let's bring in today's political panel, with me terry holt former aid to john boehner and america publicfairs managing director and kevin walling, democratic strategy and former biden surrogate. gentlemen, welcome. so let's start senate side of the capitol. even with the runoff in georgia democrats have held the majority, what's the impact? >> it's a huge impact and we will fight for every vote in georgia because the 50-50 senate power sharing, reporting from the capitol, mike, if we flip that one senate seat, we get democratic majorities on each of the senate committees, that means more judicial appointments passed by the biden administration, by that senate, that means more promiddle class legislation coming out of the senate that will take to the house and fight it out there. so this is an important distinction made last night with that nevada call and the four weeks sprint that we have in georgia. mike: terry, on the republican side there were great hopes of winning in nevada, hopes about potentially winning in pennsylvania, they'll be plenty of time for finger pointing, but in your

maybe even some of the surviving moderates -- house speaker kevin mccarthy legs john -- like john boehner is going to have to do a lot of navigating to keep the conference together. when they thought they might have 230 seats, he had more margin for error. now he is not an will probably face some kind of challenge for speaker. you've got to forget your way to 218 your majority is hovering around 218 -- figure out your way to 218 when your majority is hovering around 218. joe biden is not likely to sign many bills out of the republican house. the senate is closely divided. republicans will still be able to filibuster most legislation. republicans holding the house means that reconciliation, the main way they were getting around filibusters to past weeks ending bills, is effectively off the table. not much can happen aside from 2020 for messaging. over the next couple of years -- the big thing for the president retaining the senate is viewed should be able to fill vacant seats in the cabinet and dish area as long as he can get unanimous democratic support. host: brenda, pennsylvania, democr

i drove to the office immediately, got on a conference call with colleagues in john boehner's office, and the congressional and senatorial committees, we talked about the proper ways to respond and what we would do to quell in mixed company, loud mouths and bomb throwers, we use other language in private so make sure we're unifying and saying the good and smart things. fast forward to what we've just seen, we've seen a lot of republicans, not all of them, but enough, are making it as a week time and things like that are absolutely beyond the pale. and this is my concern. it always gets worse and it's going to continue to get worse. so far, we've been lucky in that nothing truly awful has happened that none of them have died. it may be on a republican, it maybe a democrat, or spin all of us to the point of unraveling. >> i want to talk about the republican attrition on this but i do want to talk about the bus tour launch. it wasn't like political violence was a fantasy. we played that sound in 2009 saying she was worried about the anti-rhetoric party. the tea party was on the upswing.

another is a motion to vacate, ease by mark meadows famously to oust john boehner. they could put it to test at any given moment whether or not someone has 218 votes. i don't think mccarthy will necessarily agree to that one, but there are others he could agree to. i think that is probably where the deal lies. this congress and the next congress are meeting in the next few days. host: does that deal come together by tomorrow when this internal conference happens or before the floor vote on the first of the new congress, where he would need 218? >> i think the real deadline is the latter. we saw others coming out strongly for mccarthy. i think he has clearly locked up half of his conference. the big question is this remaining margin. host: walter in indiana, republican, good morning. caller: good morning, sir. thank you for taking my call and thank you to the gentleman to be there to give their input to people's questions. i think this is basically politics. poly in latin means many. and takes our bloodsucking creatures. if i took a republican and my house and left t

i went through this, you know -- i didn't personally, but i covered when john boehner went through this and the elements and his party came after him, and paul ryan, too. that was in the good old days. i think kevin mccarthy might be careful what he wishes for with this republican house. >> we've seen this movie before with john boehner, paul ryan. >> that's right. >> and, joe, let me ask you about president biden. this past week has been a good week for democracy, decency and dark brandon, i think. forgive me if that reference is going over your head. maybe we're too old to get some of these things from the young voters. the speculation about whether or not the president will run again in 2024, i suppose that will continue. and he gives the same answer about that. let me get your comment on the other side. >> look, my intentions, i said in the beginning, is that i would run again. but it's just an intention. i have not made a formal decision. but it's my intention. my intention to run again. my intention is i will run again. but i'm a great respecter of fate. >> what do you think, joe?

