendar

that we were just provided last week. we're supposed to finish by november 3rd our 12 bills. by november 17th, that's when we're supposed to see that the conference committees have come together, both sides and we've resolved this. i don't believe that that's going to happen. it wasn't going to happen before. you were betting on the come again. at some point i'd urge you to stop betting on the come and bet on the reality. that's why i can't support the speaker any longer and i'll be voting for the motion to vacate. yield back. >> gentleman yields back his time. the gentleman from florida reserves. members are advised to direct your comments to the chair, please. gentleman from oklahoma. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i yield two minutes to my very good friend from arkansas, mr. westerman. >> recognized for two minutes.

>> sela, scattered throughout the song signals the reader to pause, reflect, consider and maybe take a deep breath before moving on. solomon used it to emphasize the significance of a statement. blessed be the lord, god that is our sale investigation-sela. that is a profound statement with huge implications. it deserves more than a cursory communication. within the next hour, this house will vote yea or nay to vacate the speaker's chair, a profound action with huge implications. this was last tried in 1910. joseph khan flon won the vote, 113 years later my office is in the cannon office building and uncle joe cannon's statue sits just outside this chamber. no living human has taken the vote we're about to take.

it deserves we pause, we reflect, that we consider deeply the ramifications of our actions. to my fellow republicans who would consider voting yes to removing our republican speaker, please pause and ask yourself two questions. will your yes vote make america stronger? will your yes vote strengthen conservative policies? if you believe yes is the right vote, please stand before this body and the american people and articulate your plan, not your grievances or your wishes, your plan. convince the mass majority of the republican conference that strongly disagrees with you to follow you. if you cannot do that, which you have failed to do so far, then voting yes is at the least a disruptive overreaction. in reality it's selfish, bad for conservative policies and bad

for america. that's why i strongly support speaker kevin mccarthy and why without hesitation or reservation,ly vote no on this disastrous resolution. i yield back. [ applause ] all right. as the two sides go back and forth explaining why speaker mccarthy should be ousted or why he should not, let us take one moment here to gather our thoughts about the arguments being made. first of all, we should note, dana bash, of the 11 republicans who joined with all the democrats to say that there should, in fact, be a vote on whether or not to oust speaker mccarthy, not all of the 11 are going to vote to oust speaker mccarthy. we're told congresswoman sparks of indiana will not vote to oust him. krong man crenshaw, republican of texas, said that some of the

republican defections surprised him. he acknowledged that some may be trying to leverage their votes for concessions from mccarthy before the final vote. >> i got a text from somebody who is familiar with the way that the anti-mccarthy -- i wouldn't even call it a wing. >> a clump. >> a faction. >> a faction. they say at this point they think it might be around eight. regardless, it will be enough. >> it's enough if you combine it with the 208 or so democrats. >> this is going to be maybe be captain obvious, but watching this debate, i think it's important to point out that usually when we watch a debate on the house floor, it's the democrats and it's the republicans. it's the democrats and republicans. the democrats are absent. this is a republican-on-republican debate and fight over who their leader should be. democrats are just sitting back

and listening to it. >> although it is interesting to see -- david chalian, you remarked on this -- some of the most self-styled rebellious members of congress -- we see congressman tom massie there of kentucky. we saw jim jordan of ohio, really embracing the establishment right now even if they voted against, as jordan did, the continuing resolution that speaker mccarthy put forward on friday. >> i think it shows you how small the gaetz faction is, small but sufficient, obviously, given the narrow majority that karth is working with here. when you see massey and jordan are perfect examples, but when you see folks who had nothing to do with the sort of establishment inside the republican conference be with the establishment, you know you've isolated to a very few, just a handful that are causing this moment. the problem for kevin mccarthy

is the math there. the small handful is enough. >> all you need is five house republicans to join with all the democrats, kasie. >> that's right. i think this also underscores the personal nature of what's going on here. yes, we talked about all the political themes. in some ways those political realities have enabled somebody like matt gaetz. i remember when speaker paul ryan first came in, i asked him a question about being attacked by breitbart. he said there are three things that are true in my life, death, taxes and attacks from breitbart. that's a version of what we're seeing now. there is a photo that one of our colleagues took around the scrum of cameras around matt gaetz, just dozens of people, cameras. that's his goal and the political system that's around heim, the media ecosystem, particularly on the v can side, has allowed him to grab those cameras, become famous, become a

