elected member of congress and tell us what your top priority would be and why. create a five to six minute video showing the importance of your issues from opposing and supporting points of view. the bold with your documentary. there is still time to get started. the deadline for entry is january 20 20 23. r competition rules and tips on how to get started visit website at studentcam.org. c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including comcast.

coming up this morning on washington journal, the u.s. house expected to hold a force vote to elect speaker. cq roll call editor and ief will also discuss the gop agenda and the latest on representative mccarthy's leadership role. then washington tis national politics correspondent susan for riccio wl talk about a divided congress and president's agenda. join with your phone calls, texts >> person receiving the majority of not been elected. host: three times yesterday,

cheryl johnson said those words. a speaker has not been elected, after kevin mccarthy fell short in each tally. electing a speaker is not only the fundamental organizing moment in a congress, it is constitutionally mandated. the house will resume the process again today, at noon, with no indication that mccarthy is anywhere close to getting the votes needed to become speaker. welcome to washington journal. we will have live coverage, asking you about the vote yesterday and the process that resumes and noon. republicans, you're lying is (202) 748-8001. for others it is (202) 748-8002.

if you want to send us a text, text us at (202) 748-8003. we welcome your comments on facebook, twitter and instagram. if it is not kevin mccarthy, who is your choice? who would be your choice, or do you think he has the ability to rally those votes that he lost yesterday? you probably heard them say, we do not have a willing partners. if you were a democrat, who video in my? akeem jeffries did come out on top. they need the 218 what members voting in each tally yesterday. just to set the scene of where things are for the u.s. house

come this and it came in, they elected their new leadership. a tree from david, who was senior correspondent. he says this. it was pointed out to me that the u.s. congress is not a functioning body because the house is not constituted. without power to approve legislation. about the process, it is possible that allies of speaker mccarthy could called for a recess. there is increasing worry that the problem is worse, not better. a look at the lead this morning. the headline of the morning report. house gop is stuck and in disarray.

cheyenne daniels is joining us this morning. what can you tell us about where his position stands as speaker? guest: thank you for having me. that is one of the best words to describe where we are right now. it is unclear what is going to happen. the problem is, until we have the speaker in position, we cannot move on. you cannot swear in the new members. and then it also puts in issue in some plans. right now, disarray is the right

word to describe what we are seeing. but they are trying to do is see what else he has to do to get the votes that went to representative jim jordan yesterday because we saw on new year's day there was a list of confessions. clearly, that was not enough for them. what else are you looking for? a lot of it comes down that concert of his want more conservatives. they are not happy with the direction the party is going. mccarthy needs to talk with them to say what else do we need to do for you to cast your vote for me, or do we need to move on and

see who else could win enough votes? host: there are 222 members elected for the congress, so the vast majority of republicans voting for kevin mccarthy. what have you heard about the process yesterday and what they hope will happen? >> when we look at who could potentially be a different person, there are some eyes out there. we saw jordan get those votes, but it is we are throwing our support behind mccarthy. there was even the idea of those who do not vote for mccarthy do not get committee appointments. they are then expressed idea that those not voting --

there is a lot of frustration building up. a lot of the party is ready to move on and tackle the idea and policies that they put forward on their campaigning trail. host: years since that we are not going to see an extended validating procedure like we might have seen 100 years ago? guest: i think the air. those outliers do seem to be growing again. many said that they would not be supporting kevin mccarthy and by the end, there were 2011 voted for jordan. they do keep bringing up the fact that it has been 100 years since vm not been able to get a

speaker in that first round of ballots. those who do not mind those -- taking the time, they are doing it because they think this is what their constituents want. meanwhile, other ones voting for kevin mccarthy sake, until we get this done, we cannot do what needs to be done. until then, let's move forward. host: thank you for the update this morning. back to the tree about the stall that is, that has not actually begun, in the event of a crisis, the chamber would have to be sworn in first, which is another reason why members will be kept in d.c. for the weekend.

first up is andy in sterling, virginia. caller: good morning. for all of my fellow americans who thought that voting republican was the best way to go for this country that we needed a divided government, for those americans who thought that republicans would truly be interested in addressing the needs of the americans like the price of food, energy, the border, they have basically lied to you. they will not get anything done in the next couple of years. they cannot even elect their own speaker of the house.

how pathetic. they will try to get your vote and in the process will not do anything to make this country better. the republicans are never interested in governing. they are great at getting elected, but once they are placed in power, they will not do anything to help this country get better. caller: good morning. how are you today? i'm wondering why they have to wait until noon to start anything in the capital. most american people do not have to wait until noon to start their day. why can't they start at 8:00 or 7:00? that is kind of a question for me. host: that is a good question. we know that the conference is meeting at some point this morning. the house will meet getting at

noon to give members returning a chance to get back to the nation's capital. in cincinnati, annabelle is next on the republican line. caller: i went to my congressman's office and i said, there are no civil right groups for white americans. we have no representation, no civil rights, no voice. so, i want the republican party to stop being complicit with the democratic party and start standing up for their babies. the fact that the republican party has allowed the people who protested on january 6 to remain in jail is absolutely criminal.

i want to see someone go in there, who will give you something for my white vote representation, civil rights, a voice. host: here is the front page of the wall street journal this morning. carthy fails in three votes. it underlines the factious nature of the, on its first day after four years of a democratic majority. after the third vote was tallied with no winner, the house adjourned until wednesday, but the question is still up in the air. the speaker vote had not gone past a first ballot since 1923, when they needed nine ballots to pick a leader. your calls and comments. for independent and others -- live coverage resuming just

before noon eastern today. paula, calling from missouri. independent line. caller: i'm glad i got in today. i was in my bathroom all day yesterday. this is embarrassing. i think they need to come up with a compromise. frankly, i think steve scalise has a better temperament to be speaker than the other two. host: why do you think that? caller: i have watched him. i guess you could call me a c-span junkie. i watched c-span every day and i have watched in action. he has a nice personality. he has had his share of troubles with the shooting and everything

, but he just conducts himself just better than the other two. host: how much support do you think somebody like steve scalise would have in the republican conference? if they were to put forth the name of steve scalise -- he was one of the three nominees or nominators for kevin mccarthy, yesterday. caller: that may well be, but i think people are looking for a compromise. after those three votes, this seems like a stalemate. they have to get this done because this is just really embarrassing. host: here is a steve scalise and some of what he had to say head of the third vote for speaker. his nomination speech for kevin mccarthy. here is part of that.

>> we all came here to get things done, to solve the problem. i hope when we get through today that all the members on both sides will join together to solve the problems, to address inflation that is crushing middle-class families, to get control over spending. >> mama house be in order? >> we have been proposing legislation for a long time. over a year ago to get members engaged in the process. not just talking about what the problems are. we know what those problems are, but how do you fix those problems? we started rolling those bills out. we attempted to bring -- lower

the cost of goods when families go to the grocery store and they cannot even buy all the food that they need for their family. but those rules were projected. we have such horrible energy policies under what president biden has done to shut down american energy that families cannot afford to put gas in their tanks. so we brought legislation to the floor to lower the cost of gasoline and those bills were rejected by the previous majority. i use that term for a reason. we want a majority talking about the problems, but we cannot start fixing those problems until we elect kevin mccarthy is our next speaker. host: he failed to get the votes in that tally as well. live coverage here on c-span.

let's hear from jim in pennsylvania. caller: good morning. i think this is a sign of people being fed up with party in washington dc. we need to get back to regular order, where bills are brought up and debated, in public, not behind closed doors. the day before, where nobody has a chance to go through them, and then vote on them. this is the rebellion from that kind of legislating. host: you see this as a fault of republicans. caller: democrats have been that kind of party for the last few

years. they all work together. the people that come from the country does not have a lot of swing down there, they do not have any power. it is the elite in both parties. that is why we have to drain the swamp. host: richard, independent line. caller: i would like to make to be over point. one of them on mccarthy and the other on gaetz. democracy. the fact that kevin mccarthy has not lived up to two what conservatives one is why this is happening the majority did not

want vaccine mandates. also, in california, gavin newsom put a brutal lockdown. he was relatively silent on the abuses that happened in california. so much from those brutal lockdowns. just recently, conservatives -- conservative that 45 billion should have gone to ukraine. kevin mccarthy has enriched himself in congress. he is worth over $50 million. so kevin mccarthy is the

definition of someone who does not represent what conservative people one. matt gaetz, who is probably the most talented person in congress , is finally coming into his own. he is breaking with trump. he said, trump makes a lot of mistakes. if you could please play the clip of matt gaetz and chairman jordan yesterday, that would be wonderful. it spoke to say because kevin mccarthy is not the person who should be speaker. why should he be gifted the speakership?

what has kevin mccarthy done? what has he done to inherit that position? host: we will play the comment in just a little bit. he did nominate jim jordan in one of the second round. this is from the hill, and effort to keep representative mccarthy out. asking why mccarthy is occupying the speaker's office. questioning why kevin mccarthy -- the speaker of the house office is currently occupied by representative mccarthy. as of this morning come the congress and a speaker has not

been elected. after three undecided votes, no member can make name to this office. let's hear from joe on the democrats line. elk grove, california. >> thank you for taking my call. matt gaetz was one of the problems that this country has when we change the makeup of the house. the elected people who are not ready to govern. how could you come and not have a leader ready to govern? i do not understand. matt gaetz and all those people that derailed this country, something is wrong. american people are getting what we deserve. it's taking a beating and go home because we voted and we put

those people in, and now we are getting the results of some of the errant votes that we made. i know this is a democracy, but we cannot tell on the 11th of january. we get what we get. we put these people in and they were not ready to govern. look at the state of our congress. suppose something happened tomorrow that needed everyone to make it go away. we get what we get and we deserve. so people should not be complaining. let's see if we can ride this one out. because right now, this is ludicrous. watching this is really interesting. host: good morning.

caller: good morning. i have so much to say. i do not know how much i will actually be able to get out. i am from florida and matt gaetz, to me, he is a humiliation and embarrassment beyond measure. this is a man that i supported in terms of what i thought he stood for. what he is doing now is no more than grandstanding and getting back at those who appeared to have hurt him in the past. i am so embarrassed and humiliated by this man's behavior, that i hope he does not get reelected and his political career is over. that is number one. number two, the marjorie later he -- lady from colorado, how

dare she say, we demand that jim jordan take this spy. george washington did not want to be the first president, but he surrendered, and we are going to make jim jordan surrender. how dare you? who do you think you are? you represent your district. that is it. host: there were comments about steve scalise nominating mccarthy. the first round of votes was the nomination of mccarthy was introduced by a congresswoman from new york. here is part of her comment. >> no one in this party has worked harder than kevin mccarthy. [applause]

since the day he was elected as our leader, house republicans have only. house republicans are the only ones who have can distantly won because kevin knows what we stand for. he knows when we should engage in the fight and he knows how to build consensus. kevin has done the work of listening to all americans, traveling to nearly every district in the country, fighting for conservative values and fighting for the people committed to upholding them. kevin has shown up in these communities and i can guarantee he has shown up in the district of many colleagues across the aisle as well. representing our greatness from all walks of life.

