that fashion, then that probably worsens the situation and the prospect for government formation that would actually be constructive over the long term. just as iraq's leaders have to make decisions, we have indicated to iran it is important to avoid steps that might encourage the kind of sectarian splits that might lead to civil war. and the one thing that i think be emphasized, we have deep differences with iran with a whole host of issues. obviously, what happened in syria in part is the result of

iran coming in hot and heavy on one side. iran obviously should consider -- if itshat if it is view of the region is through a sectarian lens, they could find themselves fighting in a lot of places, and that is not good for the iranian economy or the people over the long-term. i suspect there are folks in iran that recognize that. iraq in chaos on the borders is not in their interest. old habits die hard. we will have to see whether they would be aat i think more promising path over the next several days. all right? thank you very much, everybody. obama has been

meeting with his national security team today on the rise sis, thence by i islamic states of iraqi and syria, announcing several measures. chief of them would be sending 300 military advisers to iraq. the president announcing john kerry would be heading to the middle east, and we understand -- baghdad,d adding and that includes baghdad's as well. combat -- american combat troops are not going to fight in iraq again. we will open up our phone lines in here your thoughts about what the president said about iraq. for republicans, -- leave your comments on facebook.com/cspan.

we're keeping our eye on capitol hill, where the house public and is having their leadership elections. this is a hall full of reporters and others and a lot of members have already arrived and they continue to arrive. eric cantor losing his primary in virginia a week go, announcing he is stepping down as majority leader, and house republicans are gathering here to elect a new majority for the remainder of the 113th congress. they will also reelect a majority with as well. we will have our cameras on capitol hill throughout the afternoon. we will get your calls momentarily. but let's watch as members continue to arise. -- arrive.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

host: this hallway across the side, weom the capitol understand the candidates, leaders are gathered in the room as the majority leadership elections are about to get underway. we showed you the president a few minutes ago talking about iraq, announcing steps. you can see that video at www.c-span.org.

the leadership election, majority leader, kevin mccarthy against raul labrador of idaho. mr. mccarthy is expected to win that. ay race for the majority whip. that could go a couple of ballots. here is steve scalise coming in with his supporters.

host: video from within the last

half hour. we have just seen raul labrador. house leadership elections under way. we will keep you posted on results this afternoon. or a preview of what is going to go on inside the room, we spoke to a capitol hill reporter covering the issue. now at our news desk studio is the house leadership reporter with the national journal to talk to us about the election later coming up on capitol hill. let's begin with who is running for what position. we have one or two elections today. the first is the majority leader position vacated by eric cantor who will step down effective july 31. that race is between two

members, kevin mccarthy, seeking a promotion to jump up to the number two spot, and mccarthy is the overwhelming favorite. he has a professional operation that has been humming along at full speed. his challenger is raul labrador, a second-term congressman from idaho. discontent running deep in the gop these days, and making the case that he will transform the policy-making process to a bottom-up approach of attempt to convince a lot the new lawmakers, who arrived in 2000 2012, we'll get them more involved in the process. he stands very little chance of defeating mr. mccarthy. if mccarthy wins the first election this afternoon and a sense to the post, there will be

a second election to replace mccarthy as majority whip. ratce, a three-horse ise, peter roskam, and marlin stutzman. se is believed to be the front runner. if it is forced to go to a second ballot, whoever is in third place will drop off automatically and it will be a head-to-head matchup. i could be interesting. 's supporterscalise are confident they can win outright. he was planning to be up until 2:00 making last-minute calls and shoring this thing up. he had the look in his guy who

thought they were right on the cusp of getting to the magic number of 116 or 117. it remains to be seen. it remains to be seen. has his way,ise it will be a clean victory and he will be the new house majority whip. if it goes to a second ballot, anything can happen. the significance of having a red state republican leadership? guest: the lack of a red state presence has been a source of tension within the house republican conference. a bit of a sore spot for the conservative members were arrived in this massive wave in 2010. many more who arrived in 2012. they feel they are ideologically underrepresented in the uppermost echelons, but also geographically underrepresented. that has been the case that steve scully's has been making.