star and take out what is a very personal grievance against speaker mccarthy and have our entire government pay the price for it. >> although we should note that the reason that one members of congress can call forward a motion to vacate is because kevin mccarthy agreed to that when he was trying to become spous. speaker of the house. >> yes, matt gaetz wants to be surrounded by cameras. one of the congressman saying, what's the plan though? let's say you get kevin mccarthy out and he can't keep his speakership, who then is going to be your speaker? it's not like he's proposing an alternate candidate. he's just trying to cause chaos. and then for the republicans who voted to allow the speaker vote to actually happen, now they get to negotiate with kevin mccarthy and broker some other deals. is that word even worth anything? would you even believe anything that kevin mccarthy offered you right now in order to have not

more than five people vote to get him out of his speakership. it doesn't make sense. >> one of the things that's a shame in all this is that matt gaetz is right about some of the things he's saying. we do have a $33 trillion debt. we do spend more than we take in. we do too often, the congress does not make the tough decisions about how to govern, how to budget, but by the same token, matt gaetz isn't doing anything to further the solving of those problems. >> no. and this argument that we've just heard over the past 30 minutes on the house floor is the larger argument the republican party has been having since it won back congress in 2010. so you have a lot of fire brands, matt gaetz being a good example. what word does he use over and over? fight. i'm the ultimate fighter.

nobody can outfight me. those on the other side, also republicans saying, okay, what's your plan? do you have a plan to land a punch, knock down your opponent, win the fight? essentially the incentive structure, the cameras that kasie was talking about, rewarded matt gaetz for throwing so many punches like elmer fudd in a cartoon spinning in a circle and never actually lands one. republicans will point out that there's no substance here. that sort of gets lost in the details. i'd say one other thing that's interesting about this conversation, if you notice on the house floor, when you see matt gaetz speaking, he's speaking from the democratic side of the house. all the willing positions where the lecterns are are taken. they're sending a message, matt, you're with the democrats here. >> although the democrats are not speaking. the democrats are just like, this is between y'all. we have nothing to do with this. have fun. go at it. we're not supporting mccarthy.

we're not supporting gaetz. you just do your thing. >> they're not wrong about that, right? this really is a making of a circumstance inside the house republican conference. it's hard to argue with the democrats sort of saying you guys work this out. it seems to me, if they -- i spoke to one democrat today. there was concern if they got too involved it would look like they were getting into betd with matt gaetz, like they were buddy-buddy. they wanted none of that kind of image pri where they were advancing matt gaetz's cause. >> can i say there's no evidence that anyone else is going to be able to do a better job than kevin mccarthy of governing this house of representatives. he did a good job of keeping challengers at bay during the initial fight to be speaker, steve scalise and tom emmer. this is the third republican speaker in a row. boehner left, ryan left. it looks like kevin mccarthy is going to get kicked out.

i don't know why anybody thinks finding a tom emmer or steve ska lease is going to solve the problems they have governing the country. they're going to persist. the majority is still going to be narrow. they still have to deal with a democratic senate and a democrat in the white house. i think if we find ourselves facing a situation where there's a vacant speaker's chair for quite some tierjs i think democrats will have to think to themselves, and the pressure may be on them, but it also may be an opportunity as well for them to be able to say, hey, we have a chance to grab some power here and change how the house is working. that would be really unprecedented. i don't see how, even if they throw kevin mccarthy out, then what? the denialism of this group of five or six is evident. they don't want to acknowledge or behave as if the senate exists, the democratic party exists, the president of the

united states won fair and square. we have yet to acknowledge the fact that with the exception of congresswoman nancy mays, everybody that voted to get rid of kevin mccarthy believes lies about the 2020 election. that is part of this. it is part and parcel when we're looking at the larger nihilistic world view of the issues the republican party is having here, is when you let crazy take hold of part of your party, it doesn't go away. what we saw happen on january 6th in terms of two-thirds of the house republican caucus -- >> conference. >> conference. >> i feel the same way you feel about commonwealth. >> two-thirds of the house republican conference voting to disenfranchise democrats, republicans, independents of the commonwealth of pennsylvania and the state of arizona even after