that democrats have done. >> it wasn't an impossibility for republicans to sign on when john boehneraid no. it was completely political. >> to get any kind of comprehensive immigration reform you're, not going to get the far left, you're not going to get the far right, and that's more than fine. >> our going to have to do a lot more money for border security, finish trump's wall perhaps and legalize the undocumented in this country and get a pathway to citizenship, but work visas. >> they want legal status. >> george w. bush tried to pass this and he got attacked from the right. >> that's right. >> so let's not forget that piece of this puzzle too. >> in sanctuary cities, by the way, has never for democrats been a solution. it has been something that has been necessary because immigrants have been attacked so horrifically in so many of these places that they had to come up with something so that there would actually -- >> had they been temporary, there has been a long time to solve this. >> well, because sanctuary cities -- >> s.e. and they will -- >> that's exactly my point. >> they

in 2030 2013 was john boehner that -- because i cannot have this past with majority democratic votes. you all remember donald trump had the opportunity to be a transformational president on comprehensive immigration reform and he was looking at a deal where he -- -- -- chuck schumer offered him for that deal. -- you guys were talking about him earlier? stephen miller. and he said, absolutely not. -- shut the door, it was republicans, democrats, who have always been of the table to get this done and that's what we need to do. >> and yet the narrative, as you well know, and maybe you have something to say about this, is that democrats don't care about the border, vice president kamala harris who is tasked with it, republicans paint her as being asleep at the switch. so, what has gone wrong here? >> i think that immigration has become too valuable a wedge issue for both parties to actually solve it. there is not a reason we cannot solve our immigration problems. but closed borders and kids in cages? that is not a policy solution. nor are sanctuary cities. that's not a policy solution eit

failed to become speaker in 2015 after john boehner resigned. some republicans were looking for a reason to oppose mccarthy. it became the moment that sank mccarthy's bid for speaker. >> everybody thought hillary clinton was unbeatable, right? but we put together a benghazi special committee. >> critics believe mccarthy said the quiet part out loud. benghazi committee. republicans used that remarks as justification to oppose him. gop leadership elections are next week. full house votes for speaker in january. harris. >> harris: chad, thank you very much. doug collins former republican georgia congressman. that's an important state today. jose, former dnc deputy press secretary. great to see you both. let's talk about the speaker of the house situation. jose, if what we're seeing take shape continues to and republicans take power in the house, what happens to nancy pelosi? she won't be speaker anymore. what's next? >> that is a decision she has to make whether she wants to try to position herself as the minority leader. >> harris: do you think sh

those rules that made it easy to push out a speaker those existed when john boehner was speaker, and because of those rules that is why he stepped down because he was concerned he was going to be ousted by the right flank of his conference. so the right flank of kevin mccarthy's conference wants similar power over the speakership, and mccarthy is not willing to go there. so those are issues they have to negotiate behind the scenes. we'll get a first taste how this starts to play out next week when the house members return to washington. they'll have internal conference meetings, nominate their candidate for speaker, mccarthy will nominate that speaker but doesn't mean he'll get to 218 on the house floor in january, that's 218 votes out of the full house. those are questions he'll have to sort out over the next few months winning over that right flank and not doing something that could make him even more vulnerable in the speakership. >> yeah, incredible day and another long day for you, manu. thank you so much for making the time, manu raju in d.c. >> thanks, michael. >>> we want to

i respect john boehner and he was an institutionalist. he would walk around super frustrated with the tea party back in those days, and he has called for language so i'm not going to repeat his language, but he was frustrated with them. ultimately he left. paul ryan, an institutionalist wanted to do policy. got run down. if kevin mccarthy can get 218 votes, you know, is he going to be the ring leader of that circus? i don't know, but they're not talking about lowering gas prices. they're not talking about making the price of milk more accessible and addressing inflation. they're talking about investigations. that's not what the american public wants. there's a reason why we did very well in this election cycle. we didn't quite get to the majority, but if they don't address those things and it's just a circus in town, we will do very well in 2024, and think about, you know, the lead clown in donald trump just announced that he's going to run for president. he is going to hold them hostage or at least tear them apart as a caucus and demand

we saw that with obama and john boehner tried to come to middle grounds on things. john boehner wanted to be somebody who would compromise and find ways to get things done. that's not the current incentive structure. for kevin mccarthy coming in with the narrowest majoriies and donald trump running for the white house, there's zero areas of compromise. the republicans won't have the ability to pass legislation because they don't have the senate. they will try to force things into appropriations bills that have to be signed. you risk closing the government. there will be a lot of that going on. >> how significant, peter, is the changing of the guard on the democratic side? jim clyburn is moving down a notch, reportedly he wants the number four leadership position. writing today, he looks forward to, quote, doing whatever i can to assist our new generation of democratic leaders, which i hope to be hakeem jeffries and katherine clark. >> it's a moment of generational change. we have seen the same group of leaders on both sides of the aisle for quite a while. now nancy

but keep in mind, it's different than it was in 2000, i think it was 15, when john boehner left.in the freedom caucus that there were other people who could effectively be the speaker. we thought kevin mccarthy was one of those people at the time, it turned out that wasn't the case. but we knew paul ryan was a candidate, and believe it or not, this doesn't get a lot of attention. trey -- votes to be speaker as well if he chose to run. i'm not sure if there's anybody else in the house who could get the votes. keep in mind, right now, with the slim margin, let's say it's a five vote margin, any group of six house members could prevent kevin mccarthy from being speaker. by the same token, kevin mccarthy and five other of his friends can prevent anybody else from being speaker. that's the dynamic i think that's lost on a lot of people. so i think kevin's gonna be the speaker? yes. i think he's the only one who can actually get 218 votes. will he have to give up a lot of the maga wing of the party, to the freedom caucus? yes he will. but i do think he will be speaker, and i think will