when the last congress came in, every new republican welcomes and was a woman or minority. the most diverse republican conference in our nation's history. [applause] a seasoned legislator and experienced leader, a friend to tell -- to so many of us. kevin mccarthy has earned the speakership of the people's house. host: that republican conference with eating this morning to find a way forward as the house comes back in at noon today to talk about electing a new speaker after failing three times yesterday.

you are hearing all kinds of names out there. this is chief political reporter for detroit news with a tweet this morning saying that retired republican is willing to come back and be speaker saying, i would need democrats. i could get a significant number of republicans. josephine is waiting. go-ahead. livingston, new jersey. >> over a month ago, i said, i'm only too happy to have republicans because once they get in, you'll see the fiasco. i did not have to wait long to be proven right. when you talked about mccarthy

and scalise, their nicknames are the benghazi twins. they finally said there is nothing there. he knows how to waste money. and then he spoke to the king, kissed his ring and said, i'm all for you. the number one thing pushing through, the man paid $750? i paid $80,000. i guess i'm just a stupid, law-abiding citizen. they will be repealing all the good that has been done to help people get on. i'm just disgusted with them, but they are displaying. host: next, glendale, arizona.

caller: good morning. i do not see why anybody would want the job. it is like in the starting goalie in the nhl all-star game. on that note, and for a penny, in for a pound. host: talking about george santos, one of the representative selects from new york, in particular, he 10 is on the republican line. go-ahead. caller: i absolutely back the 20 republicans because they do need to update the rules. they need to be able to put bills through, single item bills that can be put in come in time to be read and understood by everybody, before they vote on them. that is what these guys and girls are trying to do.

mccarthy is wanting to play the same routine. he is as bad for us as lindsey graham from south carolina. i hope that they do make some headway with the vote. host: thank you, but who else in the republican conference might be able to get the 218 votes needed to become speaker? caller: if they go into conference honestly, you still could have a mccarthy or a steve scalise, but they will have to realize that the rules have got to be needed, and the individual representatives count for something. right now, it is all party.

that is what they are trying to get across to their fellow republicans. mccarthy needs to wake up and smell the car -- smell the coffee. these people are not grandstanding. they are doing what we pay them to do, to go up there and stand up to the system. they need to be able to fix the system. mccarthy has the ability to do it, if you will listen. host: nashville, tennessee, hello. >> -- caller: they cannot fix the system until they have a speaker of the house, so they were not organized in this rebellion or whatever you call this. i do not want kevin mccarthy either, but they should have been a bit more organized and

figured out how they are going to elect someone. all these people calling in on the republican line, saying how embarrassed they are, how mortified, oh how horrible this is? that is what they get for electing a bunch of dummies who do not know how government works. those people up there do not even know how our government functions, and also, why are they letting people have not been sworn in, vote on this? host: as of the members get sworn in new with each congress, so even kevin mccarthy has not been sworn in and cannot be sworn in until they elect a speaker. that is the conundrum that they are in, so technically, the congress has yet to begin and

cheryl johnson, the clerk of the house is right now in charge of the house floor action until they reelect a speaker. they will swear in all the members, but the process, it is elected by all the members, brand-new and those who have been there a long time. caller: we are in a very dangerous time right now. this makes our country extremely vulnerable. for them to full around with this? it is dangerous. this is totally unacceptable, to me. it is irresponsible. they think -- they think they can play around with this stuff? this is crazy stuff. host: let's hear from the

democrat line. caller: i do not think i have ever listened to one of these call in hours and agreed with so many republicans. i agree that the reason this is happening, that is the direction that the republican party is going and it is showing. the democrats have been held hostage by a small minority for the past two years, looking at you, kyrsten sinema and joe manchin. now you know how it feels to have someone in your party will not fall in line or let things get through. but i wanted to say that i remember back a few months ago when kevin mccarthy released this commitment to america plan, i remember going on his website and looking at the plan. i was like, this is really humiliating that this is how

they, general -- even looking down, you go on the website and pull this up, all the points that he makes are either so vague that there is no actionable way to implementing the things he wants to do, or he is focusing on very specific things. i cannot imagine somebody voting on the idea that only women -- only the men -- it is taking aim at trans sports. it is embarrassing that they voted for these people supporting these principles and ideas when there is no way to put them in practice or they just do not matter in the everyday american's life. that is what mccarthy is wanting

is to distract from the real issues and put up fake promises that he has no intention of keeping. caller: good morning. you are watching democracy right now. we have not had a representative republic since the people put donald trump in as president. he watched the russia collusion and you are watching a democracy with jill biden, vladimir putin's buddy. the green agenda, we have flooding going on, we have people and americans in need, living in the streets, but we are bringing in more people from all over the world, all under their democracy because it is

not a constitutional republic when you pass this kind of bill and take away american's second amendment rights. what is going on here, it host: regular was the representative elect who introduced and nominated hakeem jeffries for speaker. he wound up winning the most, but not the 218 required to become speaker. >> i rise at the direction of a democratic caucus to place the pride. akeem jeffries of new york.

>> today, madame clerk, house democrats are united. [applause] united by a speaker who will put people over politics. akeem jeffries has buried his entire life to improve economic opportunity for all people. he is committed to strengthening the american dream. taking lessons of war off the streets and investing in good

paying jobs for the future. it's house democrats are united behind a speaker who wants to make things in america and bring home jobs that have been shipped overseas. to write a tax code to invest in clean energy that reduces our dependence on fossil fuels. we are united. host: some comments on social media. this one says, how can america -- american constituents have faith when the majority gop is

affected by votes within its own party? it is clear that the swamp -- in bakersfield, california, kevin mccarthy cannot even run a similar shop in akers field. it is time for him to come home and stop humiliating a district he does not represent. another size, maybe it would not be as bad. why not the other person and why your candidate? if this keeps up, they are going to lose voters. this one says that they are showing actually -- an actual diversity in viewpoint. motors have no real representation. i am cheering for those who actually represent their constituents.

back to calls on the independent line. caller: somebody asked a question, what did constituents elect the people for? marjorie taylor greene and other republicans, those who go to a white nationalists rally in orlando and take the mike after praising vladimir putin and hillary? i'm glad i'm not a republican anymore. the republican party is the largest white supremacist organization. steve scalise, everyone is pumping up, he admitted to speaking at the european unity rights organization, and extremist group.

even a right-wing group said it about steve scalise, yet he was allowed to speak at a pro-life rally. charles johnson was invited to the trump state of the union address, and he lied and said he did not know anything about him, then he was seen with him again in california. i could go on with that. that's all i have to say. the house lady who nominated mccarthy, she promoted that white conspiracy theory. caller: good morning, c-span and

thank you for everything that you do. he has no backbone. he cannot even be a leader. everybody knows that he could not stop santos sitting, but he could have come forward and said this is not what the republican party stands for, and that some way, they are going to handle him, but instead, he was never going to win this speakership by one vote. he could have at least look like a leader if he said something about this, but i guess it is because, if you are a liar, if you are a racist, if you are a holocaust denier or an insurrectionist come if you are a trump voter, the publican party is your home. host: a few have mentioned george santos.

here is the story this morning -- this morning. representative santos posted a press release saying he was sworn in by the speaker of the house, but the only problem is that there is currently no speaker of the house, so no one was sworn in. it has been deleted on the house website. they write that nbc reporter provided more context into the misstep saying it was not just santos but the same language appeared for numerous other freshman members on their websites. liberty, south carolina, and it is jason on the republican line. caller: good morning. i just wanted to address a couple things.

please give me some time because i am a real republican and that of that lady from florida who did not know that marjorie greene is one state north. but you had ladies calling and complaining about taxes. you had let's see. the republican party right now is doing exactly what they are supposed to do. hakeem jeffries has earned -- he has not done anything to earn a speaker position, but he gets 100% of the votes because they are sheep. you had a lady complaining about $8 million spent on benghazi, but she did not mention the $45 million spent on the trump and russia collusion. finally, mccarthy is from california, and ultra-blue state, so i'm perfectly fine

with a democrat speaker of the house, being from a blue state because most of the money in that state is silicon valley money, which goes into kevin mccarthy. for everybody out there, i want you to do a special and break down and itemize every penny that bankman-fried donated to both republicans and democrats because that is stolen money. if it was used to win a election, that is a stolen election. host: this is from text from steve. it says, i actually do not mind an absence to an -- to elect a leader. not getting it right gave us pelosi. they have to plan for that. we need a hard worker who is not in front of the camera every time one appears.

independent line is next. caller: good morning that kevin mccarthy was just a masochist. the first was a slap in the face . the second was a kick in the groin. i am reminded of the animal house movie, where the applicant kept getting spanked and said, thank you, sir, i need another. i guess that is all i have to say today. host: on the democrat line. caller: these republicans, their donors and their contributors -- host: let's hear from ft.

collins marcia on the republican line. marcia on the republican line? there we go. you are on the air. caller: i agree with the gentleman. i do not see what the hurry is for a new speaker. we want the right speaker, and i understand. he laid it out really well when he spoke. this is the first time -- when it comes to voting, there might be a handful of people. he nailed it.

as far as mccarthy? all i can say is, i better have the right speaker, but i do not know how long that will take. host: we expect them to continue voting for speaker of the house after a few failures yesterday. you can follow all of the live coverage as well on our free mobile app. the house is stalled by the senate has moved forward, electing readership in the house and moving forward with promoting leaders as well. first female president pro tem. washington senator patty murray

made history tuesday, becoming the first woman to serve as president temper a. it is held by the seniormost member of the majority party. on the republican side, and his first-floor speech, the republican leader play -- paid tribute to mansfield, whose record he broke yesterday as the longest-serving member. here is mitch mcconnell. >> supporting them in their goals and helping facilitate victories as parties wanted. he also thought to serve the senate as a whole. he got things done. he mostly defended the traditions rather than trying to

tear them down. he aired on the side of empowering his colleagues rather than trying to dominate them. prudence over perform ability. discussion over dictatorship. and a winning record without attacking the institution to do it. it's a quintessentially senate record from one of the quintessential senate characters in our history. what a past, from copper mines to serving 16 years as senate leader and advising. and what a testament to our great country, that such a path was possible. it has been my honor to remember

the predecessor this afternoon. host: mitch mcconnell yesterday paying tribute to mike mansfield, whose record he broke yesterday as the longest-serving senate leader. a couple of comments on social media. this month saying, mccarthy is part of the swamp of republicans and democrats keep ignoring voters. would not surprise me if they do, he is closer to their status quo. what you are seeing is politicians versus statesmen. our government has been broken for years. when they see it, they do not recognize it.

