Transcripts For MSNBCW Chris 20240703

Good afternoon, thank you for staying with our special coverage of the israelhamas war. Im Andrea Mitchell In Washington, where there is breaking news. The State Department confirming in the last hour at least 22 americans have been killed in the conflict so far. That update coming just minutes after President Biden doubled down on his strong comments supporting israel with remarks at the white house. This attack has brought to the surface the painful memories and scars left by antisemitism and genocide against the jewish people, and this moment we have to be crystal clear. There is no justification for terrorism, no excuse. Were also learning that Secretary Of State blinken will be traveling to israel this afternoon with a delegation that includes steve gillon, the special envoy for special hostage affairs. This hour well check in on capitol hill where a deeply divided House Republican conference could be one step closer to selecting their next speaker. Joining me now msnbcs chief correspondent ali velshi in israel, and nbc News White House correspondent monica alba here at the white house. Weve been following reports from the idf. Weve seen really the massacre in that kibbutz where you are, which was, you know, finally opened up to the press yesterday. Tell us the situation now. Reporter yeah, well, at the moment idf has confirmed reports of something going on in the north of the country. They say nothing has landed but alarms went off in the north of the country, there were various reports. The official designation is aircraft, those could have been drones. Weve seen some activity about 15 miles behind us. We felt the percussion of attacks into gaza, idf attacks into gaza, and weve seen a number of patriot launches, if one happens while were on the air, ill go to it. The situation on the kibbutz there, a number of the kibbutz on the border around gaza, one you saw the remarkable images coming out of them. They are shocking. They are, believe it or not, worse than people had already seen or even thought. I spoke to people from another kibbutz also on the border who had been evacuated. Everybodys been evacuated from that part of israel. Theyve gone to central are israel, who are staying in a hotel, and i spoke to a man earlier who was one of the people there who held off the fire from the Hamas Terrorists just with seven of his fellow men from the kibbutz. They put everybody else into the shelter. They fought these guys off. I asked him what hes feeling right now. Listen to what he told me. This is what i like, make gaza flat. Went to egypt, went to iran. I wanted to go to their friends, not to my house. I dont want any soldier will come into our gaza. I want to make it as flat from up, the size of the bomb wont matter now, only the size of the bomb. Reporter only the size of the bomb will matter now. Hes not talking about getting rid of hamas. Hes saying i want gaza to be flat, hes saying he wants the people to go to iran. Thats the sentiment from a lot of people. Where i am south of us is where the columns, the troops being called up, theyre going down there. Theyre amassing next to the border either for a Ground Invasion or for the threat of a Ground Invasion that may allow for negotiations for the release of the hostages. What about the danger to the hostages and concerns expressed privately despite strong support and being in lock step that they should try to minimize civilian casualties in gaza. There are, you know, hundreds of thousands, you know, probably more than a million palestinians. There are 2 million residents there. Theres a large proportion of them who are innocent and are being oppressed by the hamas leadership. Reporter yes, and that was the message delivered directly from President Biden to Prime Minister netanyahu, andrea, to really take into account the potential here for mass civilian casualties so to try to minimize that to the extent that its possible. We know now also that President Biden and Vice President harris both spoke again with Prime Minister netanyahu earlier this morning after they both had a large meeting with the entire National Security team here at the white house, including Secretary Of State Antony Blinken on all of the latest developments, and we know Something Else that the white house is actively coordinating right now with other countries including, of course, israel, and egypt would be Something Like a safe passage for those in gaza to leave into egypt through a Border Crossing there that would have to be coordinated among multiple countries in order to get those palestinians out, those civilians, as well as Palestinian Americans who are there who are also pleading with the u. S. Government for help in terms of trying to get out and get to safety given what could be coming in the next few days. Now, the president did speak here earlier at the white house earlier today, as you saw talking about how the support for israel right now is unshakable, and hell have a lot more to say on that later this afternoon when he meets with Jewish Community leaders here and second gentleman doug emhoff will be delivering remarks as well to talk specifically about how this is impacting the Jewish Community here in the United States domestically to talk about antisemitism, to talk about how potential hate crimes that could happen in the wake of this