good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. it's january 6th. the anniversary of an insurrection that almost destroyed our democracy. today the white house and the nation commemorate the civilian and law enforcement heroes and the victims of that terrible day, even as the house chamber is no longer a literal battleground, it is now torn apart by political combat. a divide among republican factions creating a new crisis of government. on this date in 2021, lawmakers were wearing gas masks and taking cover as thousands stormed hallways fuelled by former president trump's false claims that the election was stolen. if the house had not chosen a speaker and had not sworn in its members two years ago or two years from now, the electoral college vote would not be counted. america would not have a new president. this hour, there is some

movement according to multiple republican sources with kevin mccarthy giing away more power and picking up some votes. he still does not have the now 217 to close the deal with one member having to fly home. nbc's senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake joins me now. as the house gavels in, it seems kevin mccarthy has made progress towards reaching the votes he needs. what concessions is he making to his opposition? how close could they get on this next vote? >> reporter: progress. but i think this next vote will probably look like deja vu all over again. there's no indication the progress made behind closed doors is sufficient to change any votes just yet. the republicans emerged from this conference call meeting they had this morning largely singing from the same hymnal. they are making progress on an agreement to give some of the speaker's power back to the conference, to allow for broader

diversity of ideological viewpoints on some of the committees, giving seats to freedom caucus members or their allies on committees like the rules committee, the most powerful committee in the house. beyond that, details are sparse. that's part of the challenge here is coming up with the right equation here to balance out the needs of the 200 members who voted for kevin mccarthy consistently and the perhaps 15 or so who might be compelled to do so now. mccarthy is about to come to the floor behind me. mr. leader, how are we feeling today? >> i feel good. i think you are going to see an improvement in the vote today. we have a couple members, unfortunately, out. >> reporter: what can you tell us about this emerging deal you were discussing with your conference earlier today? >> things we have been talking about. i think it makes us stronger. >> reporter: do you feel there's certain -- are you triaging some votes?

do you think there are some members less serious, perhaps, about getting through than others? >> i think everybody wants to get there. they run for office because they want to be able to accomplish things. we will accomplish our commitment to america. >> reporter: do you worry the message this might send to the country that republicans aren't ready to govern? >> no, no. my father told me one thing. it's not how you start, it's how you finish. >> reporter: thank you. there you hear it from kevin mccarthy. it's a lot of the same kinds of things we have been hearing from him the last couple days. he is dug in, trying to project optimism and confidence that he can get there. you heard discussion about the rules package. part of the challenge for mccarthy is, as we have been talking about, congress has to do the speaker vote first and then any rules vote to adopt any disagreement comes second. we talked about the trust deficit he has with some members. they would rather see that rules package locked in first before they would be willing to vote for mccarthy.

it doesn't work that way. convincing the members that an agreement that they discuss behind closed doors is an agreement he will stick to all the way to the end is part of the challenge. i think part of the reason why he is willing to talk about it publically. >> garrett, talk about getting it from the horse's mouth, hearing it from kevin mccarthy as he was walking on the floor. you could see a little bit of progress, as you were reporting from all of your great sources. garrett, stay with us. let's bring in steve kornacki, chief white house correspondent kristin welker, robert gibbs, michael steele and brendan buck. kornacki, let's talk at the big board. 217 because one member had to go home. they still -- he still can only lose four. >> yeah. what he just said to garrett was interesting. if i heard right, he said

there's a couple of members who are out today. we are aware of one whose wife gave birth who had to fly home. we are told ken buck from colorado, who missed a couple votes yesterday, reporting he is coming back today. my understanding was that there would be one absence. if i heard mccarthy right talking to garrett there, he was saying they might be missing a couple. that could complicate the matthew little bit, especially if it's more than one and they have been voting for mccarthy. you could get in a scenario where the threshold gets lowered in terms of what he can afford to lose from four to three. if you get a couple of absences. >> that's assuming -- that's his number, of course. we are assuming, of course, that the democrats are going to hold, that they have their 212. >> yeah. the democrats have on all 11 previous ballots all been present, all voted for hakeem jeffries. as long as they continue doing that, the bottom line is this list -- this is list of the 21 republicans who have not been voting for mccarthy.

