>> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more. including wow. >> the world has changed. today the fast reliable internet connection is something no one can live without. so wow is there for our customers with speed, reliability, value, and choice. now more than ever it starts with great internet. >> wow, supports c-span, as public service, along with these otherelevision providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> you're watching c-span's coverage of the election of the house speaker. a shot of capitol hill as members of the house republican conference are currently in the process of voting on who might be their candidate who emerged to become the next house speaker. once that is determined, if it's

determined, then that should go to a full floor vote, which we have seen several times play out in the process. that's the hallway outside the room taking place a secret ballot. already a first count down. and others to go. who knows how long that will go. as the process plays out. you're invited to call in and tell us what you think about this process playing out. republicans, 202-748-8921. democrats, 202-748-8920. others, 242-748-8 *f 892t text us at 202-748-8903. post on x if you wish. and our facebook page at facebook.com/c-span. the house expected to come in at 11:00 to gavel in. they may just gavel out. and possibly returning later in the day if a candidate emerges

from this secret ballot. we are taking your calls. call in and do so. we'll get an update where that process is. this reporter covers congress for "politico." thanks for joining us. remind people about this part of the process. what's involved? guest: republicans are now in this process where they are having a secret internal conference vote. obviously now we are down to six candidates at this point. but every successive round the person that gets the fewest votes is eliminated. that's pretty straightforward. whoever gets the majority first becomes the speaker designee. we are in the middle of that process right now. we are expecting it to be a lengthy day. these votes tend to take a while. grab your popcorn or whatever. it will be a little bit. host: who is emerging at the forefront of the candidates that

are involved? guest: i think what we are seeing at least in the first round was majority whip tom emmer has the most votes. believe he had 78 in the first round. followed breesentative mike johnson, and byron donalds. so this has been the three top vote getters. after that rep kevin hern of oklahoma. we are seeing a khruftering at the -- khr*usering of the -- includessering of the top contenders. how those votes gets distributed as more and more members are eliminated. and whether or not people, i guess, congressman emmer, can get to a majority kphreurbl or if this goes -- sphreurbgsly or if it -- expeditiously or goes down to the wire. host: if a candidate does emerge, what is expected to play out for the remainder of the day? guest: i think as with everything the last couple weeks, things are very much fluid. and in changing my the moment. i think it's entirely possible

we can see a floor vote. one certainly has not been forecast. i think we'll have to see how the mat plays out. this is something where congressman emmer is able to convincingly get a majority that may bolster the chances of folks having a floor vote today. i think it's going to go down to the mass and whether or not we hear any signs of internal discontent. with republicans having such a narrow majority, you can only lose a handful of votes. we have not heard discontent yet. but as we have seen with prior iterations of this battle, it only takes a handful. we'll have to see whether or not that happens f it does, that ma. if it does that may play the vote for speaker. host: if you had to characterize it in em's favorite and what could be a liability?

guest: obviously he's currently in the position of senior leadership. stands apart from a lot of the other contenders. he has helped usher in the house republican majority. he was chair of the nrcc. and again oversaw republicans reclaiming that majority. i think he probably has a lot of buy in from a lot of those districts that flipped in 2022. and house did deliver the republicans majority however narrowly. that's working in his majority. obviously criticism has been whether or not he's sufficiently supportive of former president donald trump. his team has tried to make the case. but he's very much behind the former president. and his agenda. i think that could be something to watch as the day moves forward whether or not conservatives are buying into that line of reasoning he's sufficiently supportive of the

former president. host: we saw how house democrats have played out over the last series of votes, nominating their minority leader for the speaker position. when it comes to mr. emmer, how does he fair amongst democrats? should he emerge to be the speaker designate? guest: very much t.b.d. certainly democrats their message has been very clear. they are very much hakeem jeffries for speaker. that hasn't changed. i think they are waiting to see exactly what emerges from republicans today. certainly there is a lot of appetite from both sides at this point to see the process come to a close. whether or not democrats get to the place where they are willing to support republicans and help get somebody installed into the position of speaker i think remains t.b.d. i think the conditions would have to be right. certainly doesn't seem like congressman emmer or any republican candidates at this

point are prepared to deal or make those conditions. i think we'll have to wait and see. host: when it comes to the tone, do you sense a different tone than what we saw last week? guest: i think one thing we can say confidently, we heard a lot of republicans indicating optimism they would get to speaker decision today. not just within their own conference, but on the floor. whether or not that plays out i think we'll have to wait and see. certainly there have been a lot of false starts and instances where that hasn't played out over the last couple weeks that. could very well happen today. i think there's certainly -- today marks three weeks since we haven't had an elected speaker. i think there is growing appetite to see this process come to an end and get to an end. host: the congressional reporter, find his work at "politico".com.