the bodies lay dead in the capitol. two-thirds of them voting that way including speaker mccarthy. that fever didn't break that night. >> no advance it to last year's election. i think congressman alford from missouri was reminding the red wave that all the republicans were anticipating in the 2022 election that did not emerge here. you can draw a direct line from trump's lies about the 2020 election, behavior of the republican conference on the 6th of january and beyond, to the 2022 nominating season from republican candidates to this very slim narrow republican majority as to why kevin mccarthy finds himself -- >> and a republican minority in the senate. they could have had a majority if they nominated more electable candidates which is what mitch mcconnell warned about throughout the campaign. >> i'll add two more data points along that line that you talked about, is back to january 6th,

kevin mccarthy in the immediate aftermath was enraged, as it was happening, was enraged. >> was that before or after he voted to disenfranchise -- arizona and pennsylvania. >> then he realized if he wants to have his dream come true to being speaker of the house, he needs to not anger the election deniers who will keep him in line to have that. it took a lot more, we saw, with the 15 votes when it actually came to be in january, but all of these things are connected and all of these things come him to where he is -- >> i'll let you talk in a second, but i want to show, first of all -- he just sat down. congressman steve scalise is speaking. he's the number two house republican behind kevin mccarthy. what's interesting is that cnn reported that congressman matt gaetz who is leading this

rebellion has floated in the past two of the republicans that we evidence ooh seen speaking, and i'll bring -- next time they speak, i'll point them out to you at home. congressman tom cole of oklahoma who i believe is if highest ranking native american in congress, just for those who find that interesting, and congressman tom emmer of minnesota. we've seen him speak earlier. those are two individuals who are actually widely respected in congress among democrats and republicans. i don't know that they would be facing this crisis as kevin mccarthy is because i think their word is regarded more credibly among democrats. i'm sorry, ashley. go ahead. >> this is an opportunity for the democrats, as kasie was saying. i would let this play out if i'm hakeem jeffries. let them look immature and not the adults in the room.

if we get to a point where there is a vacant speakership for a significant period of time, step up and be a leader and say, you know what? i'm putting politics aside. this institution, as kevin mccarthy continues to say, must function for our government to function. pivot that into every 2024 political ad to come for the presidency, for governor ships, for the house, for the senate. i think voters will say enough is enough. that's actually how this will stop is when the voters are saying i'm so sick of this faction of the republican party, this maga faction which is led by donald trump. what are the republican candidates running for the 2024 nomination saying right now? this is a moment for people to stand up and be leaders and say enough is enough, we're done with this because we need to have a functioning government. >> everyone stand by. we have breaking news that is not unrelated in terms of the bigger pictures we've been

talking about here. the judge in the civil trump fraud trial just issued a gag order specifically rebuking the defendant, donald trump after a social media post by mr. trump attacking his law clerk. brynn gingras is on this. brynn, for those who thought that we had reached the bottom, apparently there is no bottom. tell us what the social media post was and what happened today. >> reporter: not so unfamiliar territory when it comes to the former president, right, jake? this was a truth social post that the former president put up on tuesday, today, showing a picture of the judge in this case and his clerk in a photo with senate majority leader chuck schumer claiming that she is his girlfriend. there is no connection to our knowledge of any relationship

beyond this photo. that's still yet to be determined. so he put it up there basically with no truth behind this photo. that led to the court after lunch, starting later today, about 45 minutes later. the judge took to the bench and essentially issued a warning to a particular defendant -- didn't say trump by name, but said that tlafs disparaging untrue and personally identifiable post about a member of his staff. he ordered it be deleted. it was deleted. he said it was also emailed out to millions of people. he said personal attacks of any member of mie court staffer are unacceptable, inappropriate, and i will not tolerate them. he ordered that no one speak publicly about any member of his staff. if so, that would result in serious sanctions. so a very strict warning to the defendants. he said he warned about anything like this prior to this trial starting, and here he is again