>> you have to wonder how much he really wants the job under these circumstances, i recall the john boehner of the tea party within the gop, that controlling this was like herding cats. >> that is right, but, i think he was a different kind of speaker. i remember he was a charge when i first came to the house, i went to his office and sat across from him to get to know him while he smoked a cigarette in my face. but, at the end of the day he was someone who cared about the institution. he genuinely cared about the institution. i think he still cares about the institution of the house of representatives. i think that kevin mccarthy cares most about the institution of him being speaker. he just wants to be speaker. and, he will take that job at any cost. that is what we are seeing play out, as these far-right members make terrible demands on the speaker that i think, ultimately, will hurt them when it comes time for reelection. >> your assessment there of john boehner brings me to the seismic event, really, this week, with speaker nancy pelosi stepping down from house democratic leadership. i

john boehner and paul ryan, both who brendon worked for both of those men, have had to go through this at various times in their career as well. the demands that right is putting on kevin mccarthy are ridiculous and he should -- he would be crazy to accept them. why would he be crazy? because once he starts giving in to the right on any issue he's going to have to give in to them on every issue and it's not a precedence he wants to set. i spoke to him this fall when he thought he would win 25 to 30 seats and said i don't deal well with leverage. i agree with brendan. he has the inside track, but it is an eternity until january and i think he will become speaker. jim jordan cannot get 218 votes, i don't think, nor does he want to. i don't know how mccarthy is going to get there, but that doesn't mean i don't think he will. he will. it's going to be extremely bumpy and there are just tons of speed bumps in the way between now and january 3rd. >> there's also a question of how do you run that conference with the knowledge that you've got to try to win again in '24 and what do you go after

and i drove to the office immediately, got on a conference call with colleagues in john boehner's office's office, the congressional incentive -- committees. we talked about the proper way to respond. and also what we could do to quell what we would politely call, in mixed company, some of the loudmouths and bomb throwers. we use other language in private. to make sure we are all unified and saying the good, smart, and right things. fast forward to what we've just seen from friday, we see a lot of republicans, not all of them, but enough, are making this a joke time. and things like that. that are just absolutely beyond the pale. and this is my concern. that it always gets worse. it's going to continue to get worse. and so far we've been lucky that nothing truly awful has happened and that someone has died. one of these attacks is going to be successful. it may be on a republican, it might be on a democrat. but it's gonna spin all of us up even further to what i fear is the point of unraveling. >> i want to talk about the republican contrition on this. but i do want to talk about this mo

look at john boehner, our speaker john boehner and what he had to deal with. less so paul ryan. as the margin shrinks the more you have to pay attention to every section of your conference. i mean i know laura's covered this as well it has been -- we're already seeing these challenges form, and they're not going to make his life any easier. that's for sure. they have no incentive to. >> no incentive at all. and clearly control of the senate is very important. and going into these races, though, a lot of people thought president biden was really a liability for the candidates, but how much credit does he deserve for the senate control? >> well, a lot of democrats are giving him credit including senator elizabeth warren i think today was out there saying that democrats should credit him because of the fact he was really crystallizing they think the argument heading into the final stretch. a lot of people did doubt what he was focusing on, and biden was focusing on what he and his administration had been doing they think to help america's pocketbooks but also abortion access and th

i think that if the republicans push too far, if the freedom caucus, the raucous caucus, or john boehnerthem something else, you know, if they try -- if they don't hold themselves together, they could find themselves losing the majority in two years. >> listen, whoever fills nancy pelosi's high heels, should she decide to retire, and not become the leader, they will have a tough job. you have progressives who want the democratic party to be much more progressive, and you've got the moderates that really want to tack to the middle. whoever it is will need to have some lessons, i think from nancy pelosi, but i think on both sides we're seeing an ideological battle, a generational battle, too, particularly on the house side. there is this sort of younger restless crowd of people who walely want power and want to define what the party looks like. >>> jeremy diamond, you're over at the white house for us. it's one thing for the democrats to have the speakership, for nancy pelosi to be the speaker. it's totally a very, very different thing for nancy pelosi to be the minority leader in the hous

