First round of balloting for the speaker and it's clear that Kevin McCarthy,
the Republican leader, does not have the votes.
There were 19 defections, 10 Republicans voting for
Andy Biggs of Arizona nine voting for others.
It looks like we're headed towards another round of votes.
>> It is not a good day for Kevin McCarthy, who of course,
is seeking to be the new Speaker of the House.
Now, not only did he lose the vote, meaning he lost and
did not meet the 218 votes necessary to become Speaker
of the House, he lost it three times.
I'm gonna go over to you right away Farren,
there's a lot of context to get to, but I wanna get your first reaction to this.
>> Stop the count is my initial reaction.
No, this is absolutely, not only is it historic, right?
Somebody that hasn't happened, in over 100 years, in fact,
losing it three times I don't think that's ever happened.
But it just shows this complete disarray, Kevin McCarthy spent the last
two weeks during this break meeting with Republicans,
talking and giving away the farm.
Everything you wanna do, I will let you do it, you just got to vote for me.
And as we know to it erupted in this shouting, profane shouting match this
morning behind closed doors and he ended up losing support, right?
We thought it was only gonna be that gang of five and now it's a gang of 19 and
getting worse on subsequent ballots.
So, he's going down in flames and I don't know how he, or
even the Republican party walk away from this looking like normal rational adults.
I don't think they can.
>> Well, let me just start off by saying that when I woke up this morning and
saw that this was really the top story and that we would have to talk
about it on the show, I was bitter about it because I don't care.
I don't care about Kevin McCarthy, I don't care about these ridiculous power
struggles because it's not about the American people,
it's about these elite individuals looking to accumulate more power for
themselves and their political careers.
But I do wanna thank the Republicans in the house for
making this story a lot more interesting.
So I would at least be able to talk about it enthusiastically.
So, not only did you lose once, not only do you lose twice,
he lost three times and you're right Farren, this is pretty unprecedented.
In fact, the last time the house had failed to elect a speaker was in 1923.
So you're right in that,
it's been about a century since something like this has happened.
Now, the contingent of the far right representatives who are steadfast
in opposing him did in fact secure some massive concessions from Kevin McCarthy.
And honestly, to me it's pretty unclear what their issue with McCarthy is,
some are saying, he wasn't loyal enough to Donald Trump.
But to that contingent of the right wing, I would just say, maybe it's time to
move away from Donald Trump, especially seeing what a liability Trump and
his endorsed candidates were during the midterm elections.
Later on in the show, we have a story about Trump now blaming
the anti choice activists for the midterm election losses.
He just refuses to ever take any responsibility.
But remember, Kevin McCarthy was pretty damn loyal to Donald Trump and
critiqued him here and there, just a little bit.
It wasn't like he was some fire breather against Trump.
He certainly wasn't Liz Cheney or some other Republican who's now voted
out of Congress because of their protest toward Trump and some of his actions.
>> You brought up a really good point there.
What exactly is their problem with McCarthy?
Matt Gates has been obviously one of the most outspoken about,
we got to make sure McCarthy doesn't get it I want my friend Jim Jordan's, but
he's never actually articulated what his problem is with Kevin McCarthy.
I don't like McCarthy either, I wouldn't vote for the guy.
But you guys are in the same party, you're putting up these objections,
you've been going around for weeks gathering up all these people, but
you can't even tell us what the problem is.
This morning Gates comes out and he says, you can't drain the swamp when you have
the biggest alligator out there running it.
Okay, but what does that mean?
That's just a metaphor you've created and
it works down here in alligator country, but it doesn't mean anything.
You have no legitimate grievance with this man other than I guess,
you just want your good friend, Jim Jordan to have the job and I don't know,
maybe he gets something special out of that, but none of it makes any sense.
He's putting up a tantrum for the sake of having a temper tantrum.
That's what Gates and his little freedom caucus freaks are doing right now.
>> And speaking of Jim Jordan who people like Gates want to serve as the next
speaker of the House for a Republican controlled house.
Picking Jim Jordan is fascinating from a guy who purports to care so
much about, victims of sexual abuse and grooming.