are something that the u. S. Is monitoring very closely. So the president is essentially being briefed hourbyhour on all of these different developments. Theyre following it very closely. As we understand, he will be speaking again this afternoon, likely to that death toll that we know has now climbed to 22 american citizens and that many u. S. Officials are bracing for that number to even potentially go up higher. As we wait to figure out the number of americans who might be held by hamas. We know some of them are, but we dont know how many and yesterday the figure of those still unaccounted for, potentially missing, potentially injured, or potentially also tragically having lost their lives was around 20 people. So were expecting to get an jut date on that from the white house this afternoon as well, andrea. And what about what the Homeland Security adviser and the National Security council said about possibly trying to arrange Charter Flights so that americans who cant get on to commercial flights can leave americans in israel, or those with dual citizenship can leave if they want to. Yes, also actively being coordinated right now by the u. S. Government. Thats a big piece of this. We understand it wouldnt even just with charters by plane, but it could also be a charter by sea. Theyre exploring all of those different kinds of angles and approaches to try to get people who want to leave israel out of there and american citizens who have expressed that similar concern, and then the other thing that the u. S. Is coordinating and continuing to provide support on is these Government Experts who have dealt with Hostage Recovery in the past, some of whom were already on the ground in israel through their work with the embassy there to provide this kind of support so they have offered their assistance to the israeli counterparts specifically working on the Hostage Matters and other Government Experts as well have now been assigned to join them to provide any kind of assistance to try to in a technical manner help this situation, and were not just talking about getting americans out of there who we know are held, but all kinds of people, the u. S. Really lending their entire full strength of support and resources from that angle as well, andrea. Our thanks to you, monica alba at the white house. Thanks to ali velshi, and joining us now for more on the israel and hamas conflict, ambassador mark regev, an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ambassador, thank you very much for being with us. Can you give us any updates at all on any potential operations regarding the hostages in particular . You have so many israeli hostages and we have several we dont know how many americans. Andrea, any operations that i might have knowledge of i cant talk about. We dont talk about Military Operations before they happen, you know that. And what about a Ground Invasion, one of the concerns of the tanks and other Armored Vehicles we see amazing near the border, going in could make it very difficult for the hostages to survive if theyre being used as human shields. We are aware of the complexity of the situation and my Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said publicly that any terrorists who kills a hostage, who acts in a hostage in a brutal way, we will find them in the end, and we will bring them to justice. They will they will not get away with this, and they should know if they are involved in abusing hostages in any way, we will find them and we will bring them to justice. There was an idf warning today to people, to residents in Northern Israel of potential incursions in the air space. Clearly from hezbollah, have you identified what that may or may not have been, and is there an all clear . At the moment, as far as im aware, the situation is still fluid. We have had provocations from the north. We are concerned about the possibility of a twofront war. We know its a possibility. We have no illusions about hezbollah, which is in many ways the twin brother of hamas. They share the same proiranian orientation. They both say israel should be destroyed. They really are twins, and we cant exclude the possibility that hezbollah will try to start something in the north. The only thing i can assure you is that this time we wont be taken by surprise. We are ready. We are prepared, and if they do decide to launch hostiliies from the north, we believe not that we want it but we will be decisive in our victory. Can you give us some of the context behind the decision today that was announced today to bring benny gantz, the former Defense Minister into basically a Wartime Coalition government with the Prime Minister . So i saw the two gentlemen meet today, and they reached an agreement. As you know, benny gantz has been one of the major leaders of the opposition to this government, but the attack by hamas i think has made israelis understand that though we can argue politics until the dawn, were very good with arguing with each other, this is not a time for division. This is a time for national unity. And i think in many ways its the Public Opinion in israel and the crisis that were in has gone after the politicians and weve now got an expanded government which is one of the major parties of the opposition. Theres still a possibility that another Opposition Party will join. Thats the party of i hope it happens. The