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

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

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

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

. >> 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