not only am i a proven conservative, someone who chairs this 170 member organization which has been the conservative part b of the gop -- conservative heartbeat. with the goal state guys regularly. he says, look, not only do i bring these conservative ideas to the table, but i also understand these geographical concerns that many of our members of the house gop have. he wants to be there boys as well. that is an effective argument he has been able to make. i think that is why he finds himself heading into this contest as the front-runner. when describe for viewers and where these elections take place. guest: there is a fabled meeting room in the basement of the

house capital. onee are usually at least big meeting a week. there can be multiple meetings per day during times like these. members will gather behind closed doors, sometimes with a staff member or two. when they get behind closed doors am a that is where the balloting will take place. chairwoman will take a roll call in alphabetical order. labrador's name is red, ead, his supporters will read speeches. the chairwoman will continue with the roll call and when they get to mr. mccarthy's name, the

same process will repeat itself. somebody will stand to deliver a nominating speech for mr. mccarthy and there will be two seconding speeches. the house republicans leadership will hand out a ballot to every single voting member and that will be a blank ballot and that member will have to write in their choice. either labrador or mccarthy. the votes will be tallied by a handful of tally clerks who are members of the house republican conference with not been publicly supporting one candidate or another. they will double check the other tallies. once that tally is complete, she will share with the conference who the winner is. at that point, whoever emerges victorious will have the opportunity to address the conference as the new house majority leader. the entire process will repeat

itself if the whips races 's race is necessary. it's a secret ballot. that's what makes the whip's race so intriguing. each member claims to have a rough number of commitments. it is impossible to know how ironclad commitment is. it's not like a vote on the house floor where the house clerk will register each and every vote. this is a secret ballot. there is zero accountability for these votes. a lot of members could be telling multiple candidates the same thing. there is no way of really knowing. host: you have the current whip whose job is to be able to count votes and predict how many votes they have. has a good solid 100 votes. you have these other three vying for that job.

if they don't have the votes they predicted, what does that say? guest: that's a great point. one of the candidates, the chief told his colleagues, if i can't get enough votes to win this election on thursday, i don't deserve to be the whip. that is a pretty candid and refreshing take on this. this is a difficult process and it's conducted almost entirely behind closed doors. it's virtually impossible to know how many of these supposedly ironclad commitments are really ironclad. i do think this is a great exercise for all three of these gentlemen. up to of these guys are the task of stepping into the -- the whip's

office, this is the next one exercise -- an excellent exercise to see if they are up for the job. host: will we be able to see tweets coming out of the room? our members allowed to have re?ir phones in the guest: you will see tweets from reporters who are camped outside of the room. fallsg for any crumb that off the table. hopefully we might get a text message or two from a member in the room or a leadership official who is overseeing the proceedings. you should be following the great capitol hill reporters on twitter. if you are looking for capitol hill reporters, go to ar twitter page and we have list of where you can find the congressional reporters and what they are reporting on. we appreciate you coming in an

host: the leadership elections are underway on capitol hill. they are just across the street in the longworth house office building. a look at reporters gathered outside the room where the elections are underway, the election for majority leader and majority whip. following some comments from reporters. mccarthy family is in the room for an easy victory. camp describes the race describing it jump ball. on whoniel, he reports will be nominating kevin mccarthy. he says jeff miller of florida, granger of texas, and another tweak that tom graves of georgia, and one more, just

outside that meeting room, whistles and claps heard from inside 1100 longworth where gop members are deciding leadership elections. some reporters say we may hear the vote by 2:45. we will take you to the news conference earlier today. she talked a little bit about the gop elections and about the comments the president would make later, and did make at about 1:15 on iraq. >> good morning. everyone rested up after the ballgame last night?

congratulations to sportsmanship. yesterday we appointed conferees to vote on the veterans bill, the various veterans bills, the senate bill and the two house bills. chairman jeff miller's bill. as we go to conference, it would probably have been cleaner if we could have just taken up the senate bill, sent it to the president, and gone down that path. the conference does afford us the opportunity, though, to make clear as we would on the debate in any event, that while we need some emergency assistance for health care, for our veterans, access to health care, we have to be very careful when we go down this path that is not one that leads to outsourcing in the long term of health care for our veterans or even more ominously to privatization. those are concerns that the veteran service organizations have repeatedly over time expressed to us.

by and large the complaint about the veterans administration is not about the health care, it's about the access to it. and the quantity of -- the number of people that have access. that's a very big problem. so temporarily we should be able to meet some of the needs, but not all because many of the diagnoses that are battle related need to be treated where that expertise is, and that's within the veterans administration health, the health care that they administer. we have a cold, appendectomy, perhaps a federally qualified health center can meet their needs, but we have to be careful about some diagnoses that would

-- many decisions, primary care decisions would not be able to make that relate to battle related -- we were told that some of our meetings with the vets they have told us that there's some afflictions, for lack of a better word, that spring from the vietnam war. that you really have to have a trained eye to see symptoms that have occurred many years later and require periodic treatment that would only be available in a very specialized way in a veterans facility. sunday marks the 70th anniversary of president roosevelt signing the g.i. bill. as i mentioned to you last week i had just come back from the 70th anniversary of d-day. the invasion of normandy. we were at omaha beach. we hers the president speak so beautifully. it was just wonderful. i think the president and others

