. >>> we're joined by cnn political director david chalian. vid, as is so often the case, you have what the candidate says on the campaign trail and then when they're in office, something different happens. that really sums up what the situation is with biden. let's revisit what he said on the 2020 campaign trail. >> trump campaigned on build that wall. are you willing to tear that wall down? >> there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration. >> reporter: the president also said today that former presidents have said to him that they wished they had built a wall. do you recall -- >> not a single one -- i can't think of a single one who said that. we need border security, but that's not the border security we need. >> reporter: so candidate biden says no new wall. now we learn today the white house is clearing the way for new wall construction. yet president biden says walls don't work. the dhs secretary says there's an acute need for the wall. how do you explain the mixed messages here? >> first overall, if you have to

i will go now to david chalian. can you tell us about significance that during an officially declared war that the president of the united states came into this country trying to get some humanitarian work done, coming to show solidarity, but just a significance of him being here as we have seen rockets coming into this country every single day and night throughout. meantime, there are explosions going on in gaza at the same time and a huge humanitarian crisis going on there. what's the significance of him being here now? >> well, sara, you saw the president himself highlighted that he was the first president to visit israel in a time of war. he wanted to make sure everybody understood that it is, indeed, a significant move, and i think it was so clear what he was doing throughout his remarks. the whole first half as you and kaitlan were discussing was the complete repetition of that total solidarity with israel, standing side by side in total support of israel, and i think when you talk to folks around the presiden

. >> so, this is going to put us squarely at square one, david chalian. and so i am trying to figure out what they can learn from the last three weeks? >> well, one thing they can learn is that they need to get the ducks in a row before they get to the floor. this is not january as jim jordan just learned where there is permission slip from the conference to gut it out and go 15 rounds. we saw with jim jordan after three rounds here, the conference regrouped and actually voted for him to step down as speaker designate, and they no longer wanted him to be the nominee after the three failed rounds, and that is one lesson to be learned here, and that is getting the vote counting right so that you know that you have a path to 217 on the floor. >> and if anyone has a path to 217 on the floor which is not clear in any way right now, and so my question, david, is at what point will there be a solution that does involve some democratic votes. there was a chance for that last week, and the republicans balked at doing that. do you think that they are moving closer

david chalian, a great discussion. thank you for coming on. sara. >> the biden dog is in so much trouble that he has been removed from the d.c. grounds. cnn has learned that the first dog has had more biting incidents than previously reported. and so the secret service is said to dodge certain areas. and now, with more perspective here, you are a former secret service agent, and served under obama and i remember when the obama's dog sunny bit a guest. so why is that so difficult to have a dog in the white house with all of the people who go through there. >> yes, sara. we would often talk about what an insider threat would look like, andner in my wildest dream would i think that the insider threat would be the president's dog and i say that tongue and cheek, but the reality is that the secret service say that 11 of their personnel have been involved in biting incidents with, you know, with commander. now, what does that actually mean? these are the officers and the agents at the white house 24 hours a day to protect not only the complex, but t

joining us now, cnn political director david chalian. thanks for being here. trying to thread everything going on right now into a single reality is difficult, and yet i think if you pull back and you're really great at doing this, the chaos, the confusion, the kind of antipathy for people watching what's happening in washington, dealing with a lot of real issues right now has to be palpable to some degree? >> no doubt it's palpable. the other concern, phil that it's also becoming normalized. the chaos and dysfunction in some way. clearly, americans are not pleased with their congress, with the direction of the country. and you guys just talked about border security there. you know, that is one of the issues that is the lowest performing issue for president biden and he's at pretty historic lows overall and border security is even beneath that for him. so seeing this move is interesting, and specifically seeing these democratic mayors and governors in illinois and new york starting to take on the white house. this is an issue you'll recall immigration border s

and now with us is our political director david chalian and also our person who has been liable in this case -- wait, i want to take a pause, and we will get to you, because kevin mccarthy is speaking as he is facing a potential vote to oust him. >> i have a lot of respect for jeffries. i understand politics, but i truly belief that the institution of the house at the end of the day, if you throw a speaker out who has 99% of the conference, that kept government open and paid the troops, i think that we are in a bad place for how we are going to run congress. >> are you expecting the democrats to back you up then? >> no, personally, i am not. >> do you need their help to remain in leadership? >> if five republicans go with the democrats then i am out. so it is whether -- >> it is likely. >> probably so. >> so this is a complex piece of algebra, because you don't know how they will vote, and why are you confidence based on the mathematical vote -- >> because i live in america. >> and this is a serious question. >> i know it s. have you come to me and on no matter what i thought that i cou