warning. at this point we also know that eric trump left the courtroom after that sort of admonishment by the judge. certainly this was a delay in this trial. this is something, of course, jake we know we have seen before, personal attacks. this one hit a little too close to home for that judge. jake. >> pretty vial insinuation, completely inappropriate for any adult, much less the defendant, much less a former president of the united states. brynn gingras, thank you so much. let's go back to our coverage of the hearing right now, the floor discussion. here is matt gaetz who is making the argument that speaker mccarthy should be removed. let's listen in. >> these bills can go, the spending may rise and fall as the years pass, but the notion that we're going to lump in the department of education and the department of labor with our military and our troops and our border patrol is fundamentally

unserious, and i would suggest chaotic. we cannot do that. it was only because we forced that to happen. by the way, if we continue with speaker mccarthy, the appropriations process will go right back to what he wanted it to go back to, just a sideshow, just a puppet show, just something to keep the hamsters on the hamster wheel as they continue to back people up against a calendar, centralize power with the lobbyists and special interests that move all kind of money through the leadership. that's how they get their way. that's why the american people have been getting screwed decade after decade, and i'm not going to tolerate it anymore without a fight. i reserve. >> gentleman from oklahoma, mr. cole. >> thank you very much, mr. speaker. i yield two minutes to my very good friend, fellow member of the appreciations committee, mr. gar zee yeah of california. >> gentleman from california is recognized for two minutes. >> mr. speaker, i want to recalibrate our minds on what is actually happening here today. this proceeding looks important,

feels consequential. let's look at what else is happening across america. today about 300 americans will die from fentanyl poisoning. today about 11,000 people will illegally penetrate our borders. today's debt is approaching $34 trillion. today's mortgage rates just hit a 25-year high, now approaching 8%. our energy prices are at back breaking highs with gas approaching $8.00 a gallon in my district. today china and the ccp grow stronger with an intent to go war by 2027, and our military is experiencing record low retention and record low recruitment. this is the reality of today for 335 million americans under president joe biden. it's a dark and scary reality. this republican majority here in the house is the only firewall against the damaging far left policies of the biden administration. the single subject appreciation bills that we were supposed to be voting on this week will literally fight to reverse the

darkness of these realities and fight inflation, cut spending, secure our border while enhancing our nation's security and investing in our soldiers at a meaningful level. today this body filled with people in fancy suits led by a few republicans who are running with scissors and supported by democrats, who have personal issues with the speaker have uncertain intentions and even more uncertain goals. they've decided to make today about drama, not about solving problems and helping our constituents, but about drama. we need to be the no-drama option for america, this party, this majority. i feel this self-inflicted drama of today jeopardizes our majority and removes the last layer of defense protecting america from this biden administration. let's dispense with the draum particular, do our jobs and move on with defending this beautiful country. i yield back. [ applause ] >> gentleman from florida.

>> i'm here to solve problems, too, but we have decade after decade of history showing us that you don't solve any problems with continuing resolutions and omnibus bills. that creates more problems, more debt, more inflation, more pain for american families. the way to solve problems is to break the fever dream of governing by continuing resolution and omnibus bill and instead return to the very single subject spending bills that we will only get in my resolution passes to vacate speaker mccarthy. i reserve. >> gentleman reserves his time. gentleman from oklahoma, mr. cole. >> thank you very much, mr. speaker. i yield two minutes to my very good friend from north carolina, mr. mchenry. >> gentleman from north carolina, mr. mchenry is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you, mr. speaker. every step of the way speaker mccarthy has been doubted. after the first speaker vote he was mocked, right? after 15, they called him speaker. even then it was the media and the left that mocked him.

with the narrowest republican majority in the nation, what did we achieve? we brought the president to the table when he stubbornly said for 100 days he would not negotiate at the debt ceiling. i took him at his words. the speaker said no, we'll get him to the table. sure enough, we did. the result, the most conservative spending package we've seen in generations, the largest spending cuts year-over-year than any congress has passed. conservative outcomes. i understand your position on the left. i understand that, but my friends on the right, why? then this past weekend -- i understand the frustration on the left on what happened on the continuing resolution. why would we have conservatives object to that? why will we have house members object to that? we rolled the senate. we never roll the senate as a house. moreover, we never roll the senate to get less spending and we got it over the weekend. i understand why the left is