will agree, including the president of france who spoke on a number of occasions, that the most thrilling part of it was to hear the voices of our veterans 70 years later with all the spirit that they told us about of the days that it actually took a while, but also what they are trying to do to help veterans to this day. we should be very proud, as they say, on the battlefield we leave no veteran -- soldier behind. when they come home we leave no veteran behind. so we have to do this right and recognize what we are doing is temporary for some certain -- i'm all for that. as have said to you before, under certain circumstances and temporarily, to transition us federally qualified health centers may be able to meet the needs of some of our veterans for some of their maladies. but not all. it's important to note as we talk about veterans, and we also talk about unemployment insurance not extending the benefits, where over three

million people who have been cut off from benefits. this is since december 31. it's now three million people. hundreds of thousands of those people are veterans and/or their caregivers. it has a remarkable impact on their families. i have heard their stories personally when i honor--we'll hear from the caregivers and the stories they told me about how they were the primary caregiver to their veteran family member and how now they have lost their benefits. it's just astounding that in our country we would not honor the commitment that we have that when people lose their jobs through no fault of their own, including the downturn in the economy, that we would not be there for unemployment insurance. by the way, it's a job creator. the money is spent.

it injects demand into the economy and it creates jobs. we should be extending unemployment insurance benefits. we should be raising the minimum wage. we should be building infrastructure of america. we should be taking up the highway bill that enables us to do just that. instead we are doing our usual nothing. some have complained the elections are taking in middle of the day here. we usually have elections here in the morning. doesn't matter. morning or afternoon, we are not doing that much any way. others find it an opportunity cost of time that we could be doing so many other things, including passing immigration -- comprehensive immigration reform bill. that is the clock is running out on that. next week will be the one-year anniversary of the senate passing a bipartisan bill. i would hope that our republican leadership will give us an

opportunity to vote on some legislation that will take us forward, but, again there isn't that much time. i don't think we have 30 legislative days left from now until october. this next week, should be taking up the voting rights act. it's now been months since the court made its ill-founded decision, none the less we have an opportunity, we have a bipartisan bill, sponsorship is very balanced, democrats and republicans, in support of it, and we can't get a day on the floor to take up the voting rights act. ironic that this week we will be celebrating the passage of the civil rights bill. don't you think an appropriate outstandingf that

legislation, which transformed , and appropriate observance would be to pass the voting rights act? yesterday we had a meeting with the president, the house and senate leadership, bipartisan leadership on the subject of our national security, including iraq. three points came out of that. it is clear the government of iraqi has to work for a political solution, including -- not ignoring sectarian differences within their country. believe and i said this to the president and the group that the president does not need any additional congressional measures to act upon to protect our national security . i did not want that to be misinterpreted, as support for boots on the ground.

third, on that subject, the president said the leadership is looking at its authorities with the rest, with my hope that it will conclude no congressional action was necessary. they need a political solution. i do not think the president needs any further congressional authority from the conversation we were having. we will see what he tells us, and then third, no boots on the ground. any questions? >> the last point on the congressional authorization, last year the president said he would come to congress and seek authorization for a force in syria, and it became clear that there was no support for that. is there a sense that if the president were to come to congress that he would not get

it? you remind me of a point, the president did say while his lawyers were looking at what they're due of any need for further congressional action was, he said that he would hope that whatever actions our country took would have strong congressional support. that was part of the consultation that we had yesterday, and i believe will every stepetty much of the way. i would be interested to see what the president has to say today after meeting with his national security team in the situation room this morning. talk talk? 12:30?0? i was one who thought that he had the authority to do more regarding syria. a little bit of a different

situation. i think we could have done more in syria. with the president consulting with congress, hoping to build support, i do not know if any of the leaders there, i did not hear any of them demanding congressional action. that was not the case. >> barbara lee said she would offer an amendment to try to block it. do you hear that message from your caucus? >> to block what? airstrikes? >> i do not know -- i salute her action. it will win orf prevail or become the law of the land, but it is a worthy discussion. you are going to have a new leadership team opposite you by close of business stay, and i am wondering, you have been in

closed-door edens with representative mccarthy, as well as other people. is there going to be any difference working with kevin mccarthy as the majority leader versus eric cantor? what do you expect to see from him if he wins? not been in any closed-door meetings with then. i have been in a meeting with mr. cantor, maybe one with mr. mccarthy. as a californian, i wish him well. last night,ted him and he said not so soon, not so soon, at the ballgame. at the softball game. be thet know who will next person down, but hopefully it will be people that we can all work together, because that is what the american people expect and deserve of us here. i look forward to working with whomever they choose to be their leaders. i do not have an assessment of

some of the other people, because i just -- i respect them, but you give me an opportunity to say something that i probably should have said last week when he asked me there was not one shred of sympathy for mr. cantor. was that your question? >> no. >> ok. i was thinking about it on sunday when i was praying for the republicans and churches, which i do at least every sunday. i pray for the democrats and the republicans for our country. when i was doing that, i said that was kind of not complete in terms of my answer, because i have said over and over again that the biggest privilege that any of us has is to represent our district. whatever honors our colleagues is still on us, that is wonderful, whether you are elected leader or speaker of the house.