let's hear from john, calling from bonita springs. caller: good morning, ccn. akeem jeffries cannot be speaker of the house. he is an election denier, so he cannot be speaker. what we are seeing is democracy in action. we do not have a speaker of the house for the second day. i find it laughable how the mainstream media jumps on it. we are all going to be fine and go to work, and in the meantime, we'll have democracy in action. they are garbage as politicians. they have been there for too long. he is 150 two years old. he has to go. we need fresh blood.

we need statesmen in there. we need to restore power. host: democrats line. caller: this is the first time i have called since 1980. host: great to have you back on. caller: i just want to tell a story about -- i'm giving my age away a little bit, but kevin mccarthy wanting to impeach biden and all the other stuff, that is baloney. but april 30, 1970, president nixon was going to give a speech and said, you boys need to sit down and watch this.

and we did. president -- we were supposed to be in vietnam, whether we liked it or not. i can remember my friend who was a freshman and i was a senior in high school. he said, oh my god. that started the disillusionment. i hear all these people talking and i know a lot of them are younger than me, and some of them are older than me. this is not what our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents -- i'm old enough to be a great grandparent, but come on. elect somebody who is good. just get somebody who wants to help the country. host: republican line. caller: thank you for having me.

i want to apologize for all these people calling in hateful and nasty. the first thing that we need is unity. i commend the republican party now because we do need a good speaker in the house. i will be early click. a lot of people are upset about the unconstitutional 1.7 trillion. when i say unconstitutional, and talking about section seven. it gives power to the house of representatives to supply the government. the new congress has lost that power for nine-month. what we are looking for is time.

they have taken power away. far exceeds their term. we are looking for the right person to do the job. they know it is unconstitutional, but i hope everybody has a blessed day. we are seeing democracy at work. but i hope we can get this country back on usa today, speakership spat. gop off to a messy start with kevin mccarthy on the floor during yesterday's votes. public comments on social media, this is texas, kevin mccarthy needed to step aside. jim jordan needed to stay to the

biden investigation. they should nominate steve because we need to get on with business. criticizing those who voted against mccarthy. do they think jeffries will give them what they want? how stupid are they are for giving up what we wanted in congress? jordan wasn't says it. joni is in denham springs, louisiana, on the independent line. caller: hello? host: how you were on the air. caller: mccarthy is not the man. steve scalise is not the man. and mcconnell needs to go. that is all i have to tell you.

thank you. host: and thank you joni. more of your calls and comments coming up here on c-span as we continue in our coverage today at noon eastern of the house gaveling back in. coming up next we will talk to to veteran capitol hill watchers on what is next for the divided congress and who will lead the u.s. house. of first jason dick editor-in-chief of cq roll call editor in chief and later susan ferrechio washington times national politics correspondent. republican senator ben sasse of nebraska said combined. he is resigning from his senate seat and resigning from the chamber after eight years to be the new president of the university of florida. here is his floor speech from yesterday. [video clip] >> the u.s. constitution is the greatest political document ever written. the central principles that undergirded of the dignity of

human beings and the rejection of absolute power because souls cannot be compelled by force, this is the soul of america. when the country is at its best we are making good on this promise and country has been more blessed with wide political arrangements than we. the separation of powers vertically and horizontally. despite attacks by demagogues, the constitution endures. at the commission in philadelphia george washington called this document the standard to the wise and honest can repair. so long as the constitution endures, we can to repair and recover and hope again in the system. the second reason for our hope, americans are institution builders. we have built towns on the frontier, railroads across the continent, hoover dam, empire state building. but more important, we built the human institutions that support

and sustain us across institutions and generations. we know that we are weak and fragile on our own, but the bonds of community enable us to flourish. are institution are the vital centers of our life together. small and large, local and national, institutions is gathering places where we find a need to keep going. the churches, schools, the businesses that keep our households up and running, the little league's, the ballet troops, fourth of july parades, crystal carolers, the one million associations, clubs and groups through which we live and pass along our life together. when our institutions are withering america winters. but when they become a new, america is alive and a new again. the america will always belong to the doers not the whiners. it belongs to the man in the

arena, the kids to eat on the ghost of their kids can eat at the dinner table. america belongs to the neighbors to see someone in need and go out and launch a soup kitchen in a clothing drive and afterschool tutoring program. they don't wait for the city, they move. we have not thrived for two century because of power at the top and at the center. we have thrive chiefly because of who was in office are the rules and regulations that are handed down from washington. rather we thrive because of the diversity in every town, and every neighborhood, you find the sameness. the people who don't want to be served but to serve. those who are not taking by giving. those who are not tearing down by giving up. it is a humble and beautiful thing for us to be a part of together. here's the third reason for

hope. the american people themselves. "washington journal," continues. host: we continue the conversation on the speakership elections with jason derek who is the editor-in-chief of cq roll call editor in chief. this is a historic moment. people pointed back 100 years the last time a multiple ballot speakership election was held. what is your sense of how historic this could get as we go into round two or around for today at noon? guest: i feel like we are in very uncharted waters here. you said this hasn't gone to a second ballot in 100 years. think of the changes in the country in the last 100 years since 1923. we don't know who will back down. mccarthy, the speakership was in his grasp in 2015 when john boehner stepped down. he did not have the votes. he did not take it to the floor

and that led to paul ryan being speaker. he has been preparing for this for years now trying to develop the kind of relationship he needs. it's unclear that he will say it didn't work out again. i think he is a net for the long haul. at the same time, the people who are opposed to him, it is not clear what would warm them to kevin mccarthy. they also know what is at stake. they know this is an historic moment. they pride themselves on the history and the institution. it is unclear who backs down and what leads to that. host: yesterday was one of those days that history has to be broken again. records will be broken again. back in the 1800s they had multiple days and weeks. guest: 100 33 ballots in 1855, 1856. we are a long way from that.

it's hard to see it going that long because congress is a different institution. it seems as intractable as that. host: what is the core, the five members who initially opposed his leadership and now 19-20. what is that group want instead of kevin mccarthy or what do they want from kevin mccarthy? guest: you mentioned the five who said they will not be peeled away. they will be voting as a block. that grew up to 20 yesterday as we saw on the third ballot. host: did that surprise you? guest: it did a little bit, yes. a lot of people thought it could grow from 10, 13, the fact i got to 30, it's heading to the wrong direction if you are watching stocks. you want the stocks to be slightly plump. host: what do you think this

group wants? guest: there are a couple of different reasons in the blog. it is not a unified block even though they all voted against mccarthy. either for jim jordan or other folks. one of the things they feel very strongly about is the institution of the house needs to be more responsive to individual members and of leadership. that manifest mostly through what is called the motion to vacate the chair. this chased out john boehner and paul ryan back in 2015 and it was sort of held over paul ryan's head for a long time. any member can call for a motion to vacate the chair. a vote of no-confidence, snap election. to basically replace the speaker, to get rid of the speaker. any one member could call that snap election at any point and

they had to vote on it, it's a privileged resolution so to speak. when the democrats we took house in 2018, they alter that so it had to be with the concurrence of the conference. it cannot just be any member, it had to be someone in leadership would sign off on that. the hardest core, they want to return to just one member. mccarthy and jordan thought they had a deal that would win then some support and said not one but five. it was incorporated in the rules package that the house will eventually vote on. that was incorporated into this rule package. there is talk about some of them want immediate votes on border security. there are some that want plum

committee assignments. some pedestrian things that people rule four. the thing that they want is a sense that power will be returned to members opposed to being concentrated in leadership may be the overarching theme. host: jason dick as our guest and we talk about leadership elections which resume at noon eastern. the lines are (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, and for independents and others. (202) 748-8002. after the meeting yesterday kevin mccarthy's closing argument is i deserve this, i earn this and it sounded like he has stopped, no more negotiation. i earn this. guest: that is what are reporting poor out to. it did not seem to have a kind

of effect. it was not a resounding argument. it may have turned some people away. you go into a meeting that you need five votes and you go out thinking you need up to 10 and then you get on the floor and you get to 20, thus not an argument that is carrying the day. host: this is a roll call this morning. kevin mccarthy upon is unmoved. they are showing barbara lee, one of the four tellers appointed by the house for each of the rounds. the old-school nature of this vote and members have to stand and announce who they are voting for speaker. guest: it's almost like being in the senate. they famously don't have voting cards, they have both on paper or vocal hand gestures. it's practical to do that with 400 35 members waiting to be sworn in. this is one of those ceremonial times that they usually don't

have to go through this much. we don't see this much process. it's like some members are getting a civics lesson and how things have worked in as he said, just seeing people marking off and checking off names it brings home that they could go really old-school and they need to. host: yesterday, kevin mccarthy was nominated three times first by elise stefanik, then by jim jordan and then by steve scalise. thinking about those three different speeches, what was the tone of each that stuck out to you? guest: the theme that linked all three is that they kept on coming back to how mccarthy is a team player. that is playing too we need to all get on board. they need someone who develops relationships and someone who has fought and suffered setbacks. having those three, stefon

aiken's police are members of mccarthy's leadership team and they have been. jordan used to help found the freedom caucus and will head the judiciary committee. they want to present a unified front in continuing to appeal to the members of their conference to be team players. it almost seemed like jordan was painted that he had to make this argument because he almost knew what was coming. i try not to put myself too much into the thoughts of members when they are speaking because their thoughts of their own. he did seem to say we have to -- this is not a good look guys. we need to get past this and stop operating because we need to get this done. host: kevin mccarthy and i disagreed on a lot of things through the years. guest: jordan was part of the

house freedom caucus that helped sink his bid in 2015. instead of trying to alienate him or trying to fight him over the years, he brought him in as an ally. he made sure that he was upfront and the biggest battles the house republicans have waged with democrats especially on impeachment of former president donald trump. he brought jordan into the tent and jordan also saw that this was a way that he could also further his own agenda and that is not where his mates are, his house freedom caucus mates are. host: is reporting on how the former president is weighing in on this raised? guest: the former president donald trump is endorsed kevin mccarthy to be the speaker. he said that last year. he was not trumpeting it on his social media application, true

social. there wasn't a lot about kevin mccarthy. mccarthy called him and said do i still have your support? host: he called them last night? guest: he called him after the three rounds of voting and trump said he still had support. it doesn't seem like there's a lot of enthusiasm for it. trump does not have the platform so he used to. he doesn't have a white house press pool to record his every movement and what he is saying. he does not have as much as the platform but there is no reporting that he is working the phones to call matt gaetz or andrew biggs or chip roy to try to change their mind. host: let's get your calls for jason dick, let us get to john from north carolina on the independent line. caller: i wanted to get on before, could he possibly become a speaker without the 218 votes?