it took john boehner back in 2015 216 votes. that was also what newt gingrich received in 1997. mccarthy's road, though, potentially quite a bit rockier. he's been preparing for this moment for years, carefully courting the freedom caucus group that made boehner's life so difficult that boehner up and resigned. and in recent weeks mccarthy has courted conspiracy theorists like marjorie taylor greene. remember what greene told "the new york times" last month about mccarthy. "i think that to be the best speaker of the house and to please the base he's going to give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway. and if he doesn't, they're going to be very unhappy about it." greene added that wasn't a threat but the reality that she and others like her are emboldened by the leverage that the narrow margin gives them over mccarthy. but. but, but, but. you cannot beat someone with no one. and right now there doesn't seem to be an obvious alternative to mccarthy. or is there? let's put that to our first guest. congressman david joyce of ohio, chair of the republican governance committee. he ju

and brendan buck is a former top aide to speakers paul ryan and john boehner. good to have you here. i know you're going to explain everything that happened. brendan, i want to start with you. we were just hearing about how slim the majorities could be if the gop does pull off this win in the house. conservative republicans from within the freedom caucus made your last two boss's lives very, very difficult. what is it that kevin mccarthy would face if he steps into leadership of the republican party in the house? >> yeah, it's a really difficult moment. when we had trouble sometimes keeping everybody in line, we had a healthy majority. sometimes 10, 15, 30 seats. this is a potential situation where you could have two seats to play with. that's almost impossible. being republican speaker of the house is almost impossible to begin with. with a two-seat majority, that means every member has leverage over the speaker of the house. that's what they're trying to assert. if you want to be speaker, you have to do things the way i want things done. and that makes a weak

. >> stephen: here with a rebuttal, former speaker john boehner, holding his actual galv, which was solike mjolnir. ( thunder ) lot of folks think mccarthy is in for a rough ride, with one republican noting, "it's like herding cats trying to get everybody together," and another pointed out, "you can't lose anybody. any one person becomes kind of an island to themselves." that island? turds and cuckoos. ( laughter ) ( applause ) thank you. thank you, joseph. thank you very much. what an honor. point is, mccarthy has a horrible job where horrible people have the power to make him do horrible things. one person who comes pre-horribled is georgia congresswoman... ( audience booing ) and top dumb, marjorie taylor greene. greene threw her support behind kevin mccarthy for speaker. in exchange, she says, "he's going to give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway," and predicts she'll be on committees investigating "traitors and criminals." i can't wait to see the investigations she launches: "what's hunter biden's wifi password? who distributed spoons to the gazpacho police? where does the wat

. >> we have very serious conservatives here now, i was in the house when john boehner was speaker andack obama was president, similar split government situation, but i think conference has movedded to the right, i think they are serious about cutting government, the problem when one party has all power every executive order is funded. we could defund every executive order, i would start with vaccine mandates which are unconstitutional and illegal. kennedy: i don't have a problem with a lot of accountability in terms of the pandemic. really figuring out getting to the bottom of how the virus got out of china in the placer place, if it was bats and penguins or lab leak theory, there should be more congressional oversight. there i believe that anthony fauci has a lot to answer for. i don't think that say partisan witch-hunt, you have a lot on your plate, i know you are hungry, thank you for coming back to the buffet of liberty. >> thank you, i think splitting government is the oversight committee exciting and the judiciary committee, talking about giving mayorkas attorney general hike re

the far right did that to john boehner in and paul ryan when they worked with democrats in order to passislation, so that is a trend that i think is solvable and is more likely to have better outcomes than potentially a third party. but like i said i a third party is potentially doable. it's a logistical challenge at the national level in the united states, but i would love to see some more about what the longer term impacts are. so will heard former congressman. is there a future you used to be the future of the republican party. are you still the future? well, you don't have to be an elected office just to be the future right, but i'm elected future. so here's what i would say. it is unlikely that my political career is over. i'm 44 years old, but if the opportunity for me to serve my country presents itself again, then i'll evaluated. i've been lucky to serve it and an amazing job like in the it was awesome. my hometown of san antonio and all the communities in west and south, texas and if there isn't if there's an opportunity only evaluative. well, there was some reporting that this

it's why john boehner walked away from the job, why paul ryan left the job, and kevin mccarthy is nothing if not morally flexible, valuable and, you know, he will do whatever he is told to do, by trump, and by these extreme elements of his conference. that will get in the way of basic governance. >> yeah. >> you know, the american people want their government to work, and i just don't see their ability, even to govern their own, let alone govern the chamber. >> i want to ask about the january 6th committee, and that speeding towards its completion. one of the big outstanding questions, of course, about testimony from two individuals, vice president, then vice president mike pence, and former president donald trump. donald trump has been subpoenaed, and he is challenging that subpoena. mike pence who was invited, and in negotiations as far as i understand it, just came out with a book, he is trying to sell that book everywhere that he can go, and basically, he is saying, if you want my testimony, you've got to pay the 25 bucks for it. that committee doesn't get it. here is how he described