that is a wonderful honor, but it is a funny thing, but the biggest honor of all is that your constituents have one person to choose to speak for them in the congress of the united states. it is such an honor. and every day you step on that for you are representing nearly 800,000 people by their choice. that does not mean they all voted for you, but even if they all voted, but nonetheless, you are the one. sympathy for what happened last week, it wasn't so toppling a leader, falling, it was really more about how sad it must be to lose in your own district. for that, i have sympathy for mr. cantor, because that is hard. power comes and goes here. but the connection that you have to your district is such a

deeply-rooted thing, more than a thing, a deeply rooted strength to you that i feel sad for him in that regard. >> there are reports that the president may send special forces to iraq. what is your reaction? >> you don't expect me to react. >> i will make a statement about that. >> are you a comfortable with that number? >> let me say generally speaking, i think you have to be careful sending special forces because that is a number that has a tendency to grow. to see theuld like context, purpose, timeline, and all the rest for anything like that. but i do -- in any situation under any president, i would say let's proceed cautiously in that

regard without thinking that 100 is 100. yes, sir? >> were there other topics discussed, some of the short-term policy dings, like terrorists -- policy things, like terrorists? >> wife has put out there read out of it meeting and focused on -- theut the president white house said it was about national security, including iraq. the president did give us a briefing of his it to you on ukraine and also as a follow-up of his trip to europe and the meetings he had when he was there previous to d-day and leading up to d-day and interactions with foreign leaders. i'm sure if you asked the white house, they would tell you more about that. subject thater

we talked about, the ukraine, and what the possibilities are, working with our allies to, again, resolve conflict in a peaceful way. -- aree at all concerned you at all concerned from the republican leadership elections to get bills passed, like the highway trust fund? >> those are urgently needed for the economy of our country. --re really have not been they really have not been partisan impasse. infrastructure and highways have been one of the least partisan areas of legislative success in the congress. tria is urgent. , and wet insurance act passed this before, with a

9/11, but interest in now it is time for reauthorization. for some reason, the chairman of the financial services committee is very much opposed to the proposals that had support, public, private support as the way to go forward. the main difference is we have million backstop. he wants to make it $500 million. that is huge. the consequence is is hard for anyone one who wants to know a building or a hotel, whatever, to get credit, because the exposure is so great, and what is hard for us, especially if it is a hotel, they can go some other place. the hospitality industry is booming all over the world. they do not have to fight for something in the u.s. if the

exposure is so great that they cannot get credit, and therefore cannot build. this is something that has no partisan -- one of the first pieces of legislation i dealt with when i -- 12 years ago was the risk insurance. we worked with the public-private, all the elements of this, and what the private sector was proposing was very reasonable, and we worked to get that done, but he took a very long time because there was opposition on the other side. we were in the minority at the time. 500,000 is a total deterrent. i hope in the leadership, other minds would prevail and that their friends in the financial community, the financial services, development,

construction, so much in terms of jobs in our country, but other minds would prevail and up until nineport the bipartisan nature of the proposal. bringsob creator for us money into the treasury. $1.5ould bring billion into the treasury. call itican colleagues corporate welfare. it is about small business, medium size bills and, a big business. andng benefits from us, subcontractors. that may be more of a next sir -- of an answer you were expecting. it should not be right partisan that it should not be a partisan issue.

creator, deficit reducer, and absolutely essential in the world competition as we engage in global trade. highway, i think we talked about that. >> with options limited in direct, do you think the united states can do effective counterterrorism in direct, and is it advisable we walk rate with iran to do so? >> we must do effective counterterrorism, because the of, isil, the islamic state iraqi and syria, one title, really is a counterterrorism tollenge for us, and we have do what is necessary. that is different from being engaged in a sectarian war in our iraq.

what is in our national interest in terms ofterest counterterrorism. i'm not interested in working with iran on this. i think we have to be open to where you can get support for the this, but i do not have confidence level that right now we are trying to stop karen from from havingop iran a nuclear weapon, that cannot ,appen, and it is a funny thing funnies upward, funny in terms thing that, strange here we are talking about cooperating with iran in when for soq, many in arrears -- so many years it was the iran-direciraq war. on the basis of false information will fully presented

the american eagle, he go into -- presented to the american people, we go into iraq, no more q,rder problems with ira acting in a way to support terrorists in syria, a problem all over, including our own development of a weapon of mass distraction and they are free and clear because we took out there remain check on them, which was iraq. i am not one who would be in a hurry to be having a conversation with iran about this. i'm concerned they think we are going to go in and go in after us, but we are not going to go in. on the missing irs e-mails, your colleague expressed concern about being able to get to the bottom of this yesterday. are you likewise concerned and do you think in any way that two years'of missing e-mails leads