20 of them have been voting for somebody else. one of them has been voting present. if the magic number, let's say, is 217 -- this magic number can change depending on absences, if people start voting present, that sort of thing. if the magic number is 217 and you have that one republican who we know of who is not going to be there today and the republicans start out with 221 present and the democrats with 212 present, if all 212 democrats continue voting for jeffries, then, yes, it's four defections at maximum, four voting for somebody else that mccarthy can afford. anything more than that, voting for somebody else and he loses -- what's interesting about this vote, obviously, we are looking to see if anybody has changed their mind. it sounds like the bar is lowering from what we heard last night in terms of expectations from republicans. they vote alphabetically. this list is front loaded with some of the most dug in or

dug-in seeming republican opponents of kevin mccarthy. andy biggs is first up. lauren boebert is the third to vote in terms of those who have been against mccarthy. don't have to get that far down to get to matt gaetz. you are looking at bob good from virginia. good was saying, you never have to ask me the question again. i'm always going to be against kevin mccarthy. if the number there is four that would do him in, that number -- it's not hard to see him reaching that real quick here. the other question is, if he does fail again on this ballot, how much progress has he made? has he made any progress? >> what we are watching, the fact it's front loaded, we will know early. but we are also watching what's happening -- they called for a quorum call. this takes a while. they are stalling for time. they have come out of meetings. they were in meetings last night. brendan, how do you read reports from kevin mccarthy's own comments that they have made progress, maybe narrowing a gap,

but clearly not there yet? >> projecting a little optimism. one thing we know is this is not over today. we can be confident this will continue. the question is, this deal -- we don't know if it's a deal. we know they have been talking about things, putting things on the table. are any of the members biting on it? i have a sense that we're going to see a similar vote to what we saw before. chip roy, congressman from texas leading some of these conversations, has suggested that he wants a global deal where everybody comes along. i don't know if that's possible. you have people who are never going to vote for him. if that's the bar they are setting, he is in big trouble. i think the meeting this morning was important for one reason. that's for kevin mccarthy to keep his people in place. there's a deal being discussed, but he needs to make sure his people aren't ready to back away from him while they're having these conversations. >> if the deal goes over too far towards the freedom caucus on rules and the motion to vacate

being only one and everything else that they are giving away, if they give away subcommittee chairs, things like that, you are taking away from some of kevin mccarthy's stallworths waiting to be a chair and then be told it's going to boebert. >> that's what he was trying to extinguish. he wanted to say, i'm not doing that. i'm going to put some of the people on committees and they may -- maybe they didn't earn the right. they haven't put in time. that's going to cause some angst. he told people, i'm working on it. >> we are about to hear the gavel come down. let's listen to what the clerk is saying. >> the chair counts 275 members present. a quorum is present.

>> let's see if she goes to a nomination. >> the question occurs upon the election of a speaker. the tellers will please come forward and take their seats. >> brendan, as they get organized with the tellers who are counting along with the congressional members counting along with the clerk so everybody knows they are on the same count, as i was saying, if it goes into the weekend, isn't that just not only a bad look, but you are delaying the payroll for another week. nobody is being paid. staff isn't being paid. they can't go to intelligence meetings and there's no -- i was asking this question at the state department yesterday. there's no critical issue right now. but you don't have key players, because there's no member of the house. >> the longer this goes, the more pressure points are going to pop up, things congress is expected to be doing. that's something kevin mccarthy

is hoping puts pressure on some of the people. there's no question this will last into the weekend. the question is whether they are voting into the weekend. kevin mccarthy has a strategic question. does he keep them here in voting or does he try to come up with some deal where they can break for the weekend? send people home. i don't know he wants to do that. i don't think he wants to give people a breather. he needs maximum pressure. you get into a tricky situation in weekends where you don't know who will show up. you have people on the republican and the democratic side who may just not be able to be there over the weekend. that's a reality you always have. keeping perfect attendance is very difficult. sometimes you have big votes and you want to make sure everybody is there. those only happen every few months. here you have big votes several times every day, making sure your attendance is perfect is difficult to do. if he loses some of his allies, it could have a meaningful impact on this. >> i rise to nominate kevin mccarthy for speaker of the house. [ applause ]

>> the gentleman is recognized. >> this is what we have seen, speeches, nominating speeches each day. we will follow. >> kevin is a good man, a man of god, a patriot, a leader who led this conference to our current majority over the last four years. those things are unassailable. this isn't about him. this isn't about kevin mccarthy. i put no single human being on a pedestal and certainly not before god and not before the gift that he has blessed us with with this grand experiment that we call the united states of america. this isn't about kevin mccarthy. but the matters before us are of stupendous magnitude.