. >> let's talk about this with david chalian, cnn political director and host of the cnn political briefing podcast. we keep meeting like this. all over again. here we are. where is this headed? >> well, i don't -- we'll learn where it is headed. obviously jim jordan heading into this vote if you remember had amassed 99 votes so one might imagine he'll be able to get the nomination perhaps. but as we just learned with steve scalise, that and a buck 25 might get you a cheap cup of coffee. it is not clear yet there is a path for jim jordan on that. that's the immediate, you say where are we going, i think this is -- it is clearly a problem for the republican party and clearly can be sort of displayed as a side show, but i don't think it is a side show. i think we should heed what congressman mike mccaul said. you china and russia on a daily basis trying to undermine american democracy and this is what is being put on display. there is -- america's standing gets undercut with every passing day that the country shows it is not able to actually even govern itself properly. >> so, it is not going

let's bring in the panel, dana bash, david chalian and kasie hunt. we have some new folks here, audie cornish and paul begala. audie, for the folks tuning in, let us remind people why speaker mccarthy finds himself in this pi pickle. the reason that one person in this house of representatives in this new congress since january of this year, why one person has the power to raise their hand and say i would like to get rid of this speaker is why? >> well, because the speaker gay it to them in order to get that gavel. one other way to think about it is republicans viewed nancy pelosi as having a very strong hand. they would use terms like tyrannical. it was very top-down. and they said look, we want to do it a different way. and he went along with it. this is what it looks like when you do it the way people are talking about. the other thing is when you get up -- when you actually listen to these speeches, there is two kinds of speeches happening. one is, hey, are we not doing anything? it seems like we're not doing anything. that's the back cage. maybe

. >>> joining me now is cnn's political director david chalian. new poll. what are you seeing, south carolina? >> take a look at where the race stands in south carolina. it's similar to what we're seeing nationally and in the early states like iowa. donald trump has majority support right now among likely republican voters in the south carolina republican primary, 53%. nikki haley in iowa was tied with ron desantis in second place. in south carolina 22%. >> that's interesting. nikki haley is former governor. tim scott is a sitting senator in south carolina and -- >> who just won re-election? >> let's look at how committed these voters are to their candidates. >> it's an important question. it shows you why trump is so dominant in this race. look here. among all the republican voters we talked to in the primary, more than 6 in 10 say they'll support their first choice. 38% say they're open to changing their mind. among trump supporters 82% say they're locked in to donald trump. they're definitely going to support him compared to 18% who say they might change

here with me to share their reporting is david chalian and jeff zeleny. i mean, wow. we just heard the tone and tenor from the reporting. i spoke to somebody who has been around a lot of internal republican battles in the house who said they have never seen it this toxic. >> undoubtly, it's toxic. we have for these many weeks now. your last question is so critical. a majority of republicans will come on board. if jordan is backing it, it brings a majority of republicans because think about the tactics that jordan and allies have been using unsuccessfully. that whole republican echo chamber and firing up the grass roots. you just heard what manu was say ing about jim banks. we have to pay attention to does that whole republican echo chamber who along with what jordan wants to do to preserve some time or do they rail against this notion of republicans getting into bed with democrats in some fashion to get government rolling again. because you can see if they do, jim jordan may not be sufficient here if the grass roots get riled up as thinking this is somehow giving up w

. >> let's bring in cnn's manu raju and david chalian for more on this. manu, what is the latest that you are picking up? >> well, kevin mccarthy does not simply have the votes to remain as speaker of the house, unless something dramatically changes here. his speakership is in serious jeopardy and this is going to have implications for the house, and the congress cannot move forward until a new speaker is elected and this playing out in realtime. and now, there are more than five republicans in the house who plan to vote against him, and he can only afford the lose four, and that means that he needs to rely on the democrats, but they have no interest in saving kevin mccarthy. they have just had a closed door meeting and one democrat after another stood up to say they will not save him. hakeem jeffries indicating as much saying that the public comments suggesting that there is no reason to get behind ending what he is calling a republican civil war. i caught up with ted lu, a member of the democratic leadership, and he said that he is ready to eject kevin

david chalian, a remarkable moment. this truly is historic. i mean, i know it seems as though journalists are always saying things are historic, especially since donald trump came down that escalator. but this has never happened in the history of the entire united states, from 1776 until now, this has never happened. >> that kind of defines what a historic moment, right? if it's never happened before. and it's hugely significant because i think it tells us where we are in our politics today. clearly, for everyone to see, there is something broken in our politics. and i don't know that we've seen how it's all going to get fixed yet, but this is the example that is being shown to the american people today of how it's not functioning the way it was designed to function. and in that i mean anybody who looks at this, remember, the house is a majority rule body. i mean, much more so than the senate in its design. and yet i don't know, seven we're up to? eight members of the majority conference are clearly asserting their will here to rid the speaker