mad. what i don't understand is why some republicans think that's a bad thing. the frustration for me today -- i understand where the liberals are. i know you support the constitutional order except in a moment like this when you are quid on that. i understand that. you can't be counted on at a moment like this with the state of the speakership. but for republicans, why would we give up a conservative working majority for better outcomes and hand the keys over to the democrats? why would we do that? furthermore, with this record of success that we've seen kevin mccarthy and a republican majority produce in a washington run by democrats, we're going to throw that away resulting in more liberal outcomes, not more conservative ones. so i understand why the left is where you are today. you don't like an effective conservative majority and i don't blame you. but on the right -- >> gentleman's time has expired.

gentleman from florida. >> it is lovely to hear from the principal architect of mr. mccarthy's debt limit deal. here is the reality, the only republicans in america who believe that the debt limit deal was conservative are in this chamber right now because all over america, republicans think that when you negotiated that debt limit deal, they took your lunch money. i reserve. >> the gentleman reserves his time. gentleman from oklahoma, mr. cole. >> thank you very much, mr. speaker. i yield 1:30 to my good friend from my home state, gentlelady ms. vice. >> ms. vice is recognized for 1:30. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of speaker mccarthy. under his leadership and a very small five-seat majority, house republicans have achieved, contrary to popular belief, numerous victories.

we passed the parents bill of rights, the lower energy cost act to lower the cost of gasoline and restore american energy independence. with enforceable spending caps and hr 2, the most conservative southern border bill in history, all of this while fully funding our military and our nation's veterans. let me be abundantly clear, attempting to remove speaker mccarthy will put this house in a stalemate and paralyze our ability to -- -- working

together under the leadership of speaker mccarthy is of the utmost importance. i strongly support kevin mccarthy for speaker of the house and i encourage my republican colleagues to do the same. thank you and i yield. >> mr. cole continues to reserve his time. he has seven minutes remaining. mr. gaetz controls 5.5 in this debate. gentleman from florida is recognized. >> i'll reserve. >> gentleman from oklahoma, mr. cole. >> thank you very much, mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to our conference leader, ms. steph nan nick of new york. >> recognized for two minutes. >> anyone and everyone who knows kevin mccarthy, whether they are friend or foe knows that kevin mccarthy is a happy warrior. he is tireless. he has that uniquely american grit. under kevin's speaker ship that

lasted 15 rounds of him never giving up, this republican majority has exceeded all expectations. we reopened the people's house. we passed the strongest border security bill in our nation's history. we passed an energy plan to unleash american energy dominance. we passed defense bills to support our troops. under kevin's leadership he's brought hundreds and hundreds of bipartisan members of congress to straeld, our greatest ally. he elected the most diverse class of republicans ever with the largest number of republican women ever in american history. this boy from bakersfield, he cares deeply about his constituents, his country and the american people and that includes each and every one of his colleagues. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we're following the major breaking news in washington, historic news. kevin mccarthy's fate as house speaker is about to be decided. frankly, it does not look good for him.

any minute the house of representatives will vote on a motion to oust him from his job. it's a vote he tried but failed to block earlier today with 11 of his fellow house republicans voting with every democrat to proceed with this vote coming up to kick him out. if kevin mccarthy loses this vote coming up in just minutes, he will become the first house speaker in the history of the united states of america to lose his job by a vote from his colleagues. it has simply never happened before. the house of representatives will then have to pick a new speaker which could become utter chaos. there is no obvious consensus pick, at least as of now. we're also following breaking news out of new york, also kind of part of the same nihilistic, chaotic theme. a judge issued a partial gag order in donald trump's civil fraud case.

