>>> In our politics lead, some
11th hour scrambling from house
Republican leader Kevin
Mccarthy, trying to line up
enough votes to win election for
speaker of the house.
There are a handful of far right
holdouts.
Mccarthy is hoping to seal the
deal by making concessions,
including lowering the number of
votes needed to trigger a vote
on getting rid of the speaker
himself.
CNN's Manu Raju is live on
capitol hill.
Are those concessions having any
effect on the members who have
publicly announced their
opposition or at least
skepticism to him?
I think the number is up to 14
or so.
>> Reporter: Not at the moment.
In fact, right now Kevin
Mccarthy is in the speaker's
office, he has moved in,
essentially.
This is normal process.
There's no placard above the
speaker's office but he's been
in there all day making phone
calls.
He's meeting with a number of
allies and key detractors.
I gist saw congressman Matt
Gaetz, a hard nose, walk into
the office, and Lauren boebert
walked in and Scott Perry, one
of the signatories of that
letter yesterday of members who
raised concerns of concessions
that Kevin Mccarthy, that
they've not been enough.
What will happen if he's unable
to secure the 218 votes he needs
to secure the speakership?
He can only lose four, at the
moment he could lose up to 10 or
14 votes.
Then what happens?
It is uncertain.
It has been 100 years since the
speaker's race has gone onto
multiple ballots and at the
moment I'm told Kevin Mccarthy
has no plans to go anywhere.
He's planning to grind it out,
ballot after ballot after
ballot, until his detractors
fall in line.
The big question is, who will be
next?
In talking to a number of
Republicans it is clear that
virtually nobody in the
Republican conference can get to
the 218 votes needed to become
speaker.
So if Mccarthy can't get there,
can his deputy, Steve Scalise,
the number two get there?
Republicans say he simply
cannot, which raises more
questions about Mccarthy's
future and prospects ahead of
the critical vote as he
continues to make concessions,
negotiate, and as the conference
prepares to meet ahead of the
critical vote.
Still uncertain what it will
mean going forward as a number
of Republicans are concerned
that it would undercut their
ability to govern as they come
into power.
>> Thank you.
Tomorrow is going to be
exciting.
>>> Let's discuss this with our
panel.
Mccarthy told CNN today he
thinks it's going to be a good
day.
For people out there who are
just -- you know, just got back
from vacation, what do these
people want?
What do these hard liners want?
What is their issue with Kevin
Mccarthy, other than he's a
swamp creature?
What tangibly are they looking
for?
>> Some argue that he wasn't
loyal enough to the former
president.
Some will argue that
rank-and-file members don't have
enough power.
I think that's why the 72-hour
time to review bills was
proposed to be changed.
There's going to be no end to
their demands, even if he is
able to successfully pull this
off.
I think this whole episode
illustrates that you can't
abandon your principles in
pursuit of power because it
ultimately may not work out for
you in the end.
We'll have to see.
I think that over time these
members that are challenging him
might get worn out by the
process.
This could stretch on and on and
on, and then maybe in the final
hour he's able to pull it out.
I think if anyone in Washington
tells you they know with
certainty what's going to
happen, they're lying.
>> So former Republican
congressman was on the show
earlier and he said he thinks
Kevin Mccarthy has been offering
too many concessions for too
long to this Maga wing, not all
14 of them are not, but a lot of
them are, what do they want
other than not Kevin Mccarthy?
>> Well, the ability for any
single one of them to be able to
basically call a vote of no
confidence and kick him out as
speaker.
>> That's still not Kevin
Mccarthy.
It's in the future, not just
today.
>> And he already offered them
the ability for any group of
five to say that.
So they want for one person to
be able to say that.
The other thing they've asked
for is leadership to not play in
Republican primaries, which
would also be a break from
precedent.
I think that they're essentially
asking him to abandon other
members of his conference at
that point in order to get these
votes.
So he's really stuck between a
rock and a hard place and the
two sides are playing a game of
chicken and trying to see who
will wear down first.
>> Some of the demands are not
ridiculous.
Having more time to read a bill,
that's not a ridiculous demand.
>> Sure.
And paying for legislation by
making cuts elsewhere.
That's more mainstream,
traditional Republican fair.
You used to work on the hill for
the other side.
What's your take on all of this?
>> Well, normally chaos and
dysfunction consumes the party
heading into the minority.
It's consuming the party that's
heading into the majority right
now.
If you look at what's going on
on the democratic side, they had
a relatively easy transfer of
power from Nancy Pelosi to
hakeem Jeffries.
