geoff: Tomorrow marks the start
of a new congress, but the story
at the capitol is a familiar
one.
Chaos, this time inside the
incoming Republican house
majority, as leader Kevin
Mccarthy vies to become speaker
of the house.
Following it all is our capitol
hill correspondent, Lisa
Desjardins.
And white house correspondent,
Laura barron-lopez.
Let's jump right in.
The start of the new congress is
less than 24 hours away.
Kevin Mccarthy does not have the
votes to become house speaker.
Why not?
Who is standing in his way?
Lisa: Let's start with good
math.
Two absolutely -- has
Republicans come into the
session of congress with 222
members.
But to clinch the speakership,
you need a majority of a house
that is 218, that is easy
enough.
Kevin Mccarthy can spare all of
his Republicans except for four.
Not yet on board with Mr.
Mccarthy, 14 or more members of
his own party say that they are
not there yet.
Some of these groups say they
are a hard now.
There are others who came out
with a letter, after Mr.
Mccarthy proposed a sweeping
amount of changes that they said
they wanted, they said they are
not there yet.
Here is an excerpt from that
letter.
They say they -- there continue
to be missing commitments with
respect to virtually every
component of our entreaties.
What does that mean?
They don't trust him.
They don't believe he is made --
he has made firm enough
commitments.
.
Talking with those members, the
mood from those folks is let's
go ahead and do it.
One of them said, why not open
this Pandora's box?
This is legislating.
It is ok if there is a little
chaos.
The rest of the party may not
agree.
Geoff: Let's talk more about
that.
As you point out, leader
Mccarthy has given his skeptics
everything they want, and yet
that does not appear to be
enough to get them to yes.
Lisa: That's correct.
One of the problems is while
there are not the votes for
Kevin Mccarthy, there are also
not necessarily votes for anyone
else.
Some of Mr. Mccarthy's allies
have said, we will not support
anyone else.
Here is a letter of his allies,
what they wrote is, we are not
only supporting Kevin Mccarthy
for speaker, but we are not open
to any so-called shadow
consensus candidate.
In addition, those members, some
of them say they don't like the
rules changes that the other
conservatives want, which would
mean individuals have more power
to affect but disrupt the
Republican agenda.
There is a difficulty.
Geoff: Is there a viable
alternative to Kevin Mccarthy if
this vote goes to multiple
ballots?
The first time in some 100 years
this would happen.
Is there someone waiting in the
wings, someone could emerge?
Lisa: Currently no one
announced.
We are watching some people,
Steve Scalise, the number two in
the house, there is an Aaron
Sorkin type of dream of some
moderates of Fred Upton, a
retired member of the house.
You don't have to be a member to
be speaker.
I really think that is a
fantasy.
I don't see him being able to
get this vote.
Some of the members who said
they were never Kevin today have
been speaking out, here is Bob
good from Virginia.
They say they have some kind of
candidate ready to go.
>> I think you will see on the
second ballot, an increasing
number of members vote for a
true candidate who can represent
and motivate the base, inspire
Republicans across the country,
get to 218 votes.
Lisa: Who is this candidate?
I don't know.
The line between political
reality and fantasy right now is
very murky, and we don't know.
We know tomorrow will be a long
day.
Geoff: What is the white houses
view of this -- white house's
view of this?
The president will use this
moment to draw a contrast.
He will tout investments in
infrastructure, while the
Republicans are here in
Washington trying to sort this
out.
Laura: He is starting those
tours this week.
President Biden is going to go
to covington, Kentucky, and he
will appear alongside senate
minority leader Mitch Mcconnell,
a big deal.
Biden is striking that contrast
with Mcconnell to show that the
white house tells me the main
messages are one, he cares about
bipartisanship, and he will
continue to care about that in
demonstrating his track record
for the foreseeable future.
The second message they are
trying to send is this year is
going to be heavily focused on
implementation, on the
implementation of that
infrastructure bill, inflation
reduction act, and also of the
semi conductors bill they saw
pass.
All of that, he is joined on the
road this week as well with vice
president Kamala Harris.
As well as --
geoff: Leader Mcconnell.
Laura: They are spreading out
across the country.
As well as transportation, they
are going to other parts of the
country.
It is important to say Mcconnell
is striking a contrast himself.
He does not do anything
unintentionally.
And he has made very clear that
he does not like the chaos that
Republicans have been involved
in, and that is potentially
happening on the house GOP site.
Geoff: Is a divided Republican
party in the house -- how useful
is that to the white house?
Especially as we head into an
election year next year.
I don't want to get too far
ahead of ourselves.
Laura: The white house is
looking forward to -- although
the sources I've spoken to, they
are looking forward to the
availability -- to the
availability to strike that
contrast.
To show that now that
Republicans are in charge of one
of the members of congress, and
are they going to work with the
president and the senate to
accomplish anything?
One thing they keep bringing up
his this statistic that the past
two democratic presidents that
won reelection had a house GOP
to contend with, whereas the
president that did not, Jimmy
Carter, lost reelection.
They are looking forward to
being more aggressive with this
house GOP at every turn.
We have seen some of that since
them in terms of they have tried
to push back on trump's comments
about the insurrection, as well
as a number of house GOP
comments.
Geoff: What are you going to be
watching for tomorrow?
Lisa: I will be watching for the
people standing up and
announcing votes, and I will
keep a tally on pen and paper.
Geoff: I'm sure you will.
Lisa Desjardins, Laura borough
Lopez, think you both.