judge arthur engoron rebuked donald trump because donald trump went on social media and smeared one of the judge's clerks, and the judge forbeyed everyone from making future comments about his staff. one would think that would be obvious for a defendant to not do about a judge who is going to decide his fate, not to mention just basic decency. but welcome to 2023. our reporters are in that courtroom. we'll bring yoi you all of those developments coming up on "the lead." let's start with the chaos here in d.c. before we go to the chaos in that new york courtroom. cnn chief congressional correspondent manu raju on capitol hill. manu, 11 republicans voted against mccarthy. i know we don't expect all 11 to vote against him in terms of

firing him, but all -- he can't afford to lose more than four, right? do we expect he's going to lose his job in a few minutes? >> reporter: it seems very, very likely, jake. we do expect about 11 of those -- of those 11 six are hard nos, that seem absolutely unshakeable at the moment. we'll see about some of the others. a couple of them make vote against this effort to oust him for a variety of reasons. but six is more than he can afford to lose at this moment. he can only afford to lose four. democrats are not coming to his rescue. we're about to see something that's never been seen in american history, this speaker losing a vote, getting kicked out of his job on the house floor. as you can see here from this very, very passionate floor debate, it is republican on republican. we're seeing mccarthy defending his tenure in office, going after matt gaetz, who is targeting kevin mccarthy's

speakership, attacking his colleagues, democrats for the most part sitting out of this debate. even as they could have, if they wanted to, saved kevin mccarthy, have made the decision not to do that here. so, jake, the question is afterwards, what will happen next. the house can't move forward on any legislation. it is essentially paralyzed until the new speaker. what will kevin mccarthy do, the big question of the moment? a few days ago when i asked him, will you put yourself up as a candidate if you lose? will you go ballot after ballot after ballot? he said he wasn't going to give up. he said he was going to continue to fight, suggested he was willing to do that. moments ago he wouldn't go that far. he said we'll see when he was asked about that exact same scenario. has he changed his mind? what will he do? if he does go forward narcotics could lead to a series. it could be pretty chaotic, jake, because now a single candidate could get 218 votes, assuming 11 or so, or more than

four republicans will vote against him or for another candidate. democrats would vote for hakeem jeffries. they don't have a majority vote either quote. be in a situation like january, ballot after ballot after ballot to find a new speaker of the house, one of the most important positions in all of government, the most important position here in the house, and something essential for the basic issue of governing, which is why this vote at this moment so significant, so historic, and one that kevin mccarthy is poised to lose. >> all right, manu raju, we'll check back with you in seconds. let's bring in the panel, dana bash, david chalian and kasie hunt. we have some new folks here, audie cornish and paul begala. audie, for the folks tuning in, let us remind people why speaker mccarthy finds himself in this pi pickle. the reason that one person in this house of representatives in this new congress since january of this year, why one person has

the power to raise their hand and say i would like to get rid of this speaker is why? >> well, because the speaker gay it to them in order to get that gavel. one other way to think about it is republicans viewed nancy pelosi as having a very strong hand. they would use terms like tyrannical. it was very top-down. and they said look, we want to do it a different way. and he went along with it. this is what it looks like when you do it the way people are talking about. the other thing is when you get up -- when you actually listen to these speeches, there is two kinds of speeches happening. one is, hey, are we not doing anything? it seems like we're not doing anything. that's the back cage. maybe oversight is political theater. maybe we haven't passed all the things we said we did. and then people like jim jordan, people who are sitting and saying no, we have done a lot. i can see why democrats would want to sit through this debate and say yeah, let them have this conversation and explain to the american people whether or not they can do anything they said they have or anything at all

functionally. and that's actually one of the reasons why it's such a fascinating political moment. not because of the sort of petty does gaetz like mccar thinking it's more like an existential crisis in the open. >> matt said something, i don't remember if it today or yesterday where he said it's going to be really tough for republicans to paint joe biden as feeble when he goes to the negotiating table with kevin mccarthy and eats his lunch. i mean, he is providing sound bite after sound bite for the biden reelection campaign. >> right. somewhere joe biden approves of that message. put it straight on air. >> somewhere donald trump is busy in court. >> we'll get to 245 in a minute. but this is their brand. their brand is chaos. and this is their agenda. remove the republican speaker. impeach the democratic president, block every single admiral, every single general from taking office. oh, and shut down the government in 44 days. that's their brand.

that is not conservative. frankly, have done a really good job of saying these are nihilists on the extreme. we're only talking about a dozen people. we're not talking about all republicans. but that nihilist caucus, the chaos caucus has taken over. and it is not a conservative thing at all. ronald reagan would never put up with what's going on there. >> out. he is out. >> and doug, let's talk about this, because we've talked about this a little bit. but, again, the idea that $33 trillion in debt is unacceptable, and we're paying more on the interest on our debt every year than we're paying on a whole bunch of really important programs that benefit poor people and kids every year is outrageous. he's not wrong about that. the idea that we should be doing a lot more to help the humanitarian crisis going on in our border. he is not wrong about that. but is this doing anything to solve the problem? >> no, and it's not intended to. it's demonstrated -- it's intended to demonstrate that he is a tough fighter. >> matt gaetz we're talk about?