it went to the house and john boehner sad clearly to barack obama, president obama, he was not goingbecause he knew it would pass with mostly democratic votes. president trump could have been transformational on this issue, david. he also had an opportunity to do this. chuck schumer offered $25 billion in border security in exchange for some kind of legalization plan of the 11 million undocumented immigrants and they blew it out of the water. >> comprehensive reform on dreamers. we have to understand. the people here aren't going anywhere. we have done this before. we did immigration reform. the notion of touch back, not going to work. we have to come together as a country and recognize there are huge problems on our southern border. trafficking of humans, fentanyl. it is every bad thing you could imagine. >> we seem to have our marching orders but not the bipartisanship to actually accomplish something. >> david and i can do it. >> i nominate both of you to do it. >> we probably could actually. >> please, allow there to be a camera and we will be there as well. >> it will get struck

can they recall the speaker the way they did with john boehner or will they have that tool taken away? will committee chairman have subpoena authority? that has been taken care of. what sort of ability will they have to impeach somebody like secretary mayorkas? there is a list of a dozen things that they are really concerned about that they want commitments on. the other part of the conference doesn't want to give those. so again the battle, the number one question is how do they unify? right now nobody sees that path. >> harris: i'm glad you went that detailed. it's good governing, too. if the promises on the border will be kept, secretary mayorkas is on the hill today. we've had the highest number ever. so we're going in the wrong direction. if republicans can't move within their own party to try to shore some of that up that's about governing as well. so thank you for that detail. let's get to this. president biden's massive student loan hand-out just suffered another setback. jason, i wonder if they knew this was coming and made a hollow promise to all of those young democrats to

i think some members are frustrated because of what paul ryan or john boehner did.in mccarthy has never had a chance to be speaker. we had an election, lot of debate in conference. in the end, he was the overwhelming winner. i'm hopeful that our conference will come together, and i believe we will and make him the next republican speaker of the house. >> assuming you're chairman of the oversight committee, we've got one investigation you get to focus on, if there's just one. i know there's a bunch you want to do. what's the one? >> well, we're going to investigate between 40 and 50 different things. we have the capacity. we'll have 25 members on the committee, and we're going to have a staff close to 70. so we have the ability to investigate a lot of things. and let's just face it, over the past two years, the democrats haven't investigated anything in this administration. they've investigated the washington commanders football team. we've had several hearings on social issues that the oversight committee has absolutely nothing to do with, issues like abortion. we b

are also pushing to make it easier for lawmakers to oust a city speaking, something wielded over john boehnerually resigned. joining me to talk about this and more is a republican member of the house, congressman austin scott of georgia. congressman, thanks for being with us. congratulations. you just got re-elected. let me start with this. cnn has learned mccarthy is calling gop members one by one trying to get their votes. do you think he will be the next speaker of the house? what's your sense of it. >> he has earned the right to be the republican leader. it will be more narrow than we have hoped for. he earned the right to be a speaker of the house. given the chance, he will do a good job. what we have got to do is stand by our leadership. we had hoped for a bigger margin but we won let's do the things we said we were going to do and govern instead of picking fights with ourselves. >> i know you're favored at this point to take the majority. we are still in the process of counting all the votes. we're not quite there yet. you indicated a few minutes ago, there had been predictions of a bi

john boehner tweeted congratulations to pelosi on a historic run of service to the people's house.pelosi's likely successor is 52-year-old jeffries, he would make history as the first black person to lead a party in congress. in january, their top priority will apparently be to investigate the biden administration, and president biden's family, the white house is slamming the gop agenda as political revenge. cnn's sara murray has our report. >> after clinching the majority in the u.s. house, gop lawmakers are gearing up for the subpoena power they will inherit in january. outlining a broad range of investigative targets, many aimed squarely at president biden, his son hunter, and his family's business dealings. >> we would love to talk to you people in the biden family, specifically hunter and jim biden. >> republican by congressman james, is set to become oversight chairman vowing to focus on bank records. suspicious activity reports for sars, from financial institutions and allegedly related to transactions from biden family members. >> we will continue to pursue all evidence and