Jim Jordan is accused by multiple wrestlers of essentially
covering up the sexual misconduct that was allegedly being
carried out by the wrestling coach, I believe at Ohio State.
Yes, at Ohio State, I wanna be sure that I'm right about that.
But anyway, moving on,
let's just take a look at a few photos of what the house floor looked like and in
particular what Kevin McCarthy looked like as he number one lost the first round.
So there he is, you can see that Kevin McCarthy got 202 votes,
he needs 215, I'm sorry 218 in order to move on.
And so, they had to take the vote again and he only gained two additional votes.
In the third and final vote of the day, McCarthy got 202 votes,
Jeffrey's got 212 and Jim Jordan got 20.
So among the most vocal in their opposition to McCarthy is in fact
Representatives Matt Gates, who we've talked about Andy Biggs,
Scott Perry, Lauren Bobber and Ralph Norman.
Now, when it comes to Lauren Bobber, I remember she made clear that she needed
a concession from Kevin McCarthy in regard to being able to do away with him.
If the Republican caucus is unhappy with the work he's doing well,
he did offer some of those concessions.
And it appears that it's not good enough for Lauren Bobber, because in my opinion,
this is really about getting your name in the paper.
This is really about focusing some media attention on yourself as someone
who's anti establishment when in reality, I mean,
what does that mean when it comes to the Laure Bobber in the world?
I mean, the pro corporate, anti worker rhetoric that we've heard from her,
I don't believe for
a second that she has a real issue with the Republican establishment.
And when it comes to Matt Gates, I will be fair to him in noting that he has
been a proponent of getting money out of politics.
But if that's the motivating factor here for Matt Gates, so
you're gonna endorse Jim Jordan for the role, what, it just makes no sense.
And I wanna go to shockingly one of the biggest defenders of Kevin McCarthy and
that's Marjorie Greene who typically is an ally to Matt Gates, let's watch.
>> But in that conference meeting there we found out that there were several members,
three in fact, that went in last night and were demanding positions for themselves.
Demanding gavel positions, demanding subcommittees, demanding for
people to be taking off committees and people to be put on committees.
Three Republicans out of our 222, I want you all to know,
I have not done that for myself, I haven't asked for one thing for
myself and I'm the only Republican that has zero committees.
So there's not going to be a tiny little group that is going to demand their way
because they want subcommittee chairs and they want certain power positions,
that is not how this works.
And that is the worst thing they can do for the country and
I'm furious over it and I'm gonna continue calling them out.
>> Let us just dispel the notion that Marjorie Greene is not in any way driven
by self interest because she is in fact supportive of Kevin McCarthy as the next
Speaker of the House after he committed to reassigning her committee assignments.
After it was previously stripped from her due to her anti semitic remarks and
conspiratorial remarks, you guys all know about that.
So, they're all motivated by self interest, every single one of them.
This isn't at all what they claim it's about out.
It's not some effort to switch the Republican party from a pro corporate,
pro establishment party to a working people's party,
that's not what they're fighting for.
They're fighting for their personal power accumulation.
They're trying to make it appear as though they are fighting against
the establishment.
Because fact of the matter is fair in everyone's sick of the establishment.
Working people are sick of the establishment, but the political elite
love the establishment, love the pro corporate tone of the establishment and
go along with what the establishment wants in vote after vote.
>> Yeah, and I think that's kind of the humor of this as well as looking at
the voting records of all of these people,
they all vote together with the exception of obviously this McCarthy vote.
But you put any issue in front of them, these Republicans are all lock step.
You may have one or two detractors every now and then, but
when it comes to supporting the American people or benefit to corporations,
they're gonna make sure that they all vote together to not help the people to help
the corporations instead.
Marjorie, Taylor Greene is as much a part of the establishment as McCarthy is as
Matt Gates is as Lauren Bobber is, they're all cut from the same cloth,
they just think they can pull the wool over everybody's eyes and
convince them that they're not.
Now, I do wanna say to another interesting person who's kind of emerged
as bizarrely enough, a voice of reason for Republicans is Dan Crenshaw.
He came out this morning and he also hit on that same fact that you brought up that
these people are just seeking attention.
They have no idea what they actually want, they just know that they wanna get out
there in the media to talk about it, book me on your show one more time Crenshaw
says of these people and then we'll tell you why we oppose it.