idea is if were facing this crisis, we do so as a united country. Tom friedman was warning today in the New York Times that israel should be concerned about what happens after the day after the day after the strikes. What happens if you decapitate hamas, what replaces hamas could be worse. Its similar to what happened to the u. S. After the iraq invasion when we disbanded the bath army and didnt realize that mistake led to ten years of civil war. I understand that, and as always, we can make different assessments of what can happen in which contingency and the people get paid to do that sort of thinking, and we have very effective and good people like that in our National Security structure, but lets look at the facts. For years people have been saying, you know, hamas is in control of gaza. They rule over 2. 3 million people. That forces them to be more responsible. That forces them to be more pragmatic. That forces them eventually to become more moderate. The realities of governing will make them more moderate. And many people believe that, including israelis. But i think what we saw on saturday was that hamas is stuck in its extremist positions, in the positions of this sort of militant global islamist revolution, and what theyve done is exposed themselves for being the hardcore terrorists that they are. And if ive said before, theyre the twin of hezbollah. I think as also they have a lot in common with isis. This nihilistic violence, and gruesome use of force against innocent civilians, cutting heads off, using knives, burning bodies alive. It really is similar to isis. But if you think about it this strategic terms, isis could be defeated because isis didnt have a state sponsor. Hamas has a state sponsor, and as you know, that is of course iran, and that makes hamas more difficult to deal with, precisely because theyve been funded and armed and trained and given the protection of the iranian regime. Rk regev, many thanks to you for taking the time to be with us today, we appreciate it. My pleasure. And on capitol hill right now, we have breaking news. House republicans have nominated Steve Scalise moments ago as their new speaker. A floor vote still needed, of course, joining us now nbc news capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles and former Republican National chairman, michael steele. Ryan, how did this work out . Reporter well, andrea, i think we have to be very clear under these circumstances that this is no guarantee that Steve Scalise will be the next Speaker Of The House. Republicans are still divideds as to how to take this process to the floor of the house of representatives. It requires 217 votes given the current makeup of congress in order for someone to be elected speaker. The vote that we saw come out of this internal meeting of House Republicans, which we should point out was a private ballot was tight, the final ballot, 113. Already there are members of the republican conference telling my colleague ali vitali they will not vote for Steve Scalise on the floor of the house if and when this speaker nomination actually makes it to that stage. So the math is still a problem for these republican candidates, and as we saw play out with Kevin Mccarthy, both when he was elected speaker and when he was removed from the speakers office, it takes just a handful of republicans to say that they are not going to support the nominee for Speaker Of The House to derail that process. What was interesting, as this vote played out this morning, a pair of republican congressmen put a resolution in front of the body that suggest that had they wouldnt officially nominate someone unless they had those 217 votes internally in conference. Allies of Steve Scalise put up a motion to table that particular rule. They were successful in tabling it, meaning that scalise would be able to win the nomination with just a majority of the caucus, which he was able to do. But this now sets up another confrontation on the house floor where scalise is going to have to convince these 99 members that didnt vote for him today to cast a ballot for him on the house floor, just another Extraordinary Development here in the speaker drama and something that we need to emphasize is not something that usually happens here in congress. Not at all. Michael steele, this is wild. Youve got still divisions but one is ahead and it is Steve Scalise. Of course hes a former whip, so he knows how to count votes, but jim jordan has a lot of support, especially from his background as Freedom Caucus founder. Where do you see this playing out . I see this going a number of rounds, when its on the floor for a vote. I think what youll see is scalise, as you noted as a former whip, doing a whip count, trying to get his vote shored up to get to 217. And the reality of it is theyre going to have to deal with the blowback in the efforts to oust jim jordan from that opportunity. Donald trump has endorsed jim jordan, the Freedom Caucus is squarely behind him, 90 plus members are supporting him, so theyve got to call back some votes here, and its going to be a very dramatic, you know, tabulation as it was in the last round. So this is going to be difficult. But heres the rub at the end of the day. Without a governing majority, without a governing direction, it really doesnt matter because what looms in front of the next speaker is the budget, is now