jake sherman is still with us. jake.s is this is about as as stark a warning i've heard from anyone on anyone. caroline kennedy just talking about the character of rfk jr and how dangerous he would be. is this the sort of message that senators, republican senators would be willing to hear? >> yeah, a group of them, katie. sure. i would say that his nomination is one of those that is not assured at this point, along with tulsi gabbard and perhaps a kash patel, although i think kash patel is a little bit more safe than both of those folks. i think what we learned in the hegseth nomination is that clearly, we knew this before. mitch mcconnell, susan collins and lisa murkowski are are willing to go their own way and suffer or risk the political consequences. murkowski has already won a primary campaign as a write in candidate named murkowski, which is not easy. i'm not you know, susan collins is up in 2026. i'm not sure. i don't know either way whether she's going to run again. mitch mcconnell is extremely unlikely to run to

let's bring in jake sherman, co-founder of punchbowl news and an msnbc contributor. hey there jake.atmosphere going into these hearings this week. >> well, there's, as you said, chris, there's two sides to this coin, right. >> there are a number of very well qualified, noncontroversial nominees. >> people like marco rubio, john ratcliffe, who are going to sail through the confirmation process without much without much opposition. i'd also put elise stefanik in that in that basket. and by the way, all three, either current or former members of congress. and then you have people like pete hegseth, who is up for defense secretary, who's probably going to get through the senate armed services committee on a party line vote. and this hearing, i don't know about all the other hearings being trainwrecks, but this hearing is going to be very contentious. there's going to be questions about his personal life, about his policy preferences. and, listen, this probably one of the least qualified, at least by traditional qualifications, to be defense secretary in recent memory. so that will be a

peter baker, jake. sherman, julie sirkin, lisa rubin, everyone, thank you very much for starting us off. still ahead, donald trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship. we were just talking about it. well, the levers of power have now just pushed back. as a federal judge says, not so fast. you can't just overturn a constitutional amendment. also, two new wildfires are spreading across los angeles county when the area is expected to get some desperately needed rain. and what the new threat that and the new threat that that could bring. plus, donald trump is mapping out his revenge plans. what mistake he said joe biden made when he issued a round of last minute pardons to his last minute pardons to his family members. we're back in what tractor supply customers experience is personalized service. made possible by t-mobile for business. with t-mobile's reliable 5g business internet. employees get the information they need instantly. this is how business goes further with t-mobile for business. this char

against that is jake sherman. billy from bloomberg with a shorter back-and-forth with tom emmer, republican whip saying he's confident comed- he's confident johnson has about. yeah, , oh, yeah. and then this from matt gaetz, former member of congress saying this and putting this out on x say mike joss will be elected speaker today on the first vote. people might like ore dislike that. i'm just reporting the news. , matt gaetz former congressman now with his own show reporting saying that he believes mike johnson has the vote. we will see as pedro was just telling all of you, it sounds like it's up in the air. does he or does he not have the votes? what happened on the first round or not? will there be more rounds of voting today keeping cameras in the chamber will capture all, the 119th congress will gavel in at noon eastern time. we live on capitol hill before all of the action begins simulcasting the "washington journal" here on c-span and c-span2 and your message to lawmakers in the 119th congress is a question

joining us now from capitol hill is jake sherman, msnbc contributor and co-founder of punchbowl news.great seeing you always. rubio confirmed 99 to 0. is that an outlier for trump, or do you think there's anybody else that could get anywhere close to this level of support? >> no, it's an outlier, jose. absolutely an outlier, not an outlier. historically, though, marco rubio is a senator. a senators get tremendous deference in confirmation processes. and i think on capitol hill, there's you know, there's still that collegiality. that's number one. number two, even people who don't agree with rubio, it sticks in my mind that i think elizabeth warren said on this air on, on, on morning joe, perhaps that she disagrees with rubio on a whole host of issues. but there's no question that he's qualified for the role and these kinds of situations. you're not always looking at whether you agree. i mean, donald trump won the presidential election. he's going to nominate republicans and conservatives to be in his cabinet. but there's no question he's qualified. and i think that's what you saw in y