cried for forgiveness for john boehner.er driven. i think all he cares about is power, all he cares about is a title. and you can convince yourself if you think you're a moral man -- the ends justifies the means, i've got to do whatever it takes. >> you said you'd cross the bridge if trump defied the subpoena. it feels like we're at the bridge. what's the decision for the committee? will you refer him? >> yeah, i don't want to get in front of the committee's announcement on this. obviously we're aware. it's something we're taking very seriously. we've got it go through all the questions. i mean, he's a former president of 24 united states. we have a limited time left on the committee because our charter basically ends at the end of this congress, so we're working through that, and people will come forward with whatever that takes. look, i think it should be noted and other republicans have come before congressional committees before, and donald trump has said he'll be happy to come in. tell us what you think. >> what -- wha

you think back to paul ryan, to john boehner, it's very hard to manage a republican caucus in the houseow he's going to have, as you just pointed out, john, a very narrow margin. he's on edge to get the speakership, and on edge to keep the speakership. >> john: democrats like to say they are doing it for political show, i think they want to get something done, can can they get anything done given the make-up of congress and the attitude in the white house. >> they can certainly do investigations, they can hold hearings about what the real problems are, they can bring in members of the border patrol, for example, those who were falsely accused of whipping illegal haitians coming across the border, they can testify in front of the committees and the country, introduce legislation that they can kick over to the senate and have debate from the democrats, they can talk about border security, asylum, put the democrats on defense and joe biden on defense on an issue that is affecting the country in every single way at people continue to say, including mark kelly, that national democrats don't

in 2015 when i started my service, john boehner was the speaker.cans and that republican conference was ungovernable. so boehner left and left it to paul lions and said take, this and done. paul ian start of the next congress was 240 republicans. he was a little bit more tactful and have more patience, though he had an easier job. but still the government shutdowns, there were all sorts of difficult situations that paul ryan was put ian. and that was a fairly healthy majority, with 240 manager members. 220, 221? when you look back at the recent history of the house, the republican conference, it's going to be a very difficult job for kevin mccarthy or from whoever ends up getting it. >> but what does that cash out to in terms of what they can and cannot do? that's my real question. i was scared of the worst, like, they're gonna default on the debt ceiling, they're gonna impeach everyone, they're gonna have a special committee, a special hunter biden laptop committee. whatever that is how much does the narrowest majority shrink the realm of possible

. -- commentator ashley allison and brandon buck, a former top aide to paul ryan and john boehner. and that idea of where things stand and in terms of the messaging, let's listen to what president biden had to say when he was asked whether or not his message was actually getting through to democrats, it's a quick one, listen. >> mister president, is your message going through to the american voters? >> yes. >> is it that simple? he said yes and a thumbs up, is that it, are we done, no conversation? >> he probably does not have one message. he has four or five messages. and this is a basic political politics communications 101. you have to hammer a message over and over again, and in the final weeks, he's talking about democracy, talking about republican cut to social security, out of nowhere. he's talking about abortion, you have to focus on one thing or two things and say it over and over again. he's all over the place. what he is not talking about as much as the economy, by far number one issue. you're not even on the playing field on the one issue that most people have said, thi

laying this ground work, reaching out to members who kept him from becoming speaker in 2015 after john boehnert it's deja vu for him. it's the same crop of freedom caucus conservatives who are saying we're not going to give you our vote until you give us what we want in terms of rules changes. the thing to watch carefully in the house is the motion to vacate. it's basically this rule that allows any conservative, any trump ally to try to oust mccarthy by themselves, one person, if they're unhappy with him. right now they can't do that because of rules changes. they want the ability to do that. mccarthy has been very reluctant to give that over. but looking at the slim margin, he's probably going to have to give them. >> does this soul searching post election in the gop has been fascinating to watch. larry hogan, the outgoing republican governor of maryland is blaming donald trump for the gop's poor performance in the midterm. listen. >> people who tried to relitigate the 2020 election and focussed on conspiracy theories and talked about things the voters didn't care about. they were almost uni

i was at a conference call with colleagues in john boehners, office and we want to say the right thingno one said the wrong thing. >> look, one of the dynamics here so troubling i think doug is sort of taking adjacent to it there's this debate after these incidents about whether the person was really motivated by politics or whether they were just a violent, crazy person. and it's such a bogus, false dichotomy, right, when you have pallitation and public people whipping out violent conspiracy theories violent people hear those, too, and we're a country full of people with mental illness and with easy access to weapons. and at some point this sort of hairsplitting argument about whether the person was a hard line ideological radical or just a severely disturbed person marinating in this completely broken culture, the distuinctio is on a practical level. it doesn't affect how endangered you are. >> there's an axios study out talking about -- i don't think it's just the fact it's pelosi. there's reporting about how women are three times as likely to be targeted than even male candidates o