guest: no. he can't become speaker without a vote on the house of members present. the threshold right now of 430 four members is to 18. if there are absences or of some of the members decide to vote present or abstain from voting, that would lower the threshold to get him to 218. in order to get him to 203 there would have to be a lot of people either not voting are not present and it seems like that is an unlikely scenario. host: angela is up next from fairfield, tennessee, on the republican line. caller: my comment to some of your callers, i agree we need some body she will be strong. to the voters who are calling

republicans are reese's. the only racist are the democrats because they had people fighting against each other in making minorities think that they are underprivileged. in this country, you can be whatever you want. there are people of all colors who are rather successful. for your callers to call republicans racist, thus absurd. it is totally absurd. democrats hold people as slaves in their mind by manipulating their lines. they've been doing it for years. host: let me ask you about, if kevin mccarthy does get elected, does this whole process we can him? guest: yes.

he would already be taking office. let's say he got elected on the first ballot yesterday in an alternate universe. he is already dealing with such a small margin of error. he could only lose four boats and pass any legislation. nancy pelosi was dealing with a similar low margin of error in the previous congress. she could only lose a handful of votes but she was able to keep her caucus unified. there are a lot of differences between kevin mccarthy and nancy pelosi exercise their leadership style and they are of different generations, they have different approaches. mccarthy would always have a difficult time in being speaker and being the leader of the house republican in the house. he is the speaker of the house, not just the republicans. this doesn't do anything to help him. it only weakens him.

especially if you have vote after vote where people are digging in their heels. that is not something he can take to the bank and say this makes me a much better leader. host: david is in brooklyn on the democrats a line. caller: good morning, jason, i am sure you heard the callers talking about statesmen, barlow would say statements to died 100 years ago. all of this is built on compromise and it seems that even on the republican side, there is no cohesion to come up with compromises that make sense to benefit anybody. is there some portion that in order to govern their needs to be compromised even if you are not giving away the farm, as they would say? guest: this is the hard part of governance. it does require everybody to give up a little bit.

this is what makes leaders is figuring out where people, help bar you could take them with you and when you have to draw the line. it seems like mccarthy thought he had figured out where that line was in particularly with the rules package and granting more authority, power and transparency to the process. he could be forgiven perhaps for being a little impatient because there are a lot of things that the speaker has to do, republican leader has to do when they are in the minority of their thankless jobs. it is not apparent that the folks within that 20, particularly the hardest core, the five, are going to signal this is absolutely what i want today. who knows, we are a few hours away from the house convening. they come in at noon. perhaps, there was a dark night

of the soul with some people. it doesn't seem that there are enough people who are there to say, for the good of the country, for the good of the caucus, for the good of the institution i will put aside my differences and vote for something a don't necessarily want. host: what support does steve scully have? guest: both scalise and mchenry are institutionalist and they have a lot of goodwill among the members. mchenry was a part of leadership before he settled into a policy driven role on the financial services committee. he was a chief deputy whip for a while there. scalise has been newer to

congress but he commands a lot of respect. he had this tragic shooting that he was involved in any came back from that. that showed a lot of people that this is someone who is pretty tough and not got people to think of him in different ways, not just as a partisan warrior. he had a lot of friends on the democratic side. i don't think they will vote for him. he is not a person that seems to engender, and instinctual reaction to mccarthy among some of the members of the house freedom caucus that may not be there with someone like scalise in particular. host: to california, good morning two to max on the independent line. caller: yes, hello. i've a two-part question. one, mccarthy seems like a

rino, in these coming in feel like he is soft on these investigations. the rank-and-file people want them because he is more apt to not be as harsh as investigation of these processes. two, why do people think that because of mccarthy and his establishment ties, we need people there to be antiestablishment that will vote for him. it's more about compromising this guys a has a lot of issues in his past. he supported this omnibus bill that are affecting the economy and the esteemed members are stringent about these things. why would people want to believe that mccarthy would even have a

chance if his beliefs saying that i deserve this. it seems very narcissistic. guest: i think the caller gets to the deepest core issue which is there are people who just don't trust mccarthy is going to follow through on his promises to them. weathers on the investigation, he had pinned his twitter profile so that we will investigate hunter biden like he has never seen it before. is that really going to happen? they trust are ordered to do that. he seems like a true believer to them. with mccarthy, even though he said it and committed to it and even committed to creating a committee and the judiciary that jordan would help him that would study what they are calling the weaponization of the federal government.

regardless of what he seems to promise or say, there is a lack of trust there that he will follow through. the caller said mccarthy allowed the omnibus which was signed into law to go through. mccarthy didn't have any power to stop that. senators have a lot more leeway, lower leverage to stop legislation like the omnibus. mccarthy doesn't. it really is, martial law in the house. the majority gets what they want. it is probably a little more fun for members of the minority because they get to rabble-rousers like we saw with the democrats yesterday. they were having the time of their lives it seems. one of the other stories that are reporters jim sachsen road, ted lieu texted with a bag of popcorn saying i can't wait. they were gleeful in saying that they were unified and hakeem

jeffries had got more votes. they can't really change anything. they can change the result here in the way the house operates. mccarthy, even though he opposed the omnibus, he did not have a lot of power to stop it. host: do you think the democratic congress has a preferred candidate? a republican candidate for speaker? guest: i don't want to speak for them, but mccarthy has shown that he can work with people. so has steve scalise, i think the democrats would prefer not to have any republican to have to deal with. nancy pelosi didn't really deal with mccarthy as much as chuck schumer has to deal with mitch mcconnell. they are going to get somebody eventually, whether it is mccarthy risk police. it seems like jeffrey's is someone who can make it work on his and. host: it wasn't a typical

opening day in congress, roll call covered it all. let's go to the headlines, a couple of significant notes, patty murray becoming the first female president pro tempore and mitch mcconnell marking his milestone as longest senior leader. guest: dianne feinstein was the single most democratic. he was typically online. this position was created in the line of succession to clarify who becomes president or vice president in the event of vacancy. it is typically gods the most senior member. feinstein had come under withering criticism for a few years there in her capacity and leadership on the judiciary during the nomination for

supreme court justices under donald trump and chuck schumer was able to allow her to step aside or to lobby that she would not get it and open the way for murray who has universal respect. not just in the democratic congress but among republicans two. she is arguably more powerful as the chair of the appropriation committee, she will be sworn in and that chair position later on this month when the senate reconvenes. this is a big deal. this is historic. to see a woman vice president swear in a president pro tempore , it's kind of big deal. host: in terms of the senate itself, how different will the 100 18, controlled by democrats, how will they operate with the republicans, regardless of who is speaker, with republicans

controlling the house? guest: we weren't thinking there would be a lot of big-ticket legislative items simply because democrats and republicans will take very different approaches to legislative priorities. the house will focus on investigations and oversight in the senate was probably going to see if they could get the house in order on appropriations to be ready for the inevitable trauma that we see at the end of every year. also confirm the nominees. in a 50-50 senate, democrats had to work with republicans if there was a tie vote in committee because we had an equal number in power-sharing agreements. the vice president could only break ties on the floor. if somebody was a controversial nominee, he had to go through

quite a bit of hoops to get the person on the floor and eventually get to a 51-50 vote. as soon as the senate flew the men they sent them home. they are not back until the 23rd of january. host: we have 20 more minutes with jason dick from cq roll call editor in chief, this is derek. caller: good morning guys, mccarthy wants to be speaker because he thinks he is due. he wants to be speaker because it is his turn. he just wants to be speaker. he never got over the fact the

paul ryan gave him the boot before so now he is mad and he wants to be speaker. thus number one. number two, you have to remember, this is supposed to be a formality for all intents and purposes. he gets up there and they have their pomp and circumstance, they do the vote. and yea, he become speaker. well, it did not happen. he is going to be weak, he has to promise everyone everything under the sun and it will be really sad for him, historically, people will look back and think what was he thinking? the thing is, he is not going to be able to legislate because it is like herding cats. they will focus on investigations. as a democrat i say thank you, bring it on.

i would love to see it. everyone knows they run investigations like legislation. they can't. everyone remember harold gaudi? i think he is running a podcast in his mother's basement or something. good book, we are in for a rough ride. host: some of the things you brought up earlier. he reiterated thereto. guest: looking past this week or however long it takes to get a speaker, there will be a speaker of the house and that person will be republican and they will get to some of their priorities. they want to be voting on what steve scalise was saying, ready to go legislation which its on their issues prominently among them cutting funding for 87,000 irs agents which would be funded through this ominous bill and be in charge of collecting revenue and modernizing the irs.

force the mechanisms, thus the first thing that they wanted to get you out of the gate. they were not there. these are not the headlines that the republicans wanted. they want to talk about that. they wanted to talk about energy policy, the border, the issues they feel that is important to them and their constituents. eventually, we will get there. the investigations will start. where they go is kind of unpredictable. i don't know what the effect is going to be on the public and how many people will priorities that. host: to donna calling from fulsome, louisiana, on the republican line. caller: hi, good morning. i wanted to assess question for a long time. when c-span finishes and they go to the house, nancy pelosi is never there. she always has somebody sitting in. so does the speaker not have to be there every day?

another question, if jordan does not want the speakership, is he going to the 20 and telling them to vote for mccarthy? to me, is a disgrace that the republicans can't stick together . being from louisiana, i would love to see steve scully's but that probably won't happen. guest: the speaker of the house usually, they will appoint someone on an interim basis to manage the day-to-day business of the house. the speaker will be there for the big both. the first one swearing people and after the election. nancy pelosi was there for the the optimist being passed. getting back to her earlier years of the speaker as the affordable care act.

the practical nature of the house dictates that there are a series of lieutenants will take over the speakership for boy do that -- for more day-to-day. host: let's hear from melissa, iowa, the independent line. caller: hi, thanks for taking my call. you talked about how nancy pelosi was so great about raining people in and the affordable care act that she passed that was so great. she is the only speaker of the house that has put across the bill that says you have to vote on it before you can read it. when nancy pelosi went and for her last speakership of the house, she actually stopped the vote because aoc in the squad were not going to vote for her. she stopped the vote, went back

and promise them a whole bunch of committees and everything and then she went back to voting and she was allowed to be speaker of the house. otherwise, she would not have been the speaker of the house. the reason mccarthy is having issues because these people don't want him because he is the same old, same old. he has gone along to get along with mitch mcconnell. we are sick and tired of the go along, get along. we want people who will actually work for the country and do what we want them to do. the federal government is not supposed to tell us what we are supposed to do, we are supposed to tell them what to do. host: jason dick, good or bad, speaker pelosi's legacy? guest: for her like a sea is opposed to using good or bad it will be consequential. just by the nature of who she is, she is the first woman to be speaker. that alone would be the first line in a historical evaluation of her speakership.

