scenes battle and how the israeli-hamas war is affecting washington, abc news political director rick klein. hi, rick. nice to see you. >> hey, great to great to be on with you. kristen thanks for having me. >> i'm wondering if you think there's new urgency to having a speaker with the war between israel and hamas. well i think there's underscoring the stakes, but the urgency doesn't seem to be felt in capitol hill. >> the folks in the republican party who brought the ouster of kevin mccarthy are really no closer to finding a replacement that was one of the strange things about the whole exercise last week, which seems like a long time ago, given the events over the weekend and continuing into this week in israel. we understand the importance of this and obviously the grave stakes for everyone involved. but for the republicans who were part of this, this revolt that ousted kevin mccarthy, they haven't been able to do anything in the last couple of days to bring themselves together. there was an inch forward when they seemed to agree for kevin, for kevin mccarthy's replacement to be steve sc

joining us live now to talk national and state politics, news, abc news political director rick klein. hey, rick. >> good to be with you, kristen. >> so who are these new nine and who looks most poised to succeed? well tom emmer would be the consensus choice kind of the next man up because he is the number three in the house. >> but he might have the biggest problem of all in convincing former president trump of his worthiness. trump today said that he and emmer spoke the other day. emmer said he's his biggest fan, but the fact that he voted to certify the election over the objections of so many republicans might make it a nonstarter. so in a sense, all of these candidates have a flaw, which is they got in one camp or the other. they're all very loyal to donald trump. but ultimately they acted in the way that the trump may they may have some retribution. so even if with him not involved, it's hard to see how any of them, frankly 20-17 they're speaking tonight to their colleagues. but i haven't talked to anyone on capitol hill who thinks it's going to get settled in the next day or two

let's bring in the round table, former dnc chair donna brazile, sarah isgur, rick klein, and alex burnshis morning, and rick, let's get right to it and mike pence. he's dropping out. his poll numbers were pretty abysmal, but a surprise. >> look. you heard him say it. it was not his time, and it may never have been his time, but it became evident to him and a lot of people watching, the only person whose time it is right now is donald trump. nothing has moved his numbers and this was an acknowledgment of that, and even though pence had warning shots about what it means to follow trump, this campaign is going to be defined by trump, and even with the other candidates all dropped out, it isn't clear donald trump can be stopped right now. the only thing that'll matter is when the voting starts. this will be a couple of major dropouts we'll see on the earlier side, maybe before iowa because frankly speaking, the only way donald trump is going to be stopped is if he's stopped in those early states and that'll mean more of a head to head matchup you're hearing from donors and this is acknowled

roundtable, joined by former dnc chair donna brazile, "the dispatch" senior editor, sarah isgur, rick kleinhel baits. big moment. matt gaetz is going to do what he's been threatening, trying to remove speaker mccarthy. what happens? >> the democrats in some form or fashion end up saving kevin mccarthy. there are some procedural things that have to happen if and when he does this this week, but the end result is kevin mccarthy will certainly be speaker and because democrats helped him out, just as they bailed him out last night. that bill does not pass without the help of democrats. kevin mccarthy knew that going through the series. it may be worth to him, the price of keeping the job, but it is going to be a different speakership when democrats help. >> does that change the nature of his speakership because he's now elected, i guess, not removed by a bipartisan vote? >> not quite, but from the perspective of matt gaetz and some of his colleagues, yes, this is going to be another strong talking point against mccarthy. but they don't have another option. so, in some sense, this is already the