thanks for your time. republicans, 202-748-8921. democrats, 202-748-892 o 0. others 202-74 #-8922. the house expected to gavel in for a pro forma session at 11:00. we'll take your calls until then. roy, chester, virginia. independent line. thanks for calling. go ahead. caller: thank you. until we get a conservative, a full conservative nominee on the republican side for speaker of the house, we are going to -- we are not going anywhere. a full conservative, reagan, a reagan conservative like i voted. is mike turner of ohio. tim buck of -- ken buck of colorado. michael mccaul of texas. kelly armstrong of north dakota. or mike gallagher of wisconsin. those are true conservative, what the democrats are waiting for. at 210 or 212 democrats for mike

turner or any of those i mentioned. but they are not going to cross the aisle for maga -- maga is not a republican party. it's a party within itself. a maga party. a republican party is a true conservative party. like we had under president reagan. host: carolyn in louisiana. republican line. caller: yes. until they learn to play ball together, they ain't going to do crap. first of all louisiana, we don't play this monkey business they play everywhere else. we go in, we vote. we don't try to steal votes or whatever. but louisiana's got a good guy there. they don't squished out some of the best ones. everybody has skeltons in their closet. i'll tell you one thing, the democrats will stick with democrats. and republicans here lately don't want to do too much of nothing because they want a pity

party like a bunch of women. we are just down home people. we don't like all this crap. we think they need to turn around and do what needs to be done and quit playing fudge ball with everybody and do what needs to be done out there. we need to get this mess straightened out now. host: ok. you heard our guest reference it at the top. chad following up reporting on congress. when it comes to the first round, it's representative tom emmer, member of leadership getting the lead vote with 78. followed by biropbd donalds with 29. and mike johnson, 34. it goes on from there. john -- hear from tiffany. tiffany in california. democrats line. hi. you're next up. caller: hi. i'm in ca-27. i know because i follow garcia. he's one of the 18 republicans who won house district that

biden woman. this is all political. he doesn't care about getting the work done. i extrapolate this to the rest of them. they are concerned about using this to, i hate to agree with the republican, but the first one who spoke, maga republicans are using this to just -- to continue their extremism. it's not about getting any work done. but it's just a waste of everybody's time. they are not concerned that our government may shut down next month. they are not concerned. they are just using this to get re-elected. it's very self-serving. doing damage to the american people. meanwhile, they are out there tweeting and talking about how biden doesn't support israel. how biden is trying to rip off the american people. this has to stop. it's not going to stop as long as they have the majority. what the democrats need to do is use this, and some of their own

tactics on them so they can take back the house and stop the insanity. host: ok. john, john? florida. republican line. you're next. caller: i'm enjoying this in-house fighting. it's exposing a lot of the rino's and how loyal they are to their lobbyists. what the objective is. we need a house speaker. we need a conservative house speaker. and it seems like any of the young bucks, they don't want the young bucks in there like jim jordan and byron donalds. they want the old school swamp creatures. that's it. host: ok. the house set to gavel in about three minutes from now or so. we'll take your calls up until then. charles in maryland on our line for others. charles in maryland, hello. caller: hello.

host: you're on. go ahead. caller: yeah. my question was are you the democrats supposed to -- help the republican elect the speaker. when have the republicans helped democrats elect a speaker. republicans to elect them so they can -- they do not have the tkpwofpt. what are they doing? somebody answer that question for me. host: we are finding out that the republicans are now on their third vote under way. the one who received the least votes gets knocked out. and the ones remaining will go again. it's representative jack bergman, republican of michigan knocked out in that previous vote. that third vote under way. this is just one part of the

process to watch play out as the day goes on. once and if speaker designate emerges from this process, the plan is to take it to the house floor sometime for a vote of the whole house. which we have seen play out several times if you have been watching. up until then we'll take your calls. and we'll continue to do so for -- as we go on. 202-748-8921 for republicans. 202-748-8920 for democrats. and others, 748-8922. you can text us if you wish at 748-8903. post on x, post on facebook, too. house is just about to come in. michael from arkansas. republican line. fast, if you would. caller: yes. thank you for taking my call. everybody's talking about the few republicans that the house

did kevin mccarthy. they forget to mention that if it wouldn't have been for all of the democrats voting to oust him as well, he would still be speaker. he was doing his best to try to work across party lines, which is what the democrats claim they want. then they turn around and they help vote him out. now, they created this mess. i know that the republicans, few republicans that were there helped create this mess. but if we can't decide on a speaker, this is embarrassing. if they can't decide on a congressman, a republican congressman to be speaker of the house, then maybe they need to look outside of the congress. host: i'll leave you there. we take you now to the house of representatives. the unitedtatehoofpresentives.any ud prohibed by the hou of pocal cs the speakeo orhe us will cerdthe prayer will be f aplain