credence to the arguments republicans are making? his am not familiar with statement, so i cannot say i'm comfortable with it. usually i would be. i will say this -- tellshat missing e-mail me, and i understand there were six other sets of e-mails that missing, what it convinces me if they need a new technology system at the irs, a, it we also have to deal with in light of the irs has turned over 750,000 pages of documents, something like 67,000 e-mails, so it is not as if they are devoid of information. i think that the reports all those responsible did not know about the years of the

crash of their systems until a couple of years later. -- neednk they need a to upgrade their technology, get it right, so there is no what agendaout anyone may have on that. thank you all, very much. see you next week. nancy pelosi from about 10:45 this morning. the house has cut in, they did initial work on the commodity futures trading commission bill, and have gaveled out for election, the leadership election under way at the longworth house office building, across the street from the house side of the u.s. capitol. with cameras outside the meeting room and assembled for possible news conference after. so we will stay here live on capitol hill. comments from reporters there covering the scene, saying they

are tallying the votes now, mccarthy and labrador. another says serious campaigning in that house leadership elections, and the election to follow which will leave for the majority whip. this is from jonathan he says inside the room members discussed releasing vote tallies but the effort was ruled against and described as a kerfuffle. aiming to get comments from leaders as they come out after the vote tally. from what we understand they are tallying the vote out for the leadership role, kevin mccarthy versus raul labrador, and the next vote they will take is scalise andam and stutzman.

that will come up next, but no word yet on who has won the majority leader position. we will stay live on c-span, hoping to hear from members momentarily.

host: live outside one of the meeting rooms in the longworth house office building. the house republican conference, members, have gathered to elect leadership positions, and for the majority whip. -- fromwho covers someone who covers the hill, members have voted for majority leader. boats are being counted. -- votes are being counted. here, outside the hallway and a look at what they call the stakeout position with the microphones and reporters gathered in anticipation of hearing from members of the house republican conference. we will have their comments when they come out on c-span.

jim jordan got a big response from his speech. he was one of the 12 nominated -- who nominated raul labrador. those votes will be tallied in the next half-hour or so. we will show you the comments of john boehner this morning who spoke before the house came in at 11:30. he talked little about the leadership elections. he talked about direct. we will take you back live to capitol hill if anything breaks. >> good morning, everyone. happy election day. every day in the house we are focused on the people's priorities, jobs, and accountability. but can we say the same thing

for the white house? american people still as the question, where are the jobs, while the administration is working on their next week the house will focus on solutions that will deliver a real all of the above interview strategy to lower cost and to grow our economy. and there is the irs, which, after illegally targeting americans for their political beliefs, dilating their first amendment rights, is apparently of e-mails. years the white house promised to cooperate in. -- to cooperate, but did nothing. the white house called it a phony scandal. who could possibly believe they have lost two critical years of e-mails for the central figure in this investigation.

the president has offered nothing. we are moving forward with some important solutions but there is no substitute for the long-term strategy that this department needs. now let's move onto our borders. we are seeing a humanitarian disaster, one of the administration's own making. there has been a dramatic increase in the number of unaccompanied minors that are crossing our borders from guatemala and your -- and honduras and el salvador. actionsnistration's have only served to encourage more illegal crossings. it is a situation that has appeared that it -- appears to have caught the administration flat-footed. at least one of the five taliban commanders that was released played a key role in al qaeda's plans leading up to the attacks of nine/11. the white house thought the american people were going to cheer when the president released these terrorist.

i think his misreading of the american people is fairly shocking. we have asked the president for a strategy to reverse the momentum and spread of terrorism. about iraqittle bit yesterday, but the white house is known for months about the situation in iraq. it's not just iraq. it's libya, egypt, syria. the spread of terrorism has increased exponentially under this president's leadership. and, as you may recall after the last election i said that i hope that the president would seize this moment and take the lead. and here we are a year and a half later, you look at this presidency and you can't help but get the sense that the wheels are coming off. >> mr. speaker, david petraeus, who many -- have been credited for calming down things in iraq. he said yesterday that he doesn't think that the united

states should be the air force for the shiia militia or arab-sunni in the fight. do you agree with that? >> we don't know what could be effective in reducing this violence. there's not one -- there's not one piece to this. and so i'm hopeful that the president today will outline a strategy for dealing not only with iraq but the spread of violence in the middle east. >> you hear david petraeus giving caution on air strikes, does that give you pause? >> until i understand what the oversaw strategy is, it's hard to say whether it's good or not. in and of itself, it's not the answer, in and of itself. >> mr. speaker, vice president cheney said yesterday that rarely has the u.s. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. is it helpful to have vice president cheney weighing in on this debate? >> he's an american citizen.