israel, and ukraine, and where the base of the party is relative to those members of the house who represent that base, scalise should he be the speaker will have a long road ahead of him, and if they keep that rule in place and it only takes one to vacate the chair, he could be one of the shortest speakers of the house in history. And thats the problem hes going to face regardless of what his whip count tells him. Yeah, ryan, also matt gaetz just spoke, if you could bring us an update on that. He said Something Like im actually not near matt gaetz right now. I think he said long live speaker scalise, which is interesting because matt gaetz of course has been aligned with donald trump, hes supposed to be speaking at a trump rally this afternoon in florida, but trump has come out for jim jordan. Reporter i think hes actually not doing that. Okay, hes canceled that. Caller well, so what i would tell you right now about the matt gaetz role in all of this is that matt gaetz was, you know, an antagonist to be sure, but specifically an antagonist for Kevin Mccarthy. His very specific goal was to remove Kevin Mccarthy as Speaker Of The House. They had a personal animus between the two of them, and gaetz had been very clear leading into this process that if either jordan or scalise emerged as Speaker Of The House, that he was willing to support that person if they won the vote. This is kind of the problem that we find ourselves in in this situation, andrea, and i apologize that it is so chaotic here, and that is that gaetz isnt the deciding factor. In this particular instance he may no longer be one of the people that we need to track in terms of making this a problem. It only takes three or four or five republican members to break away and not vote for Steve Scalise as speaker to derail the whole process. My colleague ali vitali heard from max miller whos a close acolyte of President Trump and also very close with jim jordan. He is insistent he will vote for jim jordan on the floor. We almost have to reconfigure the way we look at this, there may be a new group of separatists, if you will, that could derail this process. We should also point out is that jim jordan himself never committed to supporting who won this private ballot, this majority private ballot, and it was jim jordan and his who was supporting the idea that they not leave until someone with 217 guaranteed votes emerged with the nominee. So there is a lot at play right now that were all just digesting as were leaving. We may have to kind of take a completely different look at this than the way we did it before. It wont be just easy enough to look at those eight that voted against Kevin Mccarthy because now theres a whole new set of alliances and allies and factions and issues within the Republican Party that still need to be hashed out before theres a new Speaker Of The House. And all this with a war going on and urgent need for Speaker Of The House. Michael steele, what kind of look is this for the Republican Party . Its not a good look. Its not a good look. Were all over the place when it comes to ukraine, you know. Im sure that there will be republicans and there have been, who have come out in solidarity with israel. But they need to be in solidarity with the administration because the administration is the point team, if you will, in dealing with this crisis in israel, and reaffirming our alliance with israel along with our alliances globally. So the republicans have to figure out who they want to be in this next iteration of the fight, the global fight against terrorism. The global fight against authoritarianism, and so its going to be a real challenge. Again, the next speaker is going to have to sit at the table with the president of the United States, joe biden, and decide whether theyre going to Work Together to deal with the nights budget and to deal with this crisis in the middle east or theyre going to be separated, and that going into a very already fraught election cycle, puts a lot of downward pressure on Senate Candidates and congressional candidates as they look to take control in the senate and expand control in the house going into 24. And ryan, ralph norman was just speaking at one of the cameras that he voted for jordan and would switch to scalise if he does get the majority of the votes. Yeah, and i think you will see a number of republicans do that, who are institutionalists. We have to remind ourselves that thats the way the process always worked, that there would be heated battles internally within the conference for Speaker Of The House, but once someone won a majority of the conference, they would all agree to go to the floor and vote for that person. Thats part of what it meant to be a part of a conference, part of a Political Party, but all of that conventional wisdom is thrown on its head, and again, theres 99 jordan votes. There could be 90 of those people who agree to the institutional norms and decide that because Steve Scalise won the conference vote, theyre going to respect that and vote for Steve Scalise on the floor, but it only takes four or five of them to not abide by the parameters of that agreement because theyre not bound by it. They each have the ability to vote any way they want once they get to the floor. Its basically, you know, a gentlemans agreement within the conference that youre going to do what the conference