it was one of the more consequential ones. she held onto the post of democratic leader for almost 28 years. it was one of those things that as kevin mccarthy is finding out, is not that easy as the caucus changes in society changes. weathering different politics, different precedents. the fact that she was able to become speaker a second time. she had to work with people who were 50 years old younger than them. she found a way to work with them and consolidate her influence in a very close margin. she did not have a lot of us to work with. that is consequential as opposed to good or bad. i don't want people to think that i have my thumb on the

scale one way or another. certainly, history will view her as one of the most significant speakers. host: and to be clear, speaker pelosi former majority leader, are they hands off with new democratic leadership? guest: one of the moments that stuck out to me yesterday in the first ballot was within pelosi road and enthusiastically forwarded jeffrey's name for his nomination. we were already settling in for a long day. that was pelosi understanding the value of symbolism and she understands the value of gestures. she said, i will not be like the mother-in-law coming into the kitchen saying i want my son to 's eggs to be cooked that

way. steny hoyer and her know that there is a time for a new generation. the new house members already have a spark that just come from being the new kids. in terms of when to start that, this is a pretty good time for them. for the democratic caucus. they can't really afford to lose their seats. former leaders usually leave congress as we have seen pretty quickly. democrats can afford to lose any seeds. they will be here, hoyer is going back to the appropriations committee. he will be there for council but i don't get the feeling that pelosi is going to be knocking on the door of hakeem jeffries office and asking when we are meeting today? host: let's hear from karen from chester and consul pennsylvania, on the democrats line.

caller: i'm a democrat but i'm not an extremist. i am more moderate than most democrats. i wanted to make a plea for a reasonable speaker. we need someone who will work for the people and i think that is the problem here. everybody promises what they will do, we will get them and investigate and the he say/she say. i want to make a plea, do you know who could be reasonable? i have given up on the house because once i found out that the republican orientation for new members and democrats orientate for new people severally. i was done.

who could be reasonable, who can work for the people and not for the party? host: was that the case here, they did separate orientation for members? guest: not all people. they broke out at certain points. you look for some of the bigger orientation during the office selection. the colors right that there has been a debulking of positive interactions. there are few opportunities for people to get together. they have more opportunities during that freshman orientation than they do in a typical week, which is sort of sad. they have this crazy schedule coming in on monday and tuesday, leaving on a thursday or friday to go back home. they are at a breakneck pace sometimes. sometimes, they have several committee meetings happening concurrently. there's not a lot of time that

they get to interact together. in the speaker's lobbies, that sometimes happen because it is a fun, chaotic place where people can interact. then you have the republican side, the democratic side, even though they are not barriers separating them. host: we had a feel yesterday watching on the floor of the house, here is the behind closed doors other than the fact that we can see everything but can't hear they're talking about. any negotiation over what was happening was happening there on the floor. guest: it was an mixed turning thing. the reason we saw more even if you were in the chamber, one of the reasons we see more than we normally do is because the rules package. not to keep coming back to that, i know it's very like house nerd. host: we like house nurse here on c-span. guest: it usually forbids cell

phone recordings and pictures on the floor and while in the house because there is no rules package, it is a free-for-all. this only last until members are sworn in a vote on rules package and everyone put their phones back in their pockets. everyone stops talking their kids and grandkids. we are getting a peek at what is happening that we normally get. and you are right, there is horsetrading going on. a couple of colors ago said -- caller ago, is jim jordan talking to members? he says no, this is not my time. this is about mccarthy. host: on the television side of

things too, the cameras are usually controlled by the house and they still are. in this case, c-span cameras and other cameras were throughout the house showing a much broader picture of what was happening. host: let's go to don and fallon, montana, on the republican line. don, you are on the air, on the republican line. next, we will go to darrell in new jersey on the independent line. caller: hello, good morning. host: morning. caller: when i look at what is happening here, it's almost as if the republican party ignored the results of the selection. they went into the selection season talking about inflation and now it seems that the speakership hinges on how many investigations of hunter biden and joe biden are going to go on

in this congress. i don't think the american people actually voted for that. i also don't think the american people -- i think the american people repudiated trumpism, and yet the republican party is proceeding as if joplin is payback for the investigations of someone that we now know was a criminal president. that is not the american people's business. sometimes i wonder if maybe the problem in this country is the voters. not the politicians. host: jason dick? guest: one of the things i've been fascinated by, there's this repudiation of washington.

we have to drain the swamp. the issue as the caller -- i tend to agree with the caller. the congress doesn't come from washington it comes from the rest of the country. one of the first things they can start looking to drain as their own backyard. the people they are freshening with are not coming from capitol hill, they are not coming from georgetown, peoria arizona. they are coming from bakersfield california and laramie wyoming. the problems we have as a country are reflected in the congress and the congress is only as good as a people who send them there. host: let me ask you about a member elect that we saw on the floor, george santos he was admitted to lying on his resume

about his employment, his education. the wall street and the wall street journal, once he is sworn in, what kind of actions could take place when it comes to george santos? guest: the house ethics the primary police of behavior. at this point, it may be difficult for the house ethics committee to take it up or justified taking it up. at the minimum is just an argument because the actions under question are not while he was a member of congress. that doesn't mean people care refer him to the office of professional ethics and the ethics committee cannot open up an investigation themselves. those offices tend to focus on member behavior in the member in question, all of this

stuff happened, the falsifying of his resume, the $700 fraud in brazil years ago, it's tough to keep up with the different things of george santos. he may be more in trouble with law enforcement because of the multiple investigations that have been opened up into him, his behavior, particularly in new york for the ethics committee goes through him. they don't move with a lot of alacrity in pursuing members, particularly of the justice department or local law enforcement is involved in an investigation. they don't want to get in front of the sort of probes. host: let's get one more call here, let us go to mary in las vegas. caller: good morning. the swamp is in the house. there is a swamp full of

election deniers who sided with the president. no crime too big or too small, with regards to the irs, the objection is they don't want billionaires to get out of this. people like me have always been audited. trumpet and the commissioners so that he would not get audited. you are worried about the few $1 million from hunter biden, what about the billions jared kushner scott in the middle east from the saudi's? he got a one million from qatar. host: the amount of oversight that the new republican congress will reportedly undertake. what do we expect to see first

in this serious investigation? guest: given the high profile nature of hunter biden and his laptop, i would guess that thing start with that. they can start with the splash. perhaps far-reaching consequences, the origins of the coronavirus. it's been on that panel, the subcommittee. also, it's a select committee that would look in the competition with china. those trade relationships. those investigations would get underway but i would guess they would want to start off with some sort of a splash and it does not seem to get more splashy than hunter biden and this may be a heck of a laptop. host: we know your days going to get busy. we appreciate you spending some

time with us this morning. the editor jason dick of gq roll call. later on, at 9:15 susan ferrechio will be here and we will talk about the speakership battle. next up though, it is open for them here. your chance to talk about what we have been talking about so far are items in the news so he may not of touched on that you might like to break up this morning. the lines are (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8002 four independents and all others. >> be up to date in the latest in publishing with the podcast about books. with current, nonfiction book releases, plus bestseller list

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chance for you to call in with comments on any item in the news. what we talked about so far are other issues as well. we will get your calls momentarily. from the wall street journal, sam bateman free pleaded not guilty to fraud and other criminal charges tuesday as the judge said history child to begin on october 2. mr. bankman-fried entered his not guilty plea to all eight criminal counts that he faces in federal court in manhattan. it was his second appearance in u.s. court after the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange. prosecutors have accused him of stealing billions of dollars in ftx and defrauding borrowers and leaders. he evaded campaign finance limits and reporting

requirements when he made millions of dollars in illegal contribution rules funded by alameda. prosecutors said. open form, the first is wilhelm in lawrenceburg, missouri on the democrats line. caller: i will collect kevin's casino. after all the chaos, [no audio] they need to put someone in kevin mccarthy see, that would do it as a republican. host: tom on the republican line, go ahead. caller: what you just reported on, bankman-fried, the way i understand it, they gave $40

billion to the democratic party and most of this money was drug money and all kinds of stuff. and then a little while ago, the guys said it was about the voters. it is the voters because in our schools nowadays, we don't teach anything about sexual orientation and all the crop we teach. this guy that you just had on there, nancy pelosi and her husband. there were $350 million -- they are worth $350 million and she would come up, the whole house -- she was doing insider trading on the time. they got so arrogant they had a newsletter that you could actually follow them and invest in the same stuff they did.

she stood up there behind tromp and tore the speech. people give tromp hello for having papers out his house. but she destroyed property in front of american people? how freaking arrogant is that? that's the trouble with what people are, joe biden is compromised of the chinese when he got $10 million. it's basically treason and nobody did anything about it, not even the democrats. when nixon had to resign, the republican stepped up. the democrats just go right along with it because there is a gravy train. host: let's go to break in hayward, wisconsin, on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to say, i am for jim jordan to be honest.

i get mccarthy and the other guys, my point is, if you listen to guess, what he said about jim jordan is actually something i am for which his term limits on congress. to me, the whole thing, i just feel like this is the problem. drain the swamp or whatever you say, everything is so political. everybody is so quick to judge. all of these things are being brought up from two years ago. can't we get to something quicker to serve the country? that is why i'm calling from the independent line, i voted for a democrat.

i am losing my thoughts listing to all these other guys talk about sam bankman-fried. now his court date is in october? he comes back to america and they lets him out. my country was so precious my whole lifetime and i have not put the american flag, they haven't put the flag of one's. gave those foxes salvation army three years ago. i am ashamed of our congress and government in general and i would love for you to ask me a question because i'm ready to give an honest answer in all of it. host: i appreciate your input rick. a couple of comments on the speaker's race on twitter and also by text. you can text us your thoughts (202) 748-8003. joe, and south carolina says this, i wonder if the

republicans feel the election of mccarthy would be a major distraction and he will be pounced on. the republicans don't need that. bc said it was embarrassing for mccarthy. not being able to get elected mccarthy is the mentality that turns people off. steve in florida, after three votes, two new candidates, congress is dysfunctional because they don't have to raise taxes to spend. although this is popular with those who pay taxes in the recipient of spending, there has to be a balancing downside to spend on. there is none down. selma is in valley center, california, on the democrats line. caller: hello? thank you for taking my call. with january 6 coming up i would

love to send out my love and prayers to those people who lost theirlives -- their loved ones,e loved ones who lost their love. what i'm trying to say is -- host: we are going to go to james in hooker, oklahoma. james in oklahoma. we will try one more time, james and oklahoma. go ahead. caller: i want to say i am very proud of these people that are standing up for america. i believe -- i am just so proud of them. we are getting more done. those guys are getting more done to drain the swamp. to stop it dead in its tracks then we have in years. those guys are on it.