a federal republic such as ours, it's a dynamically unstable one. it's a wobbly top that's just a few mere revolutions away from falling down at any given moment. except for the exertions of men and women willing to serve her with pure and selfless intent, just as our founding fathers did, just abraham lincoln and ronald reagan did with pure and selfless intent. as our nation today and over the last two years has seen, we are certainly a wobbly top. today we have a southern border that's wide open. as a result of that and our executive branch policies, today 200 fellow americans will die of fentanyl poisoning and roughly 5,000 illegally immigrants will be victims of human smuggling. today our nation's debt is $31 trillion, and that will go up just in this day alone by roughly $2.1 billion.

today we are seeing one of the worst crime spikes in our nation's history, our law enforcement are underfunded. they are hurting. on that topic, i want to thank our law enforcement. i want to thank the capitol hill police for what they do. we thank them not only for what they have done -- [ applause ] our police serve with that pure and selfless intent. they do it every day. we should thank them every day.

today the chinese communist party will orchestrate theft of intellectual property from american companies. they are still not being held accountable for the deaths of millions of people around this planet. deaths as a result of a genocide within their borders and deaths as a result of covid outside them. we are today losing on multiple fronts against china. today isn't about a single human being. it's not about kevin mccarthy. it's about the 13 gold star families who still suffer today without closure and without accountability after the unnecessary loss of their loved ones in afghanistan over a year ago. today, speaking of our military, today, roughly 40 active duty and veterans of our military will commit suicide. these are the matters of stupendous magnitude.

this isn't about a man in a suit in the halls of congress. it's about 330 million americans. it's about the preservation of the constitution and the liberties guaranteed therein. it's about the 246 years of pride and providence we have enjoyed as a nation. above all things, it's about ensuring that this beautiful journey exists for generations to come. that doesn't happen if we don't address and rise above the multiple existential crises that we experience today. we must be victorious in this cause. victory begins with allowing this body to get to work. it begins today. winning isn't easy. okay? winning isn't easy. but winning is necessary. i know that winning isn't easy. i represent a district where only 29% of my voters are registered in the same party as i. i engage and i communicate with

the other 71% because it's the only way that we all win. in the end, it's the only way that the nation wins. it ain't easy, but it's necessary. the noble wins, the most important wins never are easy. we take on these missions as passionately at colonel chamberlain did. we must hold this line because if we don't hold this line, the entire union is at stake. we don't hold the majority for bragging rights. we hold the majority to govern responsibly. we hold the majority to protect the american people, to coalesce around the foundational constitutional principals that i have been willing to give my life to defend since the age of 18. my democrat colleagues across the aisle, i want to make sure you understand and make no mistake, we are, in fact, on the verge of a very important

victory. a victory for the people, a victory by the people and most importantly, a victory for the future of our nation. it dawns on me as i look across the aisle, after being here nearly three years, i haven't had the pleasure of meeting many of you because you have chosen to stay home and not vote here in person, electing instead to proxy vote. >> the member elects is reminded to direct his remarks to the chair. >> it's a pleasure to see 212 of you here today. it's also a pleasure to see the end of the proxy voting. let me end with this. let me end with this. i'm extremely proud of my colleagues on this side of the aisle. the last four days, they haven't been ideal. they have been difficult.

i do see fighters. i see patriots who love this country and want to make things better. i see folks who are willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we better serve the nation. i see men and women who are willing to serve her with that pure and selfless intent, even if that service means undergoing the dentistry that we have experienced over the last four days and in the wake of the last 20 meetings over the last two months. let me be clear. these are not concessions to the rules. these are critical evolution of the rules for the good of the nation. i'm proud that we as a party have decided and been willing to extend the time so we can get to a solution, a product of compromise, but also a product that will fix the ills induced by the democrat majority over the last four years. this product will hopefully end the multifacetted legacy of

toxic behavior in the swamp. this isn't about kevin mccarthy. it's not about the 434 members in this chamber. it's about the 330 million americans across this beautiful land. it's about our nation's future. the person who will lead us on that journey will be kevin mccarthy. he has earned this position. i have the honor of nominating him at the direction of the republican conference as the speaker of the house of the 118th congress. god bless the united states. [ applause ] >> for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? >> madam clerk, i rise to nominate my friend, colleague and leader of the house democratic caucus, hakeem jeffries, for speaker of the

