>> again house democrats arriving for the start of their meetings on their leadership elections. if the results do come in today, we'll certainly have them for you here on c-span. earlier this morning we spoke to a reporter about today's leadership elections. but we'll start with house leader pelosi's remarks on the pending elections. her briefing was earlier this month. adership elections that take place today, at least the first part of that, it was the house minority leader nancy pelosi appearing before cameras before this event asking and answering questions about support for her speakership. here is some of her response when asked about becoming the next speaker of the house. [video clip] >> i intend to win the

speakership with democratic votes. that was your question. that was your question. i have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the house and we had many, many people in our caucus who could serve in this capacity. i happen to think at this point i am the best person for that. lead up towas the today and here to talk about the mechanics of the vote and potentially what it means for nancy pelosi joining us on the phone is mike lillis, senior reporter for the hill. thank you for joining us. guest: good morning. thank you for having me. host: if you go to your website and look at the headline regarding this story, it says it is a first test for pelosi in this bid for a second speakership. tell us why. guest: the speakership vote is a two step process. the first step is the nomination decided for the democratic

caucus. they nominate the speaker and the second step is it goes to the floor january 3 and that is a vote of the full house. two very different notes and different dynamics and the first step today, policy will pass easily. nobody thinks she will somehow be tripped up today, she does not even have a challenger. the insurgent group that is pressing to take her down is simply trying to display that she doesn't have the votes in january, so pelosi is trying to build her support. feet -- for all the anti-climactic outcome, there is a lot at stake, a lot of posturing and both sides trying to build momentum going into the more crucial january vote on the house floor. host: talk about this insurgent group. what is the makeup of it?

guest: it is not really ideological. there are members of the progressive caucus, the blue dogs, incoming freshman, it doesn't have an ideology, it has a problem with anti-pelosi being at the top for too long and they just want to get her and not just her, they want to see the top two lieutenants steny hoyer and james clyburn also go. their main focus is nancy pelosi right now. this is not a new push. when pelosi lost the gavel in 2010 and there was a small insurgency and she faced her first challenger back then, she won easily. she defeated a former blue dog from north carolina and over the course of years, there was this grumbling as the cycles continued and democrats remained in the minority.

said16, tim ryan from ohio enough is enough, we have lost quadra cycles in a row, i will challenge her. wastill got 63 votes, which seen as quite a large number for somebody as powerful and popular as pelosi is within a liberal caucus. the insurgent group has always been there and growing and restless and agitating and this year, they saw their break. what is confounding them is their singular argument has always been we cannot take back the majority with nancy pelosi at the helm and here they have just taken back majority. all the support you are seeing around pelosi is not so much the people disagree they need new leadership at the top, everybody agrees that needs to happen sooner than later, including pelosi, but their argument has

been undermined by the fact that pelosi won them back the house and did so while -- by raking in $135 million to get these people elected. andade it a lot tougher given pelosi a boost. the insurgents are small, but they have dug in. if they can demonstrate she cannot get the votes on the floor of the house, they will claim victory today. host: how many have to peel off to make that happen? guest: good question. there are 16 insurgents on that letter. no's againsttain pelosi. there are outstanding races yet to be called. of 15, 16, 17rea if they can peel off those on the house floor to vote against

or rather than voting present or doing some trick that would help her and then there are republicans saying maybe we would help and trump is tweeting we can get republicans help nancy pelosi win. there is all this strange politicking going on behind the scenes on the republican side of the aisle. if everybody voted on the house floor in january had if everybody voted for a person rather than present, the number area, 15, 16, 17 because democrats look like they will have 235 seats next year and she needs 218. she could lose 17 in that case. pelosi beenas ms. doing to reach out for those who may not support this bid? guest: the question is what hasn'tguest: she been doing. she has been doing everything. we call it the pelosi machine

for a reason. she has been around a long time and has a lot of friends in the democratic party outside of capitol hill. a lot of powerful people working the phones, al gores, john kerrys. president obama has not quite endorsed her, but gone out of his way to say she is a great legislator and would be great for this spot at this time. she has been meeting with groups of supporters in her office, opponents in her office, she has been meeting with the different caucuses, black caucus, hispanic caucus, democrats, blue dogs, all these factions within the party and essentially, she is running the show postelection as if she is the shoe and for the speaker and that is consistent with public statements she has been making. she projects nothing but confidence and says she will be the speaker without a doubt.

the math looks different right now. if she has a math problem, everybody knows that. the question is what can she do to peel off some of the insurgents that announced they would vote against her? she has made some strides in the last week. marcia fudge from ohio was one of the leading critics of pelosi until pelosi sat down and talked to her and promised to resurrect an old voting rights committee that was dismantled by republicans in 2013 and made marcia fudge the chairwoman next year and now marcia fudge is supporting her. that is one of the levers, one of the tools nancy pelosi has to go to these people and say what do you want? i can give you committee assignments, special assignments, office space, extra staff. i can prioritize different

legislation. brian higgins from new york was another strong the tractor of -- the tractor -- detractor of pelosi. the original letter that went out with 16 signatures and pelosi got him on the phone and promised to work on medicare legislation and infrastructure things higgins wanted to focus on and now he is supporting her. there is a long time between now and january 3. that machine is not going to stop. she will continue making phone calls and having her allies make phone calls on her behalf. we will see what happens. there is a long way to go. host: mike lillis joining us, telling about the democratic leadership elections. talking about nancy pelosi as >> back live to capitol hill this morning. to the visitors center.

this is just outside the auditorium where house democrats are meeting on their leadership elections today. from roll call pelosi and opponents down play the importance of caucus votes in speaker battle. writing this morning house democratic leader and nancy pelosi and small contingent of members who oppose her are both heading into wednesday's leadership elections knowing she's emerge as the nominee for speaker. the two sides still have different expectations for what will happen in a january 3 floor vote, which is five weeks from now. as pelosi remains confident that she'll have the support of the majority of the house to secure the gavel and her opponents are still predicting she won't. as members continue to gather here, we will be keeping track of developments in the leadership elections today. we'll bring you results as they happen here on c-span.

>> members continuing to arrive this morning. of course it is a closed door hearing. coverage of developments as house democrat members consider new leadership here on c-span throughout the day. while we wait for that, more from this morning's "washington journal." washington journal continues. host: representative jim banks is a republican from indiana, member of the veteran affairs committee, recently returned from afghanistan. >> great to be here.