i wish them all the luck in the world. i hope they can hold firm. if the democrats and the rhino republicans have to get together to stop them, brings it up for what it is, but those guys should stay the course. i do not care if they do go back every day and vote like that for two years. they are getting more done to save america than anyone has any long time. host: to kurt, independent line in miami, florida. go ahead. caller: can you hear me? host: we can. caller: i am listening to everyone and it is crazy to hear that we keep blaming politicians for all this stuff going on. we are in debt because the average person who works is

putting himself into debt. if everyone took care of their own budget and their own payments and stop spending money they do not have, we would not have to have government bill is out. these politicians do not have an answer. republicans and democrats are the reason we are in debt. in terms of how they spend money. i live in miami. you have people buying homes they cannot afford. they are still buying it, taking out loans to buy stuff. we keep blaming politicians but it is on us. politicians are a reflection of us, chaos. as far as they are concerned, their answer is division. we talk about january 6. democrats are acting like january 6 was the worst day in america, but for them it was a

way for them to get back into office. that is all they cared about. for republicans, they had nothing so they decided to jump on the january 6 thing and ignore it because now they are scapegoats. thank you for taking my call today. host: next we will go to kay on the democrats line. >> kevin, kevin have no might. kevin, kevin, where is donald trump? host: legrand, iowa. sharon on the republican line. it is open forum. go ahead. >> thank you for taking my call. i heard the newt gingrich said this is a vote against the house republican conference led by elise stefanik. i watched this yesterday and i did find out she was challenged

but survived. i like what chip roy said when he had his speech. a little further googling by me, i found out all these nobles we have now from mccarthy to jordan , they were all elected with a super pac founded by two billionaires, but my point is this. both democrat and republican parties, we do have big money packs, oligarchs running our politics. we need to get citizens united and big money out of politics. thank you. host: this is the headline at townhall.com. one member will not cave in opposing mccarthy. the house of representatives adjourned tuesday without electing a speaker. there were three ballots during the day, during which republican

leader kevin mccarthy not only failed to emerge victorious but lost ground with 20 republican defections. it was representative byron donalds who changed his vote during the third ballot. democrats have remained united in voting for hakeem jeffries, who will succeed nancy pelosi as democratic leader. some members have had lengthy and grandiose displays of theatrics. when it comes to additional republicans, jim jordan had been the one to nominate mccarthy. representative gates has garnered attention for his speech nominating jordan. he is hardly the only vocal member against mccarthy. among them is bob good of virginia, who was against mccarthy from the start and has been open about it. the congressman explained that mccarthy is part of the problem, not part of the solution. we have to defeat the status quo

to bring true transformational change to congress and try to save the country. next, deborah. caller: good morning and happy new year's. i am calling because of leadership. that is something -- we do not have that. until we can learn how to work together, we are not going to be able to lead nothing. if you cannot work -- just because one person is not doing -- everybody is getting paid for the same reason, so why would a democrat or republican not do nothing but complain? at least the democrats try to work with the republicans. the only thing the republicans want to do is complain and find fault. you do not hear them say nothing that is going on good and they

divide. they don't want nothing to go right unless they do it. we are not going to never be able otherwise because we don't have leadership and mccarthy -- how can he lead? he started it all in january 6 and that is something nobody should do. just because you want to hold a position, you are going to fall back on your word. all the stuff that happened -- this is not just mccarthy. it is every last one of the republicans that refused to be -- to see that generous six happened. it is sad. anytime something is in your face and affecting you -- if you cannot agree to it -- we don't have no leaders. host: we will hear from frank next, republican line.

caller: let's think about this incident that happened with this football player on the buffalo bills on monday night football who collapsed. twitter has been all about elon musk and the covid-19 vaccine. it seems to affect these young kids, men, and it affects women in different ways. how'd affects people, minorities and different ways. people have gone blind. people have muscle spasms in their legs and arms. for some, it affects their heart. with women, it can affect the uterus and ability to have kids, but the truth is finally coming out. every player that played pro football had to be seen by doctors. they pay these people millions to got on the field -- they are not going to pay these people millions of dollars to go on the field if they are sick. the guy had the covid-19 vaccine

. it is required for them to have it in many sports. it affects these young men. host: as of now, they have no indication of what causes cardiac arrest, correct? host: i heard on talk radio about this. the media does not tell that because they like that. host: we are going to go to angelo in tampa florida. caller: i used to be a republican. i switch to become an independent. after watching that debacle yesterday with the republicans, i am glad i am no longer a republican. this is embarrassing. first, i am tired of hearing how the american people decided to put the republicans back in charge of congress. look at all the gerrymandering. that is the reason why they took back the house. it has nothing to do with anything else but gerrymandering.

in new york there was gerrymandering. this is why we have such a small majority. i do not think kevin mccarthy is right for the job. i do not think jim jordan is right for the job. he is one of the reasons why i left the republican party. so i wish we could work together to compromise and do what we are supposed to do, compromise. what hurt the republicans is the abortion issue. they are so far away from what the american people want. most people want some type of abortion, just like with the gay marriage. 70% of the american people now approve of same-sex marriage. get off this crap. they use this to get their base wired up and crazy because it is all they have. host: it is open forum on washington journal, about five more minutes left for you to call in with items in the news

that you are following. just an update on where things are in terms of the election for speaker, this is a report from the new york times. gop fight over speaker enters its second day. the republicans began their second day in control of the house without a leader and deadlocked but how to move forward after representative kevin mccarthy of california lost three votes for the top job amid a hard right rebellion that has punted a historic struggle on the house floor. his successor defeat on tuesday marked the first time in a century the house has failed to elect a speaker on the first roll call vote. it was not clear how or when the stalemate would be resolved. after a journey with no leader, the house was set to reconvene at noon wednesday to try to resolve the impasse. our coverage resuming here on c-span cannot live coverage of the u.s. house, beginning around noon eastern today. you can follow it on c-span, online at c-span.org, or on our

free mobile app. stephanie is next in columbus, indiana. democrats line. caller: i have been a registered democrat for 27 years. i watched the voting yesterday on c-span and i have to agree with what chip roy said in his speech to nominate jim jordan. i am not a fan of jim jordan, but he made a good point about the lack of debate. i do not know how many times i have turned on c-span and seen representatives giving a speech to an empty room. it happens often. to say that no debate has occurred on the floor since 2016 -- i'm assuming that was accurate. i have not checked it.

but that is what the house and senate are supposed to be. they are supposed to be places where statesmen debate what is best for the country. it has become so divided where they put party unity above the needs of americans. for example, the federal poverty level, that guideline, the formula for determining that has not been changed since the 1960's. in my area, a family of 4 am a the poverty line says they can survive on $29,900 per year. and the two bedroom apartments where i live are $1200 a month. things like that need to be addressed and updated for the benefit of the people. host: in other news this morning

, as the house has failed to move forward, other governments are moving forward, including swearing's in of governors. florida, ron desantis is the headline, taking aim at federal government as he is sworn into a second term. he is seen as a possible biden challenger and 2024, sworn in yesterday in tallahassee. it is open forum here on washington journal and we are going to move on. after the break, we will be joined by susan ferrechio, national politics correspondent for the washington times, and we will talk about the divided congress, the speakership battle, and the agenda for the next two years in washington. that is next on washington journal. ♪ >> middle and high school

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>> washington journal continues. host: next with us is student -- susan ferrechio, a veteran of covering capitol hill and politics in washington. what is your sense of the mood of house republicans following the three votes that failed to elect kevin mccarthy yesterday? >> it depends on which party you are talking about. republicans are pretty unhappy with the situation. they have just reclaimed the majority. they have been looking forward to the state for a long time, yet they are in such disarray that they can organize to get the legislator session going, so basically they are in limbo, not a good thing for a party. it hasn't happened in a century, so not a good look for the gop. democrats are watching this, including a little bit. they have just lost the midterm election, but only by a few votes, not a big red why -- red wave. they are think about how they

can get back in the majority over the next two years. this bad start for republicans is a help to the democrats, so that is the dynamic now on capitol hill. democrats are watching on the sidelines and republicans are not panicking yet but they do not have a solution to get out of the difficult situation they are in now. host: were you surprised by the number of republicans voting against kevin mccarthy, 19 in the first two rounds, up to 20 republicans voting no? guest: i was not. if will -- if it was a month ago, i would have been. there was a little opposition to him for a while, and i think this turned into the afternoon thunderstorm. it builds up over time and developed its own momentum. by the time opening day came around yesterday and mccarthy

had not worked hard enough in the eyes of the rebels to win their votes, it gathered more steam. by the time the boat came, even mr. mccarthy was predicting that he would lose up to 20 votes. by the end of yesterday, that is what he was losing, 20 votes. this is something that you see in various congresses over time, where you have a bunch of people not happy with the speaker. in this instance, it was her -- sort of the perfect storm because they're such a small majority. it gave real leverage to a small group who then picked up -- whose band got bigger as time went on and now here we are, with a significant number of lawmakers, not five people where you can kind of launch a pressure campaign, and the odds are really against them. it is 20, and they have real power in this situation. at this moment, i think there is

not a concrete solution to change the outcome of the vote from what it was yesterday. host: you do not think there is a concrete other candidate and the conference that could step in and get the 218? guest: there is. steve scalise, who has been in congress about as long as mccarthy has. talk -- people who are opposed to mccarthy say he would be sort of a happy medium leadership candidate. he is someone they feel they can trust more and who in their minds has been more of a true conservative. steve scalise does not want to run against mccarthy, not that he does not want to be speaker at some point. i am sure he has those ambitions, but he is not in that bandwagon at this point. he is supporting mccarthy. hina mated him on one of the balance yesterday. i do not see that changing

today. even if you stepped in and some hypothetical, the same group that is upset with mccarthy over some demands they are making told me they will make those exact same demands to school lease, so no one is getting out of this easily. they have a list of demands. they are big asks for conservatives and it is a lot -- whatever it is they want, it is a long list. it diminishes the power of the speaker at this point, where you have a speaker that is not very powerful. it is sort of a no win situation. if you ever become speaker gives into this group, that speaker will be weekends, not just by the process, because the process will at least temporarily make a speaker look weak, but if they give away everything then they are governing with a handicap. that is the central issue when you talk about how congress

operates and how the house operates and the true dilemma here for anybody who takes the gavel on the republican side. host: once republicans sort out and we presumably get a republican elected as house speaker what is the legislative focus that the house republicans are looking forward to move forward on once the 118th get started? guest: there are essential things they want to pick up on the agenda. first, whatever they do policy wise is not really going to go anywhere because the senate is still in democratic hands. it is the -- it is divided government right now, so things do not go anywhere unless it is must pass legislation. a big agenda item, say a border security bill, that is tough to move during divided government.