. >> joining us now, punchbowl news co-founder and msnbc political contributor jake sherman. i know she said she's going to put the constitution above everything else. so why is it so hard for her? please explain it to me. why is it so hard for her and other nominees to comment on on a hypothetical like that, if the president breaks the law, asks you to break the law, would you do it? >> katie, the way these hearings are designed is you don't need to answer any questions. you could get away with saying, i'm not going to talk about hypotheticals. my duty is to the constitution. my duty is to the rule of law. and when you have a senate republican conference, that is way, way more loyal to donald trump than it was in 2017 and even 2017 to 2021, you are going to have senators who are going to vote yes regardless. and quite frankly, senate republicans probably have one nominee that's standing that they could kill. they can't they can't kill them all. and i don't think they want to get rid of pam bondi. but these hearings are just designed to be able to evade. and there's nothing t

reporting from doral, florida, nbc's vaughn hillyard, jake sherman is co-founder of punchbowl news andntributor. good to see you, gentlemen. okay, vaughn, what kinds of issues are republicans going to be hashing out today? >> right. jake is about 200 yards from where i'm where i am right now. and i know we're waiting for a 3 p.m. press conference with speaker johnson and other house leaders ahead of a 5 p.m. eastern. that's 3.5 hours from now. remarks that are going to be delivered by president trump, who is already here at his doral property just outside of miami. there is a lot on the line for the republican majorities in the senate, in the house in these two years ahead of the 2026 midterms. and let's be very clear, they're going to have a test right out of the gate. and that is where conversations between particularly speaker johnson and president trump are going to be so key come march 14th. you have the government funding deadline, a potential shutdown looming a little while after that, later this spring, you're also looking at the u.s. hitting the debt ceiling. those negotiation

glenn gerstell and punchbowl news co-founder and msnbc political contributor jake sherman. full house today. >> lisa, the legal stuff supreme court was unanimous. >> they're rarely unanimous. or at least they're not unanimous on big decisions that folks pay close attention to. and they agreed that congress was right to do this, or they agree that the law itself is constitutional. if donald trump wants to save it, what can he what does he have the legal power to do to save it? >> well, of course, we know that donald trump's legal power is sort of itself a complex question in a post presidential immunity decision world, right? nothing that he does now might have the same bite with respect to courts rejections of it that it did before. but that having been said, he principally has sort of two lanes that he could go down. katie. one would be to issue an executive order, which we understand from other public reporting he's considering. the other would just be to direct the department of justice not to enforce it. and were i, in donald trump's group of advisers, i might suggest t

but our friend jake sherman at punchbowl news just tweeted that speaker johnson has decided to removentelligence committee. do you have any knowledge about that or any reaction? >> yeah. nicole, you know, as i was getting my earpiece put in here to go on your show, i too was getting my phone is jumping off the hook right now. i don't have confirmation that that is that that is true. i will tell you this. i have worked in very close partnership with mike turner, and while we disagree on some things, as you might expect between a democrat and a republican, i have the highest regard for his commitment both to the truth, to doing good oversight, and to his bipartisan bonafides. and so if these stories turn out to be true that he's been removed, i would regard that as a very, very serious thing, because, again, i'll be ranking member of the intelligence committee in charge of oversight of all the things that you just asked me about, i won't be chairman. the chairman will be absolutely essential in that role. and if the speaker has in fact removed mike turner, i'm very, very concerned about

jake sherman will join us next. >>> that houses voting on the speaker in a few hours.peaker, mike johnson, needs to win the support of every republican to keep his job. we have jake sherman, home of the punch bowl news. is this the same that it used to be? is it deadly with trump in the background? do you think he goes down and does not get it? us to it is worse than it used to be. he has lost one vote, that is tom massey, kentucky that says he will not vote for him. he could lose one more. if people about present, it is different for voting somebody else. donald trump endorsed paul ryan that ended up leaving. he endorsed kevin mccarthy the got thrown out. he endorsed mike johnson has a dozen or so lawmakers against him. donald trump also endorsed lifting the debt limit, a legitimate request, 30 republicans voted against that on the house floor after mike johnson executed on that request. there is no question that donald trump is a powerful figure. that goes without saying, he will be president in however many days, 17 days. on internal house members, he has not had th

another one from jake sherman, senator bernie sanders and health and human services nominee rfk juniorderwood singh "america the beautiful." noting she was from oklahoma, the sooner estate. and this from chuck grassley, watching the inauguration alongside cory booker. jake sherman noting when it comes to chuck grassley, his first inauguration as a member of congress he was in the house at the time, it was 1976, jimmy carter's inauguration then in 1977. host: chuck grassley is the longest serving member and overrun outside it's how -- hal rogers, his dean of the house. he first won election in 1980, the same year ronald reagan became president. now back to your calls, kevin in west milford new jersey, republican line. kevin, what did you think of president trump second inaugural speech? caller: i thought it was excellent, i think his first was a little bit scattered but this time he has really come into the role of president, i would say. host:what did you enjoy about it? there were a lot of policy specifics and usually not delivered in an inaugural address. caller: i felt they were pol