united states -- >> the gentleman is recognized. [ applause ] >> madam clerk, i want to begin by thanking you for your contribution to maintaining the dignity and honor of this body. the eyes of the country -- [ applause ]

the eyes of the country are on us today. let us consider what they will remember. i often refer to this hall as america's classroom. the proceedings we undertake in this body and our actions should serve as lessons for those who may be watching and are listening. hopefully, that which they see and hear will help them gain understanding and appreciation for the greatness of america and the goodness of the american people. this body has a unique role in this government. what we do and how we do it will determine whether our pursuit toward a more perfect union can continue in ernest.

no day in recent history underscores the importance of that pursuit more than january 6, 2021. exactly two years ago today, our resolve was tested with a violent mob of insurrectionists attacking our capitol. threatened the integrity of this democracy and undermined our constitution. the greatness of this country and the resdil -- resiliency of our democracy was put at peril. but we survived. the preamble of the constitution explains that the document was established in part to secure the blessings of liberty. not just for ourselves, but also

to posterity. every two years the american people evaluate our stewsteward and render a verdict. last november, they invested their time and resources going to the polls and casting their votes. they expect and should get a just return on their investments. for a minute, maybe most americans, this is only investment they will ever make to help preserve the greatness of this country. for the first time in over 200

years, after 11 rounds of voting, we are unable to organize and begin to work on behalf of those who elected us to serve. democrats are offering a candidate for speaker, hakeem jeffries, who is not just prepared to lead, but committed to preserving this democracy and enhancing this body. madam clerk, there is some dispute among historians as to whether it was said. but i consider it to be true regardless. america is great because she is

good. if america ceases to be good, america will cease to be great. the greatness of america lies in the goodness that exists within the american people. today the greatness of our nation hangs in the balance because the goodness of the american people is at stake. we democrats are offering the people of america, through this unique body, a good man who has the best interests of the american people at heart and is committed to preserving the fundamental principals that make this country great. madam clerk, i am honored to carry out the directives of the house democratic caucus and submit to this body the name of

hakeem jeffries to be speaker of the united states house of representatives. [ applause ] >> he is an esteemed leader. veteran of the civil rights movement. very close to john lewis, himself a great civil rights leader. had seniority over jeffries but stepped aside in the interests of collegiality and having the younger generation take over. he, hoyer and nancy pelosi all stepped aside. >> what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? >> to submit a name for the position of speaker of the house. >> the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you. my colleague from california

knows the high regard i hold him in. he is a patriot. i deeply, deeply admire him. i must take some exception with some of the comments he made in his nomination of mr. mccarthy. first he said mr. mccarthy earned the position. you only earn the position of speaker of the house if you can get the votes. mr. mccarthy doesn't have the votes today. he will not have the votes tomorrow. he will not have the votes next week, next month, next year. so one must wonder, madam clerk, is this an exercise in vanity for someone who has done the math, taken the counts and is putting this institution through something that absolutely is avoidable? my colleague mr. garcia did not say this. many of my other republican colleagues have. they believe that mr. mccarthy earned the position of speaker of the house because he raised

half a billion dollars to get republicans elected. >> you are not going to bring anyone -- >> order. >> the gentleman is not recognized. members are reminded not to engage in personalities against other members of the house. >> several believe that one earns the position of speaker by raising enormous sums of money. there's no doubt that the individual that was nominated by mr. garcia is the lebron james of special interest fund-raising in this town. there's nobody better. i would suggest that there are qualifications for speaker far more important, attributes more important. jim jordan has those. i am submitting his name for nomination at this time.