with members of congress and their aides, we watched with joy as majority and minority leaders, john boehner, harry reid, nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell welcomed monuments men and one woman on stage and presented them on behalf of the 348 individuals from 41 nations who served monuments. men and women. the congressional gold medal in 2012. concerned about my mental well-being. some of my friends begged me to abandon my dream sharing these heroes story with a global audience. you've been out to hollywood to pitch the film dozen, dozen times. it's never going to happen, said. declare victory and go. you've done enough. i heard the word never a lot in those, but i also heard the voice of laine faison whispering in my ear, hang in there a while longer. the phone call informing me that george clooney wanted to make. the film changed all that. today, the terms monuments men as ubiquitous is familiar. volunteers in timbuktu trying preserve precious manuscripts as it is to our graduates. but there was a moment when it could have turned out very differently. when my idealism had to overcome my ego.

comprehensive immigration reform -- then it went to the house and john boehner said, very clearly, todent obama, that he was not going to pass this. because he knew it would pass with mostly democratic votes. >> president trump could have been transformational on this issue, david. he also had an opportunity to do this. chuck schumer offered 25 billion dollars in border security in exchange for some kind of legalization plan of the 11 million -- >> i believe -- >> and they blew it out of the water. >> it's got to be comprehensive reform on dreamers and daca -- >> yes. we've got to understand, the people here are not going anywhere -- >> exactly -- >> -- the notion of touch back, sending people back, it's not going to work. in the reagan administration there was amnesty, i don't know if people are willing to do that. but we have got to come together as a country and recognize that -- >> absolutely -- >> there is a huge, huge problem on our southern border. narco travel king, fentanyl, trafficking humans, it's every bad thing that you could imagine. >> yes. >> i tell, you we seem to hav

. >> reporter: mcthink failed to -- mccarthy failed to succeed john boehner seven years ago. >> kevingoing to have to bow to these people in order to get the votes to become speaker. it's going to make it an interesting and turbulent two years for mccarthy and his leadership team to be the able to try to control his own caucus. >> reporter: but for republicans, if not mcthink, who? mccarthy has until early january to round up the votes. chad pergram, fox news. arthel: an apology from a prominent nba player after he tweeted a link to a film with anti-semitic the themes. we'll have the latest on that coming up next. ("this little light of mine") - [narrator] in the world's poorest places, they're shunned, outcast, living in pain. you can reach out and change the life of a suffering child right now. a surgery that takes as little as 45 minutes and your act of love can change a child's life forever. please call or visit operationsmile.org now. thousands of children are waiting. arthel: so the brooklyn nets have lifted kentuckyly irving's suspension, and he is expected to play tonight agai

if john boehner it was your father, paul ryan is your best friend, this is a guy who will very publicly 218 members just to get their vote. and some of those members will want the high-profile investigations, and ultimately demand impeachment. jim jordan has already said at the point of the investigations is to contextualize the 24 race and frame the race against joe biden. we also know that the likes of jim jordan are going to be holding gavels, and even though they themselves have refused to comply with congressional subpoenas, they will now have subpoena authority. here's what i'd say. we're gonna move quickly with the investigations. but be ready. because the white house and other groups are going to be in a rapid response mode to kneecap the credibility of many of these investigations. and they shut. >> david, if you think kevin can't get the votes, who do you think can? >> yeah. it's a great question. you have to get the 2:18 on the floor, he only got about 180 votes behind closed doors today. that put some walls right. so, what happens? if he can't get to 2:18, this is what happe

to my office that saturday morning at the rnc, i was on a conference call with colleagues, and john boehner's office, and we wanted to say the right thing and make sure that nobody on our side said the wrong thing. >> are you the anomaly or the standard, what do you think, alex? >> one of the dynamics here that is so troubling, doug, i think it's talking adjacent to it, that there is this debate after these incidents about whether the person was really motivated by politics, or whether they are just a violent, crazy person. and it is such a bogus, false dichotomy. when you have politicians, and public people, and in some cases, television networks out there demonizing individuals, whipping out paranoid conspiracy theories, violent crazy people here are those two. and we are a country full of people with mental illness, and with easy access to weapons, and at some point this hair splitting argument about whether the person was sort of a hard line ideological radical, or a severely disturbed person is marinating in this completely wrote in culture. the distinction is just on a practical level.