as you said, jake sherman has been i got to tell you, bibi netanyahu has never been a friend to joe bideni and so i think he's not an ally when they're going into these negotiations to try to figure out how to get something done with hamas right now. and you've got to have as a three part to three party negotiation. and it doesn't seem like one of the parties is that interested in doing anything before joe biden leaves office. now, what you may see and we may see this because this remember, this happened with the iran hostages. you may see something happen on inauguration day, which is what iran did in 1981 when ronald reagan came into office. so it might be that this is just pushed off into the next administration, but i think it's a high priority for joe biden and his team. >> and again, i just have a principle difference there. i don't think you can negotiate with hamas. i think you grind them into the into the dust. and and that's how you get a resolution that maybe it's just maybe it's just my naivetÉ. but i think negotiating is the problem. you can't negotiate with hamas. i think if

it's interesting also because jake sherman from punchbowl wrote something today about how democrats on capitol hill are today. i think senate democrats today doing a press conference about the pardons that trump gave to the january 6th protesters. what was that eight years ago? i guess it was a week ago, but still. and it's just like i think jake's point was two completely different timelines going on here. i mean, like, where are the democrats? they're covering they're doing last week's story. >> you could say the same about immigration, by the way. the outrage has been quite tepid. there haven't been a lot of it. in fact, mostly it's focused on birthright citizenship and not what we're seeing across the country. >> jeff zeleny at the white house, stephen miller had a lot to say there. what do you make of it all? >> look, i mean, i think at the very end, despite stephen miller's praise for senator grassley, and he said that he has met with him recently, and he told me that right before your interview, jake, it's clear that senator grassley has been in washington longer than stephen mi

. >> let's bring in jake sherman. we have you for a short while here before the speaker elect speaks. of course "punchbowl news" cofounder, and msnbc political contributor. jake, just give me your takeaway overall of what we have seen happen thus far today and your expectations for what happens next. >> yeah, this is a big victory for johnson. you've got to give it to him, with that, he has been an embattled speaker, there's no question he had a tough run at it in a very narrow house majority, winning this on the first ballot, and we just reported, by the way, that donald trump weighed in with keith self and ralph norman who voted against johnson or voted for other people besides johnson. so, listen, johnson is going to enter this congress with a paper thin majority. we saw this today. he has a massive agenda to get through, including a whole host of things that donald trump promised on the campaign trail. but people doubted him, and winning on the first ballot, given everything that he is facing, again, a very thin ma

jake sherman saying besides massey, and then emmer saying he will be fine. shorter back-and-forth with the republican whip saying he is confident johnson has the vote. this from matt gaetz, former member of congress, on x today, saying mike johnson will be elected speaker today. host: matt gaetz, former congressman, now with his own show, saying he believes mike johnson has the votes. it sounds in the air. does he have the votes? first round or not? will there be more rounds today? c-span in the chamber will capture it, the 119 congress will gavel at noon eastern. live on capitol hill, before the action begins, simulcast washington journal on c-span, c-span2, your message to lawmakers in the 119 congress, the question with all of you. huntsville, alabama, republican. caller: hi. i would like to remind the house, everyone knows president trump was delivered a mandate to execute his agenda, the house were also given a mandate. sometimes after elections the house seems to forget the primary objective. the message for thomas massie is, please stop silly theatric

i was talking with jake sherman. remember the last speaker? that complete 15 vote mess we were in.?le out there will get mad if i say stature, but he does have stature now with the republican party. and the haters are going to hate. but i said it's going to be different this time. is he going to be able to literally be a whip and make this happen? because people were saying that mike johnson was going to be 8, 9, 10 votes short. >> no, it's going to work. >> he made two phone calls and it happened. >> it's going to work because again, you have tom massy and some folks that are real identifyo idealogues. kevin was dealt a really bad hand. kevin was great. i think he would have been a really good speaker, but kevin was dealt a bad hand. i think the solution is this. trump's going to get a lot of what he wants, even with thin margins. but i were massy and some of these guys that won't to vote no, you've got to put on paper what you want. you've got to be clear on strategy. it can't be we want complete entitlement tomorrow. that's not practical. i think they are practical. i think they

there is a picture from jake sherman showing that. one more tweet from the outgoing president.t is a three-minute video of various people joe biden has welcomed to the white house. viewers can watch that on x. there is a lot going on, on capitol hill today. we are trying to keep you on top of it all on this busy inauguration day. host: on the streets of washington, as people came to town to take part in inauguration activities are doing various things. amongst them is tammy barringer. >> you can see people walking both ways. i think those folks are walking down to get in this line which has been moving. they started letting people in at about 8:00. along with all these people out here waiting to get into the arena, there are a lot of these merchandise carts and vendors selling memorabilia for today's event. this is joe. he has some customers here, but he is going to be telling us about what the most popular items are and how long he has been out here. joe, hi. joe is one of the many vendors out here today. what time did you get out here this morning? >> we got here at 4:00 in t