And it's just Crenshaw somebody, he's horrible beliefs, right,
bad Republican beliefs, but he has become so sneaky with his
ability to shrug off the Maga folks that he originally was a part of.
That just as an aside somebody to keep an eye on in 2024 because I really do think
that he is positioning himself to be the yes,
I'm friends with these people, I'm friends with these people, but
at the end of the day, I think he's gearing up for something bigger.
I really think that's what he's about.
>> We'll see how it plays out but
I will say straddling doesn't typically work in this political climate, right?
So, half measures, trying to play both sides,
which I believe he's trying to do as we speak, isn't gonna bode well for him.
We'll see how it all plays out.
But I think he has made a calculation that doubling down on Maga Republicanism
might not be the right future for the Republican Party, right?
Now, to your point, I do wanna talk about the asks from McCarthy and
the concessions that he did agree to.
So, for instance,
he took a hard line against legislation that would fund the government and
avert a shutdown unless Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas resigns.
And so, there's gonna be a government shutdown.
I feel like we're headed in that direction,
regardless of what happens with Kevin McCarthy.
Also over the weekend, he unveiled a package of rules
governing how the house operates, including the so called Holman rule,
which allows lawmakers to use spending bills to defund specific programs and
fire federal officials or reduce their pay.
And then this is the biggest one, okay?
His biggest concession was agreeing to a rule that would allow
five lawmakers to call a snap vote at any time to oust the speaker.
But it was not enough to appease the right flank of his party who
wanted any single lawmaker to be able to force such a vote.
I mean, look, I think his concessions were pretty huge, but
it's not about the concessions.
I really do think this is about garnering attention for
themselves, The naysayers, those who are against Kevin McCarthy.
I just think it's hilarious and
power struggles are really just about the individual seeking power.
It's not about the American people or what these lawmakers intend to do to
improve the lives materially of American people.
>> And I do think it's also interesting,
clearly Lauren Gobert who just barely made it back to the house,
she learned nothing, a couple weeks ago, she was fighting for her political life.
Voters rejected her in her deep red I think it's a Republican plus
eight district and barely made it by a couple 100 votes because they were
sick of her extremism and her embarrassing behavior is what the voters said.
So she goes right back in day one embarrasses everybody again.
She's incapable of learning from her mistakes and it could be setting her up
hopefully for a dare I say, normal Republican to primary her in two years.
But it's just so
funny to watch these people continuously make the same mistakes over and over and
over again that we just saw a couple of weeks ago destroyed their party.
They don't learn and the American people, it's gonna be a rough two years, right,
we're not gonna get good things like you said,
there will be government shutdowns, people will suffer.
But if they remember this, we can avoid this disaster again in 2024.
But we have to remember it.
People have a very short attention span, so we have to carry it with us,
the Democrats need to put this in their messaging from now until 2024 to make
sure people don't forget about what happened cuz they do forget believe it or
not they do.
>> They do.
So, what happens now?
Well, the House has adjourned today's session, so,
they have to continue voting until an individual gets the majority.
So, who knows how long this is going to go on.
And look guys, the real issue here is that the House of Representatives
can't do anything until they determine who the next speaker of the House is.
In a situation where we have both chambers of Congress controlled by Democrats and
there's some possibility of passing important legislation,
I'd be more concerned about this.
But we're already dealing with gridlock with the Senate being controlled by
Democrats and the House being controlled by Republicans.
I don't think anyone was really expecting any legislative work to be done in
the next two years anyway.
So, at the end of the day, the big silver lining,
in my opinion is that the Republican Party is in disarray.
It's entertaining to watch and
it doesn't really impact the lives of ordinary people.
That's my takeaway from this, final words Farren.
>> Yeah, I mean, the only good thing about it is they can't do damage while they're
still fighting with each other.
Things I guess can't get worse.
So, yeah, if there is a silver lining, that's probably it right now.
But again, I wish the Democrats would run political ads,
not just during election seasons, but put this in an ad and go ahead and
run it across the country for the next week.
Let's make sure everybody's paying attention to how dysfunctional and
incompetent that Republican Party is.
That's what needs to happen.