we're talking about as speaker john boehner and how you manage some of that. ultimately you will have a majority of republicans in the house senate. we're not sure at this point. we still have a nevada which i'm sure mike, we'll talk about. we still have a georgia. i mean, we're probably not were not to know anything until december 6, though. ditch your question. not a red wave now that we've been here about you said kevin mccarthy will be heard in caps. look, if you've got to, if you're going have a majority that looks like nancy pelosi you've got 5 seats. she's got a lot experience and then a lot more talent that about hurting democratic cats than kevin mccarthy has in terms of being a minority leader. if even if you have something less than 10 seats. >> that's a real problem for you to bring anything forward because of that hastert rule and needed a majority vote in the caucus. if it's the models we're looking at show like 5, 6 seats, 3 seats that actually puts. i think nancy pelosi in play to stay relevant even beyond this, even though she'd be in the mino

. >> i was reading john boehner's memoir.be sitting somewhere with a cigar thinking oh, the tea party. they're so pragmatic. we're like tea party 2.0 and there's more of these type members and what he said is true then and today. which is a lot of these members are not here to govern. they're here to throw sand in the gears and to make government not work. to whack it down and just have these like spending cut battles. >> part of that unfortunately, i'm sure to observers outside of washington because it kind of looks gross, that's just the rule of the minority. gumming up the works. at least it is in modern times here. throwing some bombs, rhetorically, at the other side, but i wonder what you think about, because you've talked to people in focus groups. what do they think and what they say, does that change any of your expectations about what will happen with kevin mccarthy? >> most voters understand divided government will not get done. that's why there's so much pressure from the republican base. we can have the power of v

mccarthy stumbled to succeed speaker john boehner seven years ago, lacking the votes. >> i'm supportingevin. i know a lot of people like it focus on all of the drama in washington. >> it's about the math. the freedom caucus could oppose mccarthy. some conservatives aren't convinced he is committed to aggressively chopping spending or sold on impeachment. other republicans oppose those tactics. >> it's not something that i support at this juncture without a heavy investigation. impeachment has been weaponized over the years. >> the speaker isn't the member who collects the most votes. mccarthy must win an outright majority of the entire 435 member house. democrats expected house speaker nancy pelosi to retire. but they now believe the attack on her husband emboldened pelosi to stay. the lack of a red wave could also boost pelosi. the speaker is now off to the climate conference in egypt without tipping her hand. >> that's a conversation for another day. >> the president's party has not faired this well in the first midterm since president george w. bush after 9/11. the g.o.p. is stumped

if you don't believe me ask former speaker paul ryan, john boehner, but i think mccarthy at least is in the pole position because it's for someone else to unseat him. as speaker pelosi said, we don't even know yet if this will be an eventuality. bigger picture down the road, i think democrats are cheering this victory. if democrats had experienced a red wave, you would have started to hear cries for president biden to think about stepping aside in 2024. i think you'll still hear some of those cries, but i think you won't hear them right away. i think you'll hear fewer of them. and even if you do hear them, i think it will be tougher to convince the biden/harris administration that they shouldn't go for a second term. >> yes, still quite the horse race, seven republican seats are needed in the house and 14 democratic seats in the house in terms of trying to determine who has the majority. meantime, the blame game is on. i mean, some in the republican party say the losses are donald trump's fall and they want the party to move on from him. but in just two days trump will make a special

remember, when john boehner ran in to trouble, kevin mccarthy was going to go for it but stepped away. it was paul ryan who never expected to run, didn't want to run, told everybody he wasn't going to run. somehow that was appealing. it may end up going to somebody that we haven't thought of yet that hasn't been out there that hasn't necessarily been seeking it that can actually bring everybody together. >> martha: you want to put a name to that face for us? what do you think that might be? >> i got a came names. let's see how it plays out. i don't think they should be meeting tomorrow. it's partly meaningless. the other part of it is, i don't know if -- how do you do this? when you have 19 undecided races. i don't understand that. i'm dodging your question. >> i noticed. thank you. we'll bring you back. thanks. good to see you. jason chaffetz from utah. joining me now on set, joe concha for the hill and a fox news contributor. harold ford jr., co-host of "the five." thanks nor being here. >> harold, you spent time in the house. how do you think this is going? where do you think it's

. >> today i had a chance to speak with john boehner.atulated mitch mcconnell on becoming the next senate majority leader. >> speaker nancy pelosi and i give her a lot of credit. >> it really could be a beautiful, bipartisan type of situation. >> what in the next two years do you intend to do differently to change people's opinion of the direction of the country, particularly as you contemplate a run for president in 2024. >> nothing. >> bret: that was president biden yesterday, senator coons. i guess definitely he beat expectations and democrats beat expectations heading. in and there was no red wave. it was a ripple, maybe except for florida. but, nothing? is that the message that democrats are taking from the midterms? >> well, bret, rob and i worked very well together on a couple of big and important bills. we got bipartisan bills passed in the senate on infrastructure, on bringing investment back to the united states, on reshoring the chips and science entries that are critical to the 21st century and it's my hope that going into th