i heard my colleague from california, mr. garcia, say that we seek pure selfless intent. i could not agree more with that assessment. mr. jordan, indeed, is reflective of pure, selfless intent. i don't know that the same can be said for the republican alternative. let's start with purity. many of you have seen the reports that there are negotiations to determine whether or not on this side of the aisle there can be a deal. a meeting of the minds. a grand bargain that would allow us to proceed with the speakership. i want all of my colleagues to know, regardless of your perspective on me, how impure some of those negotiations have gone. i want the country to know. the principle goal of the people who are objecting to mr. mccarthy on the republican side is that we don't believe the rules of this place unlock the potential of all of the members to be able to cast a vote on

individual bills and to offer amendments on appropriations acts. we're also concerned about spending that has ballooned our debt and borrowed against the future generations of american citizens. mr. mccarthy said, goodness, to the objectors, why do you want to be on the oversight and judiciary committee and you never submit your name to be on the rules or appropriations committee? if you get a list of folks willing to come early on fly-in days for rules and folks willing to take on the extra burden of our appropriators who work so hard, then i will certainly work do that. so we endeavored in good faith to create that list. what did mr. mccarthy do? he went out to the media and came to other members of the conference and said, see, they just want jobs for themselves. that is not pure selflessness. selflessness is not selling shares of yourself to the lobby

core and doing their building at the expense of the american people. but there certainly is intent. it's an intent drivedriven by ambition. i'm nominating mr. jordan. there's insufficient trust in kevin mccarthy. there are some who have been objecting to mr. mccarthy who are working on perhaps changes to the rules, changes to circumstance that would convert the speakership from the great, awesome, powerful position it is now to more of a ceremonial position, almost akin to the speaker in the british house of commons. i referred to it previously as a straight jacket that some of us were trying to construct with better rules and better personnel because we do not trust mr. mccarthy with power.

we know who he will use it for. we are concerned it will not be for the american people. we trust jim jordan. i nominate him and i'm going to vote for him. >> that was about as personal an attack as is ever heard on the house floor. now we have lauren boebert. of course, what matt gaetz did was violate a number of house rules be being personal. 20 or 30 people walked out. boebert has nominated kevin hern. these are among the original group of mccarthy opponents. let's go back to hear what boebert is having to say. mccarthy has clearly not made headway with this group. we will keep listening. >> i believe kevin hern will be a fighter for our national debt.

i get texts on a regular basis how inflation is hurting families, how grocery prices are skyrocketing continuously. he has crafted a budget that balances and will bring that to the floor to help the american people. madam clerk, i nominate kevin hern as speaker. thank you. >> the reading clerk will call the roll. >> the roll is now being called. we will see how many people, if any, kevin mccarthy has picked up. he has indicated to our correspondents, garrett haake, even today that he thought there might be change, but not enough, garrett, in his interview with you today, but not enough to be over today. >> reporter: i don't think there's any indication this will be over today.

he did say that he expects to see movement in the vote today. my colleagues keeping eyes on all corners of the chamber have seen him talking with some of the other folks who are potentially part of that faction against him who could be flipped. most notably, chip roy. it's a late in the alphabet name, but it's one i'm watching closely. he has had the most substantive complaints about mccarthy. he has been most directly involved in negotiating with mccarthy and his allies. in the last 24 hours, he has had the least to say of any in the faction. usually when a member clams up like that, it means negotiations are more serious. he is one i'm watching. the other dynamic we saw play out on the floor is that during that speech by matt gaetz, which would have violated a number of house rules were house rules in effect right now -- you did see the clerk gaveling down to remind him to direct remarks to the chair. you saw a lot of commotion around that. a huge number of -- i think more than 20 or 30 house republicans walk off the floor.

they didn't leave. they are in the cloak room. but they left the floor in protest. they didn't want to sit there and listen to that. i think there's a sign perhaps that the matt gaetz show is getting old for republicans. perhaps even some who would otherwise be his ideological ally. there's no up side if you think this eventually goes to mccarthy to be slamming him in such personal terms on the house floor, on national television. gaetz probably the lead and most intractable member of the never kevin club today, tomorrow and into next week, next month or next year. >> michael steele also with us. we are awaiting -- some of the people are among the important opponents, the original five. i want to bring you in. i'm going to interrupt you when we get to andy biggs. biggs is the next -- hang on one second. let's listen to hear.