i mean, it is as our friend david chalian said sticky, sticky, sticky his support. >> it is sticky. if you went through the last few months of iowa polls and specifically des moines register poll considered the best, his support isn't actually growing, it is locked in in that low 40 to mid 40 range. he leads by a larger number today than he did a couple months ago because support for others, most particularly ron desantis, has collapsed. nikki haley and ramaswamy also dropped five or six points. so nikki haley is the only one who is growing right now but she's up to 16%. >> and i want to look at that in one second but just staying on trump for a second, eva, there was a quote from an iowa poll respondent as a part of this poll, his name was dennis, and he said if trump is not running i would have to see what the other candidates stand for, otherwise it's trump all the way. he's my hero. him and jesus are my heroes. quite a statement. >> it is, and that is what his rivals have to confront. i think that there is bewilderment and frustration among these campaigns. they are careful abou

. >>> let's discuss the aspects of the trial with david chalian and sara murray and former prosecutoriot williams. i want to start with you, elliott, something that alina habba said in the opening statement, with letitia james in the room, she went after the a.g., saying she was going to get trump. described him as an illegitimate president. the judge, though, essentially tossing that aside. why? >> for the most part, the attorneys can say what they want in court here because there's no jury in the room. often rules in court are made for the protection of not putting evidence in front of a jury. ful she makes bad arguments to the judge, the only audience she is going to lose is the judge right there because he's the one ultimately making the ruling or decision here. so, i think he's a big boy and can take some of the attacks coming in. it really would be a different calculus if there's a jury in the room, because arguments like that risk painting the trial. >> and then criticizing the judge saying he's a rogue judge. very unique strategy to get into court late, because you're outside

. >> i want to start can david chalian. what's the significance of someone who is actively in involved in trying to decertify the presidential election, which joe biden won. what's the csignificance of thi person potentially becoming the speaker of the house? >> i think it was perfectly on display. yesterday tom manslaughterer served as the speaker designee. he voted to certify the election as a results in 2020. donald trump's republican party, that's the significance here. if you were trying to overturn the legitimate election result of 2020, that's a credential to sell in today's house republican conference. not a disqualifying factor in today's republican conference. and that is a crucial piece of where we are. and why they are still also where we are. >> the house will come to order. >> wolf, to that, this is a member who wasn't just on the bus on trump and an election denier, he was driving the bus. sources said to me today he has the votes, that he could get it on the first ballot. and that the fact he's not well know

but david chalian, i have to say i like it when politicians -- i don't like when -- i want want to be honest here. i don't like it necessarily if something bad has happened to them, but i like it when something intervenes and they are candid. that was a rare moment of candor when he's basically saying, yeah, jim has to drop out. we're going to meet. we're in a bad place. >> as manu noted, it was just totally, totally different from where mckcarthy was just an hou or two before, where he was when he was giving the nominating speech, where he was last night when he left. seeing that jordan is going tb able to gut this out and he was given 15 rounds. >> jim jordan is the greatest legislator that ever lived. he's a man of integrity. >> jim jordan has some thinking to do. >> selfless. >> kevin mccarthy also is a vote counter. he was the head of the nrcc. i understand he didn't have the votes to stay with that, but he has experienced an understand ing where the conference is. by the way, kevin mccarthy knew when had allowed the government to city open, he knew his job was in jeopardy. it's

cnn's audie cornish, host of the wonderful podcast the assignment, and cnn political director david chalian. let's take a moment to reflect on the -- i don't know if it's a farewell press conference, whatever it was, but kevin mccarthy started off with kind of a statesman like address to the masses. and before it was over, he was going through the litany of hunter biden innuendos, faulting the democrats for their behavior regarding january 6th, which was an interesting twist, and going member by member in terms of the house republicans who voted against him, even getting into the granular detail about whether or not congresswoman nancy mace's chief of staff sided with him and not her. you kind of got an understanding there, maybe, of why he lost his job. >> he -- it was kevin mccarthy unplugged. it was kevin mccarthy obviously with a lot on his chest that he wanted to get out there. about the people who wronged him. there were a lot of, from his perspective, the people who wronged him. there were a lot of small jabs like what we just heard about from nancy mace, and then there were big accu