asks you to do. And because the margins are so tight, this is another important point to make about this, andrea. In the past, when the Speaker Of The House, the leader of a Political Party in congress had the ability to put pressure on these individual members because they could afford to lose them on a vote here or there because their margin might have been 25, 30 votes, so you could kind of force someone to do what you asked them to do in a situation like this. Thats no longer the dynamics in congress. Each individual member is unbelievably empowered because the margins are so tight, and so again, four or five people and actually, this is don bacon whos one of the moderate members. Were going to dip in and listen to him. I would have wanted to hear a very clear lets get behind the winner, i didnt quite hear that today. Are you worried this could be a mess . It may. And weve got to make sure we got 217 to go on the floor. Should we be bracing for a fight, multiple rounds on the floor . I hope not. Reporter you heard that, that was just the luck of the draw that don bacon whos one of the moderate voices in the party, someone who was very critical of that band of conservatives that booted Kevin Mccarthy out, he is warning exactly what were talking about, that this idea that if this goes to the floor, we could be in for another marathon before we get to the point of 217 votes for any one particular speaker. So theres no doubt that theres a lot of uncertainty here after this vote today. Stand by both brian and michael steele, joining us now is former republican congressman fred upton of michigan speaking of moderates who know how to work across the aisle. Good to see you again, congressman. Im just wondering what your read is of the Split Vote Today and whether it improves the chances of a speaker actually being chosen at some point after they get to the floor at 3 00, scheduled now for 3 00 this afternoon or whether it shows that there are too many divisions and its not going to work. Well, of course the vote was very close as everybody predicted. I would say that scalise has a better chance of actually getting 217 than jordan did just because of jordans the history in terms of what he did. So the question as don bacon just said, will they get 217, or are there going to be some hard rocks who say, no, we really want scalise, and well send this back to the Drawing Board like they did back in january when they had 15 different ballots for Kevin Mccarthy. But scalise has a better chance to get there on a who knows, a first, second, third, or fourth ballot than jim jordan would have in the longterm. Well see. It will be fascinating to watch this afternoon. And i know Steve Scalise has been described as more moderate than jim jordan, The Fire Brand that he is, but Steve Scalise is very conservative on a lot of policy issues. Well, all of our leadership is pretty conservative. Im going to have to say that jim jordan was literally at the very edge. Of course, he was chairman is chairman of the house judiciary committee, a very partisan committee, it has been for a good ten years from both sides, but you know, jim jordan was one of the 20 republicans that voted against Health Research in the 21st century cures act. He voted against and led the effort against a amber alert for active shooters that even the nra was neutral on, you know, hes led the charge certainly on impeachment and getting things where they are in that regard relating to the biden family. So but scalise, you know, he was served on the energy and Commerce Committee when i was chairman. He has a very proenergy side of things. He has very good relationships with moderates as well as obviously conservatives as well. But you know, there is i dont know that i would call it poison, but certainly distrust between, you know, kevin and steve, Kevin Mccarthy and steve. Kevin was very much in the forefront of trying to help jordan. Its got to be a big loss to him as well as trump. Trump endorsed jordan more than about a week ago, so a Big Loss For Trump here as well. So it will be fascinating to watch this thing as it unfolds this afternoon. As a republican hopefully ends this afternoon, but if not over the next number of days. You mentioned the former president , its so unusual for a former president of the u. S. And particular leader of the party to weigh in on a fight thats this divided, with this division. How important is it for donald trump for jim jordan to win . Well, i dont think a former a president or a former president has ever weighed in on a speakership. I dont think thats ever happened. Trump doesnt usually do this unless he thinks hes going to win, so its a big loss for him for sure, even though and it may stem back to when he asked scalise earlier this summer for an endorsement, and steve said, no, he was not ready to do so, and of course jordan jumped in right away. So that was one of the reasons why many outside thought thats why trump endorsed jordan. But its a Big Loss For Trump, but you know, as they say, its not over until the fat lady sings. It doesnt get 217 votes, and i would suspect that there may be still some people that vote for jordan today on the house floor when they have this thing at 3 00 on the roll call vote, and you know, so well see how it all unfolds, but they may be going back to the drawing box. In fact, if they cant get 