>> biggs. jordan. >> we will hang and listen to what congressman election bishop says. >> bishop of georgia. jeffries. bishop of north carolina. mccarthy. [ applause ] >> that's a switch. steve kornacki at the board, bishop of north carolina just switched. there's a standing ovation. switched to mccarthy. he previously had been donalds and jim jordan. steve? >> you could see it on the list right here. this is the second anti-mccarthy vote that's been called who has

been voting against mccarthy. dan bishop of north carolina who yesterday put into nomination the name of byron donalds, this is the first time in all of these ballots we have seen anybody voted against kevin mccarthy switch over and vote for mccarthy. you can see boebert, cloud, clyde -- boebert voting against mccarthy. two votes against mccarthy. he can afford four. we will see here the next series of names here. i think cloud is about the 75 called. see if there's more flips. did bishop start something? >> we know boebert, she was putting in jim jordan's name. brecheen just voted mccarthy. >> we are 40 votes away.

cloud and clyde are basically next to each other. one name in between them. in 40 votes, you will get to cloud and clyde almost immediately after that. very interesting to see if they both go for mccarthy. after that you have eli crane. he voted against adjournment two nights ago. he has been one of the more anti-mccarthy. byron donalds, his name has been in nomination. you have gaetz after that. you know how he is voting. really cloud and clyde coming up next are very, very crucial for mccarthy, if he wants to show progress. we are probably 30 names away from them. you do have one, two votes again mccarthy. if crane and donalds -- five vote against mccarthy, he lost. but he is showing progress. >> you would have bob good of

virginia as well. let me -- i will get back to you as we get closer to clyde -- to cloud and clyde. michael steele, pick it up from there. we are beginning to see a shift, at least two of those who voted against him prominently now with mccarthy. >> if all things remain the same and these two are the only two, he is back to 202. he is not back to where he was on the first day of voting, from the first vote. the bottom line is, yes, this is progress. you are not out of the race by the time you get to the fifth vote in the count. the reality is, there's still a large hill for him to climb. just how much more can be done on the deal cutting side to bring those other votes along? you have to get to 218. right now, you are sitting -- assuming all the other votes remain the same -- at 202 from

the 200 you started this ballot with. >> you have, of course, congressman elect hunt who had to return to texas where his wife had a baby. he tweeted out that there's some medical complications that he needs to be with his wife. the magic number so far as we know is 217, not 218. you can afford to lose only four. as we listen closely to the roll call -- we are watching it. you have kornacki's board up there. want to go back to garrett. you are beginning to see a little bit of the cement cracking around the opposition. >> reporter: a little bit. said directly by kevin mccarthy that he thought you would see movement in his direction on this vote. indeed, he has. it's notable who he has. dan bishop who was one of the earliest anti-mccarthy opponents. made his opposition clear from the outset. in fact, as steve pointed out,

put byron donalds into nomination yesterday. >> cloud switched to mccarthy. now it's three. >> reporter: that's going to change. bresheen is one voting -- >> clyde is coming up next. >> clyde. mccarthy. >> that's four. >> reporter: we watched yesterday as kevin mccarthy sat on the floor with andrew clyde for some time during one of the vote series listening. i didn't see mccarthy talk during that exchange. the two men spent time on the floor talking. mccarthy listening to what clyde had to say. mccarthy's supporters talk about that. he has a good feel for his conference. he listens to them.

it may have helped him out here. i was talking about bresheen. he is one of the freshman votes here. one of the new members. has never been in congress before. he was a surprise to those of us watching this that he would be a no vote against mccarthy in the first place. he is one of four. if you look at the four freshmen, they have had the hardest time articulating -- >> hold on. >> reporter: crane stays with hern. they have had a hard time articulating their issues with mccarthy. perhaps they thought it was someone else, but if they think it's mccarthy, they might go. we will see about the other two. >> let me go back to steve kornacki. garrett set the table for us. you have four switches. what's the new math? >> you have three as well,

biggs, boebert and crane continuing to vote against mccarthy. you know where gaetz is going to go. his name is coming up. that will be four against mccarthy. if everybody is voting, the most mccarthy can afford in terms of defection is four. that's going to be interesting. donalds initially, first two ballots, way back, voted for mccarthy. then his name was placed in nomination by other republicans. he has been a candidate in some of the elections. what does donalds do when his name is called? we are four or five away. if donalds does not vote for mccarthy, then gaetz will be called and that would be five defections. mccarthy would lose. the question is, how many more does he flip after that? >> we are three away.

the others were proposing jordan this time, not donalds. >> donalds. mccarthy. >> there it is. >> donalds voted for mccarthy. he is back to where he was on the first two roll calls, steve kornacki. >> now, gaetz is going to be coming up. we are about -- we got about 25 to go before gaetz. that's the next no vote. we know that gaetz is going to be voting for jim jordan. he nominated him. one, two, three -- gaetz will be the fourth vote for somebody other than mccarthy. what will happen then is, we will go to the next part of the list. the next name up will be bob good. bob good has said yesterday, you never have to ask me the question again. i'm always anti-mccarthy.