what you're going to see over the next two years is both parties positioning themselves for 2024. what has been happening with congress over the last decade or more is congress is only about moving toward total control of government, trying to win the trifecta of white house, house, and senate, where you can move as much as you can during that two to four year period, so i think what you will see is a lot of messaging for democrats, laying the groundwork -- republican scott laying the groundwork for what they hope will be a republican led government in 2024 border security, safety issues like ensuring that criminals are prosecuted, making sure -- that is a big complaint and local governments, where crime is a huge issue. parental rights in education. the federal government can do limited things on these issues, but democrats and republicans have tried to position

themselves on them because it is what the public cares about. border security is a huge issue they have been working on for decades and unable to really move much. that will be a big issue. house republicans will do a lot of investigating and have set up a subcommittee on investigating u.s. competitiveness with china, which is an important priority for them. they will investigate the u.s. response to covid, which has been controversial, and look into the government in the same way that democrats did when they controlled committees and subpoena power and president trump was in power, so you will see a lot committee activity with hearings and investigations and a lot of messaging that lay a marker for where republicans want to take government if they ever get control of the house, senate, and white house again. host: susan ferrechio is with us

. the headline on the lee piece today, republican vote over speaker leaves house at an impasse. your calls and comments welcome. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. republicans, it is (202) 748-8001. for independents and others, (202) 748-8002. let's go to clyde in oklahoma, democrats line. caller: a log the same problems here and ever since the baby boomers moved to california because oklahoma used to be a democratic state, it has been dropping down the drain. they are doing the same thing in washington. they just keep putting gas on the fire. they are going to burn themselves up. host: we will go to trevor in

the bronx. caller: thank you for taking the call. my name is trevor. i watch and listen to c-span this morning and a lady came on talked about joe biden, hunter biden laptop, and she is saying, republicans, what have you, it makes no sense for that. just a few days ago we spent $45 billion to ukraine. that is because joe biden and his son were involved in ukraine. russia lied to the president, saying he was not going to invade ukraine. he did because he has no respect

for the president or this country. look at what the president has done. just two months in three weeks ago, the president of united states of america came out and informed the global public that covid-19 is over. it is unbelievable. there is no debate about that. he also made statement that were false, that he was the first president to have nominated a black female associate justice on the supreme court of the united states of america. that is false. it was president george bush the second that did so. joe biden was a senator. he said if he did so he would do all in his power to see that that black female associate justice that president george bush intended to nominate would not be confirmed. host: several things there,

trevor. care to respond? guest: some of the things the caller was talking about -- i think you will see republicans in the same way that democrats when president trump was in office -- you will see republicans looking to investigate the white house, the biden administration, the hunter biden matter. i guarantee you that will be a subject of committee investigations. on the front where he was talking up money to ukraine got money in general is a huge issue and divide between the two parties. where democrats like to spend more than republicans. one of the problems is -- promises republicans made when they were campaigning was to get control over government spending. this is one area where they have power because congress -- the only thing congress really is required to do is pass spending bills. that is at.

they have to pass them every year or the government does not function. that needs to get through congress and republicans will have leverage their because their cooperation is needed to get it across the finish line. their goal is to rein in spending, which has increased exponentially since the start of the covid pandemic, up to $6 trillion in the last spending cycle. it is so much money and we have a huge deficit and debt. there have been issues with inflation. that will be a big part of the republican agenda, not only because it is a priority in their party but it is something they actually can do even though we are in divided government. the power of the purse. they are going to exert their influence on that and you will see people arguing over how much money we should provide to ukraine. it divides the parties and a lot of people on the issue of helping ukraine defend itself against russia.

that is going to be a big issue because that war is ongoing and money issues will come up again. that is an important topic. all the things the caller was talking about, i think you will hear more of that once congress really gets organized. host: let's go to donald in pennsylvania, democrats line. caller: i have two questions regarding the election of the speaker of the house and may be your guest could answer them or maybe someone could research it to have it answered. my number one question is why are the members able to vote for speaker when they are not officially sworn in yet? how is that being done? when they are not a member yet? secondly, as far as the territories and washington, d.c.

and those delegates serving in the house, do they have any role in the speaker election? if they do not, why not? those are my questions. guest: they are nonvoting members and they do not have a say in the speaker election for your first question is interesting. as i have covered congress for many years, it is a question that comes up every couple years. how come these new members elect are allowed to vote? it is laid out in the house rules. the clerk follows the prescribed rules and the rules say, first thing they do is have a quorum call and make sure everyone is there. after that, they vote for speaker. after that, the speaker is sworn in and the speaker swears in the members elect. it is the way the founding fathers laid out the rules for how congress would operate and that is why.

you can debate that they are not really members and it is a legitimate question, but that is the way the rules are laid out. great question. host: it is worth pointing out they are electing the person who second in line in the line -- second in line in succession. host: first guest: -- first in line is the vice president and then the speaker. we talk about it when you look further down the line over the senate because often it is the president pro tem in the senate who is also high in the line of succession and often it is someone who could be quite old, so that raises the question about whether the line of succession is really something that should be looked at or reconsidered, but it is just --

it is unlikely that you are going to get down the chain that far, unless there is some awful catastrophe. the fact that there is no speaker right now is something that is very unsettling for a lot of reasons. host: michelle in illinois asks this. could mccarthy be pushed through if a handful of the republican actively abstained from voting to lower the bar and counteract the 20 that keep voting against him? guest: under that circumstance -- the speaker is elected by people who were in the room voting for a person. so anyone voting for a person gets counted in the final number, so if you vote present, you are not voting for a person, so you're not counted toward the final number. it lowers the number people of the chamber. when it does, it lowers with the majority is. you can carefully negotiate that

. you have to be careful to not lower it too far, but that is one avenue for mccarthy to finally win. it is something that we reporters have been discussing with the holdouts for a long time now. i have been told this is an option, not a top favorite option that they are really favoring at this point, but it is an option. there are certain of this group who are simply not going to help out in that way. they do not like mccarthy. they have had conflict with him in the past. they have it out for him. they are not going to help. but there are others who would do that but not for nothing. right now, this group feels they have leverage, especially after yesterday. that gave them power and empowered them. they want more than what kevin

mccarthy has conceded to them so far, and among those things is a curious provision in the rules that allows a member to stand up and have a vote to eject the speaker. that rule was eliminated by speaker pelosi and republicans want that reinstated. mccarthy has got halfway with them. not one person, how about five people? why don't we keep the threshold at five? they are not happy with that. some of them are looking for committee assignments and more power for the conservative base, the really conservative base, members of the house freedom caucus. you've discussed on this program before. they feel their agenda is sidelined and they have not been given enough respect over the years and given their own place in the conference. they are looking to be strengthened here in these

negotiations. if mccarthy can find a way to do that -- or he will be stalled where he is now. host: we will go now to alabama, republican line. caller: you discussed some of the stuff i was want to ask before, but what happens if this drags on for three or four months and ukraine needs a bunch of money? i know 100 years ago or so, it went until february. what happens if drags on for six months? what happens to the budgeting of the united states? guest: that is a really good question. a lot of us are speculating it will not go that far but we are now on day two and several weeks ago it seemed inconceivable that we will be on day two here, so in other words, congress is full

of surprises. 434 members cannot really sit there and predict anything sometimes. i do not know the answer to that. none of us do. way back then, things took forever anyway because members had to travel from far away and congress moved at a snails pace. now, they are expected to do a lot and get a lot done in the course of a week and if there is some emergency, perhaps that would be -- would propel the lawmakers to get it together and come up with a solution. maybe that would be a driving factor. right now, there is not an emergency. it is the beginning of a session. they have time before they need to do anything, so this could go on for days. i think days will really start to ramp up pressure on everybody to do something because of how

it looks for the republican party. >> adding to what you said, we read this tweet earlier, that right now the united states congress is not a functioning body because the house is not constituted every member is actually a member elect without the power to approve legislation. host: -- guest: we have the senate and no house. the government does not function unless all three are operating. that is how it goes. it is january. nothing truly pressing right now that they need to do. january is often the organizing month. there is no spending building need to get to, so it gives them time to have this problem that they are having now. they're convening today at noon. they will get out there and

start calling ballots again. johnson is basically running the house just by the rules because there is no speaker. the rules tell her -- she just keeps calling ballots unless they are in a recess or adjourned, which they are at the moment. what are repose going to do? are they going to sit there all day and let this play out? it will look silly. they need some kind of movement where they have a vote that tells them something. host: our coverage getting underway at noon eastern today on c-span and on our free mobile app. rachel is on the line in manchester, new hampshire, independent caller. go ahead. caller: my understanding is the speaker does not have to be chosen from sitting members of

congress and so my question is, if somebody wanted to propose somebody such as joe lieberman, for example, to become the speaker, how does that fit into this whole process? where does that fit in terms of success of roll call's question mark -- roll calls? guest: the one interesting part of this debacle is it has america looking at who they want to be speaker. anyone can be speaker. that is the strange thing about house rules. people come up with ideas for who they would like to see. often when i hear from people, they want somebody who is not extreme on one side to the other. they want a compromised person -- a compromised person who can unite everybody. the public is tired of fighting. that is what i hear reflected in

what the caller told us. that is not likely. the first thing that would happen is they will try to get mccarthy elected speaker. if that fails, if every effort is made and they cannot do that, i believe they will move on to steve scalise as the next logical person who people seem to think can win the job. he will have to negotiate as well, so that is not a clear path for him either. at that point, there might be feeling like we need to just do this. republicans look really bad. we need to take a step and do something. that may be what happens. i do not see the scenario where they get to the point where they are looking at outside candidates, somebody like -- that is even harder to get people to agree on. say you bring in joe lieberman, a moderate, unifying candidates. you're not going to win over the group of conservatives that are

at the heart of this disarray now. they are not going to go with someone like that. say you bring in someone they really like, a conservative outsider. then you will lose moderates. it needs to be someone on the inside because even though there are factions in congress, steve scalise or mccarthy or one of the other people who have been in leadership are familiar to people. they have developed relationships with lawmakers. they are trusted by these lawmakers. that is how i think it will go, but that does not get past the interesting part of the rules of the house, which is you can have somebody who is not a member of the house be the house speaker. that would be interesting to watch for us as the press. that is for sure. host: let's go to crestview, florida. caller: good morning. being that they cannot come to

an agreement and republicans are quarreling over a candidate, is it possible for the congress to go to the democratic candidate who is leading in all the voting ? can he just step in temporarily as speaker? could they continue to move on? would it be possible for them to select the democratic candidate to be speaker of the house? guest: the short answers to both those questions are no and no. . to elect the speaker, you have to have the majority of those voting for a person. the chance of a republican voting for taking jeffrey's -- hakeem jeffries, a democrat much

admired and liked on the democratic side, that is not going to happen. nobody's going to vote for the democratic candidate for speaker. but you bring up an interesting point because there have been talks and stories about some democrats and some republicans talking about the idea of coming together on a moderate consensus republican, somebody who is not even a member of congress anymore, a retired moderate member. maybe they will have that person become speaker and that they could win the vote. say they nominate fred often -- fred upton of michigan. they decide to vote for fred upton and nominate him and the vote is called and enough

democrats and republicans band together to make him the speaker. i do not think that is going to happen. one of the main reasons is democrats are not going to vote for fred upton. they will vote for hakim jeffrey's every ballot. i do not see that happening. they are loyal to their party in that sense. it is an interesting question because when you see this kind of disarray, you say, why not the guy -- neither candidate won a majority yesterday, but hakeem jeffries won more votes than mccarthy. you might think, let's make him the speaker. but they are not the majority. the last election we had, voters put republicans in the majority. they have more votes. they have five more votes than democrats now. until that changes, they will pick the speaker. host: on the line is matthew cannot republican caller. caller: good morning, susan.