he's entitled to his opinion. >> mr. speaker, will the house be bringing up its highway trust fund package next week to replenish the fund? >> i don't think so. i know the ways and means committee is -- they're having discussions about a package of pay-fors that would fill the gap for some number of months. >> just as a quick follow-up. mr. wyden over in the senate has not really had a plan to use postal offsets. do you think they'll find something to pass both houses? >> and it's to find a package that will plug this hole for nine to 12 months to make sure the highway projects will continue under way. >> speaker boehner, there's a lot of optimism, the provisions of the voting rights act will be included in congressional bills, how do you see the future of the voting rights act?

>> i think there's conversations going on about what -- what a renewal would look like given the court decision that came down last year. i think those conversations are going to continue. >> are you optimistic it will -- >> i have no idea. you have to talk to those working on it. >> do you expect a final v.a. bill to be offsets will be deficit neutral? >> i don't -- i got my doubts about that, but until the conference gets together and makes a determination about what needs to be done to hold the v.a. accountable and to ensure that there's care for those in these waiting lines, we'll have to see. >> mr. speaker, given what appears to be unanimous opposition to boots on the ground in iraq, is there a way for the united states to not to do effective counterterrorism in iraq? >> i think there is. there was discussion yesterday

at the white house about some of those steps that could be taken and some steps that are being taken, but, again, let's go back. there needs to be part of an overall strategy not only for iraq but for the region in terms of how do we reduce the number of terrorists that are out there hurting americans abroad, hurting our assets abroad and frankly building safe havens to organize and attack americans here. this is a very serious problem. very serious. >> on the missing i.r.s. emails, leader pelosi just said, they need a new technology system at the i.r.s. what do you make of that? >> they need somebody that will tell the truth. >> is there criminal wrongdoing, do you think, at the i.r.s.? >> i asked this a long time ago. i don't know who was going to be investigated. i want to know who is going to jail. this is outrageous, and the white house has not lifted a

finger to help us get to the bottom of this. he owes the american people the truth about what happened at the i.r.s. thanks. >> house speaker john boehner just before noon eastern today him and a couple of hours before the leadership vote that is underway now on capitol hill for majority leader, house majority leader, and for majority whip. his as eric cantor loses primary a week ago or so and announces he is stepping down as majority leader tom effective on july 31. looking live here on capitol hill in the long word house office building, we expect that the majority leader vote will be announced, in fact there is a sweet saying they will tally the vote. they are tallying that now, and the winner will be announced to the press and then they will do the whip vote. so the majority leader position

is between kevin majority -- raul labrador. that vote will happen shortly. we expect to hear something momentarily from this position outside the long worth meeting ism where the conference gather. once they finish up the elections this afternoon, the legislative work will resume. in the house, that means finishing up work this afternoon on the defense appropriations bill for 2015, and they make it back to discussing iraq as there are a couple of potential amendments blocking any funding in 2015 for iraq spending. obviously will have the house live when we -- when they gavel back in. barbara lee of california has proposed a couple of amendments that may see debate this

afternoon on the house floor. we will have that live once they come back in, which could be around 4:30 eastern. we will stay here live in wait for results of the gop election. >> they are tallying votes.

>> moments ago, house republican aides announced that they would be announcing the results of the majority leader race in just a minute, so we will stay here live on capitol hill. there are 233 republican members at the conference. we understand that two members, alan nunnelee of mississippi and mick mulvaney of south carolina, are not present. they are not at the vote because of medical issues. potential members of the

conference voting, including from all reports that speaker boehner will cast an election, something he would not normally do for most house legislation on the floor.

>> ok, we have a result. the house republican conference has elected kevin mccarthy from california as the new house majority leader. thank you. they are going to now move onto the boat for the house majority whip. they tuned for those results -- the on to the vote for house majority whip. stay tuned for those results. we will reconvene soon, and a little bit here after they do the next vote count. >> a not unexpected result, a republican aide announcing that

kevin mccarthy of california has been elected by the conference as majority leader. the election for majority whip is underway now. >> we might be here for a little while. they have that tally, but they don't give it to us.

>> a republican aide announced moments ago that kevin mccarthy has won the leadership race for majority leader tom a beating ra ul labrador from idaho.

ed o'keefe says mccarthy is in his fourth term in becomes the fastest rising house majority leader in american history. we are keeping track of what some members are tweeting. members of the press who are covering the elections today, and now the have moved on to the majority whip position. the iran of illinois who is now the chief deputy whip -- peter , and marlinllinois stutzman of indiana. that vote is underway and that announcement should be coming up shortly.