assuming he sticks to that word, when you get to bob good, mathematically, that's five anti-mccarthy. assuming all the democrats vote for hakeem jeffries again, at that point mccarthy will be unable to win on this the 12th ballot. but the question here had been progress. one, two, three, four, five so far he has won over. previously, on previous 11 ballots, he won nobody over. he has won five. once you get past good -- andy harris is somebody, let's keep an eye. let's see how many more he flips over. >> garrett has news. >> reporter: a couple things. for your math purposes, we believe there are three republican absences today. ken buck, who we saw. wesley hunt. i'm not sure who the third is. that's our operating count is three republican absences. i will let you work on that.

the other thing this does with donalds joining with the pro-mccarthy folks, it shows anti-mccarthy folks don't have a consensus candidate. jim jordan doesn't want to be speaker. he made that clear. his name has been in contention before. hern does not want to be speaker. his name has been in contention. they are split. it weakens the anti-mccarthy position. the other thing to watch, mccarthy has by my math -- he has enough votes to adjourn after that. if he keeps those folks voting for him and they decide it's in their best interest to call it a day or a weekend so they can finish negotiations, he should have enough with him to do that. he does not have to keep rolling on the floor and losing votes. >> gaetz nominated jordan. he just voted for jordan. we are getting -- we are getting close to bob good of virginia. >> yeah. if what garrett said is right, if there are three republicans

missing and three mccarthy supporters, total number possible votes, 431. 216 is the magic number in that situation. in that situation, if they were three mccarthy voters, he is -- he would be -- 222, three not show thing up, 219, 218, 217, 216, he would be under that. if there are three mccarthy supporting republicans absent, if that's the case, the magic number is 216 and his maximum is 215. he would be short. again, the question becomes progress. garrett is saying about the ability to get a motion to adjourn, the ability to leave this ballot saying -- they would love to get through and say, we flipped half. we flipped something in the order of more than half as you look at the rest of the names to come. good is a very tough one for them. could harris flip?

>> let's listen for bob good. >> good of virginia. jordan. >> bob good of virginia is with jim jordan who as garrett pointed out does not want the job. they don't have a consensus. you can't beat something with nothing, which is something we know as a rule of thumb in politics. there are five who have switched so far. let me bring in -- five defectors as well as five who have switched. let's bring in robert gibbs who knows a little something about politics, having elected a president a couple of times. robert, this is the kind of drama we have not seen in a long time. it's a drama with a lot of implications for the future of our democracy and the future of

any speaker who picks up the ball. if it's not going to be mccarthy, whoever any consensus candidate might be will also be stuck, if you will, with the same concessions that he has made. >> i think the question on everybody's mind is mccarthy or somebody else who is elected speaker, can they govern the house? can they govern this body? can they pass appropriations bills, an increase in the debt limit and the debt ceiling? how does that work? that's very much up in the air. it's clear mccarthy has made progress today. i doubt we will end the day with a new speaker. the real question is going to be when these votes happen, are are the never kevin caucus s that caucus ever going to break. are those votes ever going to be enough to elect him.

that's what this vote will begined to. we'll get a sense is it four or five or ten and then is that really breakable? >> and garrett haake, do you know whether the three missing republicans are mccarthy supporters? >> he's kind of gone off the reservation a little bit to float alternative theories that might have made the allies nervous. wesley hunt, a new member from houston, who just had a baby is on his way home to see his wife there. and and and apparently tending afuneral in oklahoma this weekend had to get back. three mccarthy votes. one in nomination himself, which speaks to the kientd of unseriousness of the fact that he was placed in nomination. he was not intending to be here. >> as we watch this and break

away as some of these changes do occur, kristen welker, our chief white house correspondent is at the white house with a white house that is really looking forward to whoever becomes speaker, not having the power to get things to the floor without amendments and new power for the freedom caucus subjected to the debt ceil asking other things that the white house is going to need. >> there's no doubt about that as they try to get pieces of legislation passed in this new year, the white house obviously watching these proceedings quite closely. but really keeping their cards close to the vest as well. president biden commented on this situation a few days ago calling on the house to get it done. on house republicans to elect the speaker so they can move forward with the business of washington. so they can swear in lawmakers. at the same time, this president is going to create a split screen. he's going to try to keep the