my question to you, dealing with the race for speakership of the house, is congress and mccarthy has stated in concessions to those 20 republicans that if five or more republicans do not feel he is fit for the job they can call for a vote of no-confidence, like what happened over in the house of commons and the united kingdom. they can have the speaker replaced. my question is why have the republicans continued to battle it out between two different people instead of just agreeing to get mccarthy in with the majority of the votes to become the speaker so new members can be sworn and and we can get committees going and business of the country can begin for the new year, and then after that is done, if those 20 or more republicans still do not think he is necessarily fit for the

speakership, why not then call for the vote of no-confidence? >> that is not the only demand. they have other demands. they want the agenda for the republicans to include a tax that would eliminate your income tax and replace it with a national sales tax. they want to vote on term limits, which is a tough thing to put before the body and would basically limit -- let members of congress have -- they want positioning on committees that would give them power. they want a lot of things that weaken the speaker. going back to the original question, speaker elect mccarthy, if you was elected by his conference earlier last year, he has agreed to the five vote threshold and they want to go back to the one person can't

allow any person to get up and say, we want to call up a vote to vacate the chair, which is basically get rid of the speaker who sits in the chair. the reason they want one person as i hope it was -- how it was written initially when congress was assembled 200 years ago. they want it back to where it was and they are not agreeing -- in the end, they may agree to the 5% threshold. as you say, they could get together and do that. we will not be terribly difficult for five people to do that given what you are seeing yesterday, but they want a lot of things out of mccarthy that most people agree would weaken him as speaker and then you are weakening the institution of the speaker, who historically has been very powerful. the speaker is everything in the house. you have committees and chairmen and factions. the person who runs everything

top to bottom, from the janitors to the biggest bill in history passing on the house floor, that is the speaker. they run everything, so i think you're seeing mccarthy try to protect the power of the speaker because this group clearly does not like the power of the speaker. they want to make it more populist. that is where the fight is now. so why are they not just agreeing to that and moving on? at the heart of it is a battle over power of the speaker and it is being fought before our eyes. >> here is burning -- host: here is bernie in rhode island. caller: i wanted to make an observation about the freedom caucus and what they are calling themselves now. looking at their impact on the republican house historically, they have basically upended paul ryan and i mccarthy. it is interesting that the

freedom caucus is really a poison in their own party and they cannot get anything done. the second point is jim jordan quoting the bible yesterday. he quoted the new testament and timothy, which was completely off. i am a student of the bible, not a master of it, but here is jordan misquoting the bible and diverse, saying that god wants him to keep up the good fight. god wants us to keep up the good fight in keeping the faith, not in keeping the republican party in power. that was another abuse of the bible. to all the evangelicals out there, i consider myself a christian but i want to make this point. jesus is not concerned with what is going on on this planet. our realm is heaven. we are just exiles here.

to think that christ really has a side and what is going on politically is such a violation of what the bible is all about. host: on the freedom caucus, the wall street journal editorial page was could close them with their headline, gop chaos caucus returns and from faction blocks mccarthy's speaker bid. guest: great comments. one thing to keep in mind is these lawmakers do not elect themselves. they are chosen by the voters, who hear them campaign for months and listen to their message and campaign pledges. there are parts of the country where their message resonates and they are talking about controlling government spending, which has gotten huge over the

past few years. with some results that have not been necessarily positive. they are talking about securing the border, another top campaign issue that voters are concerned about. they are talking about crime, doing things to ensure law enforcement get the resources they need and criminals are punished. all these things are important to voters who put these lawmakers here, so if you hear what they tell me is that they are fighting for what voters told them to go to congress and do. so when you have these big fights in congress, on the democratic side where you have a super liberal faction causing a divide or the republican side where you have the freedom caucus or conservative members who are fighting to make changes , they say they are doing so at the behest of the voters. voters sent them there to do this. that is how congress is

constituted by people voting for these 435 members in districts of 700,000 plus voters. they put them there. the house is a huge body of people from different parts of the country, from new york city versus somebody from jim jordan's district in ohio could not be more different. that is what you get when you constitute the u.s. house. that is the heart of the divide now. it may be convenient for republicans to say can i get these guys out of here. would you be the majority they were not there? probably not. the freedom caucus came in 12 years ago and made the majority. it would not have been there without the movement to push these guys in. once they got there, they said, we are not going to act like regular members of congress. we are going to do what constituents told us to do. that brought conflict and difficulty and trouble for all the speakers who have had

difficulty with the group and have either left because they were fed up or been pressured to leave. it is the nature of the republican party now. host: to seattle. it is mark next on the independent line. caller: thank you for c-span. what an intelligent guest you have today. awesome. i wonder, what about a neutral republican? especially such as colin powell. a veteran will be good. we are taught to not recognize parties during the cry of battle and to win it. so another one is dan evans. former governor of washington, a republican.

you could not tell it by looking at him. he is still alive as far as i know. i will take your message off the air. host: we have covered a couple of alternative candidates, but you said none of that is really likely at this point. guest: thinking back to 1998 when you gingrich resign from the speakership, and suddenly there was a void. the next in line everyone assumed would be bob livingston. he had some skeletons in his closet that were revealed and suddenly he could not be the speaker. that left republicans in disarray. the next in line was a congressman, very powerful, named tom delay, who had huge and powerful influence over the party. he was a tough guy.

there was no way republicans would support him because people did not like him enough to be speaker. i think they were afraid of him. so they kept going down the line and found someone more neutral in their minds. he ended up being the speaker known expected him, just a low-level guy in the leadership level. unexpected things can happen. i would say never say never. it is possible, but not probable. i like hearing from people about their favorite pick for speaker or their ideas but it is a reminder that people are often looking for somebody to come -- calm things down. that says a lot about the state of politics today. over the senate -- host: over the senate, something unexpected happened to become

the next president pro tempore and the first female president pro tempore to serve in the senate, here being sworn in by vice president kamala harris. what are your thoughts on what happened in the senate? guest: dianne feinstein is 88 years old and we are not sure that she is going to run for another term. there has been pressure on her to step aside due to her age. she has been a little frail for a few years. the idea here is what we talked about earlier in the segment, which is the line of the succession is important. you do not think you will get to it, god forbid, but you want to make sure it is something where everybody is fully capable of serving. this was an instance where senator feinstein voluntarily stepped aside from that role. that is why patty murray who has been a member of the democratic

leadership for sometime time in the senate, a leader on various committees, a powerful figure amongst democrats for sure, now she will serve in that role. she will not be the woman who is then in the highest position on the line of succession. that was nancy pelosi, who just left leadership, who was second in line as house speaker. host: let's go to judy, democrats line. caller: good morning, susan. thank you for your vast knowledge. my question is -- i would like to see -- i know you have dealt with this question a lot this morning. what would happen if liz cheney was brought up as a potential speaker of the house?

the reason i believe she would be viable is think she would be able to pull together 20, 40, maybe 140 questions -- republicans. if democrats would help parley her into the 218 votes, would there be any negative ramifications? host: we will let you go there with an interesting proposition. guest: liz cheney has become sort of the enemy of the republican conference because she joined the democratic led committee investigating the genuine six riots -- january 6 right at the capital. she kind of turned on the party in addition to turning on president donald trump, so republicans do not hold her in high esteem right now. she lost her primary in wyoming, which is why she is no longer a

member of congress now. there may be some republicans who secretly support her. i do not think she would get votes from republicans. i feel strongly democrats would not support her. while many have praised her for her work on the committee and what they see as a brave move for a republican to come out against the president and work on the committee to go after not only president trump but other republicans who she and democrats felt participated in instigating and perpetuating what went on after the 2020 election, she is super conservative. the idea that any democrat would vote for her -- her politics are very conservative. she is from wyoming, one of the most conservative states in the country. after side from her actions against president trump she's a hard-lined conservative a choice like cheney is probably at the

bottom of 3450eu list if we were going into a fantasy congress situation who could be the speaker, i don't think it would be liz cheney. host: former our guest reporting at "washington times".com. she's national politics correspondent for the "washington times." thanks so much for being with us. guest: thanks very much. host: we are wrapping up the program here. hope you are with us tomorrow morning at 7:00 eastern. reminder our coverage of the u.s. house getting under way this morning at 11: 50 a.m. eastern right here on c-span. it will also be streamed live at c-span.org. you can follow it on our free mobile app. until tomorrow, have a great day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] >> here's what's coming up live today on c-span. at 10:45 eastern house democratic caucus chair pete

aguilar and vice chair ted lieu brief reporters after their morning caucus meeting. and coming up at noon eastern today, we'll have live coverage of the u.s. house. for the first time since 1923 members failed to elect a speaker on opening day. republican kevin mccarthy was unable to get the required majority of 218 votes after three ballots. we could see a fourth attempt as you lawmakers try to elect a speaker. also watch live coverage on c-span now. our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington live and on demand. keep up with the day's biggest evans with live streams of floor seed pridings with hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, courts, campaigns and more from the world of politics at your fingertips. also stay current with the latest episodes of "washington journal" and find scheduling information for c-span's tv

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on how to get started, visit our website at student cam.org. >> c-span is your unfive-minutered view of government -- unfive-minutered view of -- unfiltered view of government. including buckeye pwropbd band. pwropbd band. buckeye broad banupports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. twitter and . if it is not kevin mccarthy, who is your choice? who would be your choice, o