>> kevin mccarthy of california is elected as the new majority leader, just outside the long worth house office building meeting room. our cameras are keeping an i on comments from reporters, comments from members as they speak to reporters and more. we want to hear from you on your reaction to the election of kevin mccarthy. we expect the result shortly from the whip race which is being voted on now. let's go to charlie who is in washington -- wisconsin rather

on the democrats line. >> i'm just wondering is this the republicans winning this thing? race.s is a republican >> that's what i thought. is this going to affect anything with the unemployment issues? >> what do you think about it? is there a change in tone or direction with a change in majority leader? as a democrat, what do you think? >> at think it will be a change in direction for the better, to tell you the truth, to get eric cantor out of there. >> a tweet from john duffy, a representative of wisconsin, saying congratulations to my friend. joe isrepublic online, in brooklyn. what do you think about the election of kevin mccarthy? >> i think it was the right choice. respective oft

the candidates for majority leader. it is much more than a political position. it is crucial to the legislative process. i think mccarthy was the most common choice and i think that made the right decision. will you think mccarthy change the agenda of the republicans in the house, or have a stronger influence as we see another member coming by the microphones there. is shiftinghe party anyway. i don't think mccarthy himself will do much. obviously the republican party is currently in a state of flux. he will have to deal with that. think he is going to move the party too much himself. >> this is joann on the republican line from virginia. are you in the district of eric cantor, the seventh district in

virginia? sure am. >> what did you think of the loss by eric cantor there, and what do you think of the new majority leader? >> the reason why eric cantor lost is he did not listen to his constituents, and he was becoming too progressive and what theoward democrats were aiming for. immigration for the dreamers, and he wrote the bill on the dreamers. the people of this district are conservative, and we don't want illegal's just coming through our borders and just being because theynship got through the border and they haven't been screened. they have no right becoming

citizens. they are legally criminals for entering our country, and they are coming in in droves now. >> on the election of kevin mccarthy, who has expressed views not too dissimilar to eric cantor when it comes to things like immigration. what do you think? >> i think it's going to be a nightmare, because he is going to push what eric cantor has been pushing all along. we were not happy about kevin mccarthy becoming the majority leader. the frying pan into the fire at this point. >> back to the race in the seventh district am a it was this upstart professor, randolph macon who beat eric cantor. will he win the general election?

>> there really don't know what kind of country this was. >> make sure you call in on the line that best reflects your views. the house republican conference has been meeting for an hour or so. the just elected kevin mccarthy majority whip. the race is between three candidates, between steve police, peter roskam -- steve scalise of louisiana, and we should know those results shortly.

kevin mccarthy made a short speech, his wife and children are with him. rochelle is in lancaster, california. are you in kevin mccarthy's district? >> yes i am, as a matter of fact. it's like they're pulling a train full of empty cars. i don't have any hopes that anything will be any different. for me, i think it must just be them saying hey, look at me. that is my comment. >> gary is on the independent line.

>> to me it doesn't matter if it's democrat or republican or even independent. the weight is going nowadays. they are saying that basically everything has gone to crap. they are not hearing the american people. i'm 28 years old. when i was growing up, things were a whole lot different than they are now. i don't know why politicians don't listen to the american people. >> we are hoping to hear from the winners of today's gop nominations. kevin mccarthy will take over that role once eric cantor steps down in july.

due to the lengthy -- thursday's contest really sets the leadership for the next couple of years. they quote representative tom cole of oklahoma saying people will want to give them a full term. so far we know kevin mccarthy is the new majority leader. let's go to the republican line. betty is in troy, missouri. go ahead. >> first, congratulations to mr. mccarthy. i would like to put in a vote to impeach obama. it has been specifically requested by a host on the radio to represent americans to go to the pentagon and ask the

pentagon to have him impeached. i don't believe that is the appropriate way to have it done with the house of representatives, congress, and senate, and ask them to do their job. he is a -- traded a military deserter for terrorists. i am a veteran. i'm also disabled, not military related. but it affects me. everything that's going on. both my sons are military service related and my husband is retired. i am saying we need to put a

stop to what obama is doing to our country. it is different compared to when he was being raised well. 30 or 40 years ago it was much better.

figurehead type of person. no one should control anybody else's representatives. no one should be able to threaten them with discipline about committee assignments or primary opposition, giving them money for their primaries. for the packs that those leaders hold.

my representative or anybody else's. >> who is your representative there in california? name wereucklehead bought. he is a republican and he is a knucklehead, just like pretty much all of these guys. >> kevin mccarthy represents the 23rd district of california, that includes a big chunk of bakersfield as well. let's get one more call from bakersfield. this is audrey. hello there. >> i am from bakersfield, born and raised. i'm so proud of kevin. i've watched him since he first entered the republican race. as a youngster in the young republicans. i think he will do many, many good inks. balanced is fair and and i think he's looking for that, and he has been able to work across both isles.