Their signature achievement in
the inflation reduction act,
capping the price of insulin,
happened yesterday.
You don't hear a lot of people
talk about challenging Joe Biden
in a primary.
So there's relative stability in
the democratic party, and for
the party that's heading into
the majority, this was supposed
to be Kevin Mccarthy's week,
right?
They are consumed with all of
this chaos and dysfunction.
They've got this fraud heading
into congress who has a whole
story about whether or not --
>> Oh, Santos, yeah.
>> These are the two headlines
that Kevin Mccarthy and house
Republicans are dealing with,
and Democrats picked up a seat
in the senate.
So this is not how Republicans
thought they would be starting
the new year and it's a real
problem for them heading into
trying to govern.
How are they going to pass a
debt ceiling, fund the
government?
How are they going to do
anything in the house?
>> They're not.
You asked what do they want,
they want to decimate the
Republican establishment as we
know it.
I got a fundraising email today
at noon from Andy Biggs saying I
need a donation from you and
I've got four weeks to mount a
pressure campaign.
That tells me that Biggs has not
only grown in power at a time
where we didn't think he would,
but these people believe they
have the power to decimate the
Republican establishment.
They will not rest until it's
done.
They don't want a guy like
Mccarthy there because they
think he stands for nothing and
they think he'll make deals with
the Democrats.
Those of us who spent time on
the hill know that's the only
way things get done.
They thought that trump stuck it
to the Republican establishment
so they're continuing to do
trump's work.
I find it problematic because
the extremists hold the power.
They're holding Kevin Mccarthy
in the toughest place.
I think he'll pull it off
tomorrow, no doubt.
>> You do?
>> I do, because let's not
forget who he is.
He's a political animal.
When speaker Ryan was in the
speakership, Ryan wanted nothing
more than to be the policy guy
and he got to do that because
his right man was Mccarthy.
Mccarthy was the political
animal ready to play the dirty
games that speaker Ryan didn't
want to do.
He's going to prove himself to
be the political animal.
>> Let's assume the nine skeptic
who wrote the letter, chip Roy,
et cetera, that they come
around.
That's certainly possible.
They're just skeptical of Kevin.
But these five -- he can only
afford to lose four of them.
Who is going to buckle of these
five?
I just don't know.
They're all out there, they have
nothing to lose, it seems to me.
I mean, other than the
Republican party.
>> I actually think that he wins
it eventually, but for these
five folks, they kind of have
to -- I think they kind of have
to push this to a second ballot
and really try to at least
embarrass him.
Because after that, I mean,
they're out there, they're all
out there.
They're kind of all in on
pushing this.
And, again, Maga wins here.
Trump has endorsed Kevin
Mccarthy.
>> They could have gone for the
jugular and tried to flip four
Republicans, saying, get in with
us.
Kevin didn't play hardball.
You want to save democracy?
>> I think Democrats are happy
watching this all play out
because it's literally chaos and
dysfunction.
This is the Maga Republican
party on display for the
American public to see.
They're pretty happy with what's
going on.
It's a shame this is the ruling
party of the house, but this is
what people voted for.
And I don't think Democrats feel
any pressure to bail them out.
>> Isn't this exactly why senate
Republicans cut that deal with
senate Democrats to pass that
giant spending bill?
Because they just look at the
house Republicans and they think
these guys can't do anything,
they can't do this?
>> And Kevin Mccarthy says that
if he becomes speaker those are
the sorts of things he would
block in the future.
When you talk about Democrats,
I'm hearing exactly what you
said from democratic lawmakers,
they say this is evidence of the
inability, the GOP's inability
to govern and this is going to
happen for the next two years.
This is what they're building
their argument on for 2024, to
try and take back the house of
representatives.
So I don't think that you're
going to see them step in and
try and bail out Kevin Mccarthy.
>> Don't you think this suggests
that we are going to have a
government shutdown, we are
going to have the debt ceiling
chaos, I mean all of that -- if
he can't even win the
speakership, 218 votes, with
a -- what is it, 218?
He has a cushion of four votes.
Voting for Kevin Mccarthy is
nothing like voting to raise the
debt ceiling.
That's an ugly vote.
>> It certainly doesn't inspire
a lot of confidence about the
competence of our government,
but I will say I don't know how
many tears I shed for Mccarthy
because at the end of the day I
do think that it shouldn't be a
coronation.
Leaders should be challenged.
I think that we have to be
concerned about the people who
are challenging Mccarthy, but
ultimately he should have to