>> matt gaetz. and that allows him to get all the media coverage he wants and raise money. we saw garret graves holding up some fundraising matt gaetz has done around this. this has been a long time coming. i don't mean for kevin mccarthy. i mean for republicans. we went through the shutdown in 2013 that was on us. i worked in house leadership at the time. we couldn't get to 218 votes. we basically ceded to the radicals in our own conference and said they're going to have to touch the stove and find out that they're going to get burned. they didn't get burned. so then donald trump comes. he turns the heat even higher up, and now we're finally seeing one run who gets burned. it just happens to be the speaker. >> and i just add to what you said about garret graves talking about matt gaetz. he has sent fundraising emails. i just got one as he is speaking, i got one. and on it he is very clear that if you give money to him, and if you click on it, you can give $5 or give $300. it's really up to you. but if you click on it, it help

him vacate kevin mccarthy. and the argument that he makes similar to that is about lying to conservatives. but the biggest sin in this email that he is trying to get money for, he talks to and he deals with democrats. i mean, paul, i know maybe this is like a dinosaur talking, but isn't this what america generally speaking wants from government, to work across the aisle? >> i would love right now, we only have a few more minutes left before they vote. let's listen in on some of the debates. right now we're listening to the mccarthy side, pro-mccarthy. let's listen in. >> and i say bring whatever comes next. because we believe in the job you have done, mr. speaker. we believe in your vision, and most importantly, we are proud to call kevin mccarthy our friend and our speaker of the house. and with that, i yield back. [ applause ]

>> gentleman yields back his time. the gentleman from florida is recognized with three minutes remaining. >> to be clear, i tried to get one of the three podiums on the republican side, and y'all wouldn't let me have them. you sent me over here. you know what? i'll make this argument at any desk in this building from the well, from the chair. i'll make it on every street coroner this country that washington must change. we have to break the cycle. we have to break the fever. and i would hope, truly, that the reforms that we are fighting for are reforms that would last and be embraced and that would democratize power in this institution beyond the privileged few who back us up against shutdown politics and christmases and deadlines in order to achieve their objectives. mr. speaker, high inflation is on the verge of bankrupting american families. our economy is breaking in half. a typical american family can't afford to buy a house in 99% of

u.s. counties. inflation is seal stealing more than $700 a month from working americans, nearly $9,000 a year. kevin mccarthy is the speaker of the house of representatives. and he has failed to take a stand where it matters. so if he won't, i will. i make no apologies for defending the right of every hard-working american to afford a decent life for themselves and their families, and we have a greater opportunity to do that and to build coalitions under new leadership. we have to rip off the band-aid. we have to get back on a better course. and mr. speaker, i don't know how this vote is going to go. usually when a vote comes to this sffloor, it's pretty predetermined. in this one, i'm not so sure. but i am sure we've made the right argument, that this place deserves single-subject spending bills, that we should have 72 hours to read a bill that something that spends more than $100 million shouldn't be put on

the suspension agenda such that we can't amend it. and there shouldn't be secret side deals made on a continuing resolution to lump ukraine in with border security. that is a -- that is not right for ukraine or border security because it fails to give either of those issues the dignity that they would require. but we can return that dignity to this house. we can get back on a better path. we can have single subject appropriations bills. we can set a budget, a budget top line. we haven't had a budget in this place since i was in high school. so let's get a budget. let's get our act together. let's get on with it. let's vacate the chair, and let's get a better speaker. i yield back. >> gentleman yields back his time. all time for debate has expired. without objection, the previous question is ordered on the resolution. the question is on adoption of the resolution. those in favor say aye. >> aye. >> those oppose say no. >> no. >> the no's have it. the resolution is -- the gentleman from florida? >>