>> more of your calls coming up, a couple of quick comments on twitter. representative kevin mccarthy is dyed in the wool establishment, legalization amnesty. those are couple of the comments at c-span chat. we are live on capitol hill, waiting to hear the results of the election for the majority whip position which is underway.

>> about 15 or 20 minutes ago, a house republican leadership aide announced that kevin mccarthy of california is been elected by the conference is the new majority leader. he will take over when eric cantor steps down on july 31. the conference is now voting. boats are underway, by all indications, a majority whip, between representative peter , anam, steve scalise indiana congressman marlin stutzman. we expect those results shortly. we will be back here live in those results or announced or when any member comes to the comments toto make reporters. meanwhile, comments from jay carney who just stepped down yesterday. he spoke to reporters at the christian science monitor breakfast this morning. >> you can be on camera with me.

>> thank you for coming. i'm dave cook from the monitor. our guest this morning is jay carney, president obama's departing press secretary. we are delighted to have him as a guest on the day when he is traversing the polar extremes of the media world, moving to new york for the colbert report. he is the 12th white house press secretary to serve -- to have a meal with us. groupare only two in that who have attended both as reporter and a press secretary. he attended yale university from which he graduated with honors. his 21 year career in journalism began at the miami herald and

moved to time he -- time magazine and was posted to the moscow bureau and 1990 and in 1993 came to

. .

>> in order to deflect some of the questioning elsewhere, it's also frequently true that a lot of the important work and policy development and implementation that happens in the executive branch happens in the agencies eerie the spotlight is on the white house, but that's not the only game in town. i should just go to questions. it's early for me to be speaking, so if you have a long-winded question, please raise your hand. >> you told charlie rose that you good white house reporters

know 15% am a 20% of what's going on and because they can reasonably extrapolate beyond that. looking back at your experience, does the area of press ignorance fall into any pattern? or is the ignorance random? >> i tried to explain is that conversation continued that i did not mean this as a hit on reporters or the suggestion that they were ignorant or that this was the result of secretiveness. the amount of traffic is immense. and the amount of issues people are working on any day is very broad and very deep.

reporters who cover the white house on a daily basis tend to because of the demands of you news and their outlets to focus on whatever the top one or two topics of the day are and are kind of unaware of or don't have the capacity to become aware of so much else that is happening. one of the things that was initially and continues to be fascinating to me about the experience of working in the white house is just how the train never stops. in terms of the number of issues that have demanded our attention, demanded your attention, dominated the news and normally is replaced by an issue that has garnered it will he intensive attention. that's really where i'm at.

i think we talked about it, and i'm not sure if that was edited out or not, was based on a conversation i had when i first came to washington from my friend and in many ways mentor in terms of washington reporting, michael duffy, when he told me as i was a young reporter covering the white house, that really we only know about maybe 20 or 30%. then we have to figure it out from there or extrapolate from there. i think that is a fair point, what i think is true and has become more so over the years i have been in washington is that the demand for instant information and revelation in covering the white house in washington, coupled with the stress on resources that many organizations have been feeling have resulted in [inaudible]

there is a tendency for folks in the white house to have them chase whatever the story of the day is, which can be frustrating and certainly on occasion. >> the presentation you folks did, before you actually came to the podium, that he knew from personal experience just the right kind of question. since you're leaving, can you give us an example of what kind of question that would be? >> to be forced by a question to

lose your composure, sometimes that's because it is a guide you question are sometimes it's just a difficult and penetrating question. it took me a while to be able to call on somebody else, and you can feel like you won it, but when you review the tape it's pretty clear that you took the bait and let yourself be less than 100% on your game. you can experience it that way,

but most people just see a snippet. they often don't see the interplay between the questioner and the press secretary, they just see what i say or the press secretary says. you have to keep that in mind when you are up there. robert was great, having done it, and provoking me into the kind of exchange i found out i wanted to avoid, but didn't always. >> now that you're leaving, i was wondering if you could look back to policy communications. what was the toughest point as a press secretary for you, and what was the best point, and what was the most memorable? >> it was just emotionally low,

newtown, for a lot of parents in here. that was unimaginably bad for everyone. separating it from that, i would say that the most difficult peri od since i have been press secretary was dealing with healthcare.gov, and it's pretty awful rollout. that was because in contrast to some of the other issues that became challenging at the podium for us in the press -- >> congress has elected steve scalise in louisiana as the majority whip.

the house republican leadership team -- only one ballot is what i'm being told right now, yes. stay tuned, they will be out here momentarily. you are very welcome, thank you. >> as you have just heard, steve police, louisiana congressman and current head of the republican study committee -- steve scott lease elected as the majority whip. steve scalise.

. .