focus on january 6th. let will be holding a ceremony at the white house awarding the presidential citizens medal to law enforcement officials, election official who is he will say really helped to uphold democracy on january 6th when the capitol was under attack. they include jocelyn benson, the secretary of state of michigan, rusty bowers, who served as house speaker, and so that will be the split screen here. it fits into a broader narrative by this president, who has said that he wanted to run for office. he is in office if he runs for reelection, it will be core to that as well that he believes this moment is a fight for the soul of the nation. so i think you will see him try to keep the focus on january 6th.

>> what you're seeing is an ovation on the floor for hakeem jeffries who are a has this united backing from his party. he has just voted for himself. by the way, i also want to point out that harry dunn and daniel hodges were also getting the civilian medals today. interestingly, two women from georgia, who suffered so terribly, the two volunteers who were election volunteers and without any blame to themselves where there wasn't any fraud became vilified by their entire community with all kinds of threats against them. so that list that the president is going to be going through today of civilian honors is

their way, the white house way of kmem rating january 6th, even as this is going on. the counterpoint is extraordinary. michael steele, we want to bring you back this to talk about what this means about the republican party, the factionalism is not shotgun that's going to be easily healed. >> it's not. and i think it's going to be important while republicans are standing up and cheering, the folks that are being flipped, it's probably mccarthy will survive this. but he will be a woefully weakened speaker leading a caucus where good 20 some are not soully and wholly behind him. there's going to be a lot of pressure from outside the caucus across the country from base republicans. who as i have seen on my twitter feed and elsewhere are saying hold the line. so the factionalism will result

in a real stagnation of governance. it's going to be very hard when we get the debt ceiling conversations and other big-ticket items for this republican congress to have to figure out how to navigate with a democratic president and a democratic senate the pressure on mccarthy's leadership is going to be huge and not having been able to demonstrate that leadership so far in 12 ballots gives you a sense of what the next 18 months are going to look like. >> robert gibbs, as we talk about january 6th, i wanted to read a list of the number of house members, house republican members who are involved in some way on january 6th as the committee wanted to reach out to, they want theed to subpoena, but could not get them to testify. you're talking about people who were involved in in a lot of the

planning before, during or after. we're talking about paul gosar, scott perry, mike lee, senator lindsey graham, kevin mccarthy, who was on the phone with the president and did not want to share any of those communications. jim jordan, andy biggs, matt gaetz, marjorie taylor greene, so these were people who had been potential witnesses and refused to cooperate with the january 6th committee. we should also talk about some of the other proceedings and civilian medals of honor. from the president today, brian sicknick posthumously, harry dunn, caroline edwards, the first law enforcement officer

injured. as well as eugene goodman, who redirected the mob away from some key senators and away from the vice president. mike fino networks. let's listen for congresswoman elect luna. >> mccarthy. >> she just switched to mccarthy. steve kornacki, she's a former model and was once an obama supporter. >> freshman congresswoman-elect. she's from an area that charlie crist, the democrat use odd to represent. there were big changes to the

map and she just got elected. what this means is that 12, there are 12 previous mccarthy opponents, folks who had been voting against mccarthy who have cast votes. of those 12, 6 of them have switched to kevin mccarthy. paul gosar from arizona did not record a vote when his name was called. what will happen is when they get to the end of the roll call, the folks will come back around. we're still waiting to hear on gosar. 12 have voted. 6 have continued to vote against mccarthy. if there's a subsequent vote today based on that recording, he said -- >> mccarthy. >> casting a vote for himself. the three republican absences are, they are three republican who is have voted for mccarthy on every single ballot. so republicans started with 222

votes. it those three are absent, republicans have 219. democrats have 212 in the chamber. that adds up to 431. the magic number there would be 216. meaning that with those three absences in any scent vote, mccar thi now can only afford to have three defections. so while he's made significant progress here, and we'll see if he continues to make progress with the rest of the names called, keep in mind as you look at this list, to win today with who is in the chamber, he can only have three defections. you see who has continued to defect. boebert, crane, gaetz, bob good, andy harris, three with the math right now is the max he can afford. >> steve kornacki, it certainly looks as though he's shown some momentum, as he told garrett haake on the