217. Indeed, if they deadlock, ali vitali joins us now. We were hearing that Patrick Mchenry, the Acting Speaker pro tem has announced a vote at 3 00 today. Reporter andrea, it could be as early as 3 00 today. I was told by several members who were leaving the room that the Acting Speaker, mchenry, said that they would have at least an hours notice before being told to get out on the floor. It seems as though Behind Closed Doors there is a somber tone, of course, as one member put it to me just now because of the ongoing situation in israel, and how the urgency that that situation adds to this Speaker Election Vote because i think as weve underscored so many times, this is not just a matter of d. C. Politics. This is a question of how does the house function. How does congress allow itself to be a mechanism of support for israel, both in terms of aid and also in terms of offering resolutions condemning the actions of hamas. All of those things are effectively paralyzed right now while republicans are without a person to lead them and without a person to lead the house. I do think that one of the things thats going to complicate this, and i know that weve talked about this, in the immediate moments after scalise won the closed door election, a, he did it by a very slim margin. Thats something several allies of jim jordan have pointed out to me in the last 20 or so minutes, but he also did it in a way that did not come anywhere close to the 217 votes that he will actually need on the floor of the house to become elected speaker. And i talked to at least two or three members who said they voted for jordan Behind Closed Doors, and they will continue to vote for him on the house floor. Thats something where we know the margins here. All it takes is five members to say theyre going to drag this out on the house floor, and that could easily be what we end up seeing here, multiple rounds of balloting, something that were not strangers to here in congress, especially after the 15 rounds that we saw mccarthy go back in january. There is a desire for this republican conference to unify, but theres also not a clear sign that theyre actually going to be able to, andrea. So yes, we could see you know, its 1 30 now. We could see it as soon as an hour and a half from now that these lawmakers start going to the floor and actually beginning these balloting rounds, but how long it will take is actually the next question that we have to answer here. And ryan nobles, we also have the government running out of money around november, midnovember, late november . No problems at all on any negotiations on that while this is going on. Thats exactly right, andrea. I mean, the list of things that Congress Needs to address in a short period of time just continues to grow, and this body is completely paralyzed until they solve this issue of a Speaker Of The House. The speaker pro tem Patrick Mchenry likely really only has the effective ability to call an election for speaker. He cant even move, for instance, that resolution that ali was talking about condemning hamass violence in israel. Thats something that probably has 400 votes if not 430 votes on the floor, but he cant even put it on the floor because there isnt a Speaker Of The House. And so you know, i do think the Budget Situation is something that hasnt gotten enough attention because of all the drama related to the speakers race, and of course the war in the middle east as well, but youre right, we are baring down on that November 13th deadline. With each passing day that an Appropriations Bill is not passed in the house and senate, the likelihood of that getting done ahead of that November 13th date becomes less and less likely. Weve already seen how difficult it is to pass a continuing resolution or a shortterm Spending Bill that would allow the parties more time to negotiate on the finer points of the budget. But if youre not even talking about moving any Appropriations Bills, if youre just talking about whos running the show, that makes it that much more more difficult to get everything done. So you know, it is kind of a weird place for us to be in. Two weeks ago after Kevin Mccarthy muscled through that shortterm Spending Bill that avoided a government shutdown, a i think a lot of people took a deep breath thinking perhaps the chaos was behind us. That just unleashed a whole new round of chaos that has led us to the situation were in now with the speakers race. Well have to see if Steve Scalise can marshal the votes by 3 00 today. That seems really unlikely at this point, and so, you know, more than anything theres just a level of uncertainty here on capitol hill, the likes of which we have not seen in a very long time. And michael steele, again, what does that mean with the war going on, another war in ukraine, of course, which has been going on. Zelenskyy appealing to the Defense Secretaries meeting in europe today that they are running out of money, and israel getting resupplied from stocks, but those stocks are not going to last forever, american stocks with an overnight flight. No, the global pressure on our domestic situation is profound at this point with the elevation of events in the middle east, particularly in israel, and how the administration handles this is one thing. How the Opposition Party working with the administration becomes profoundly important, since the republicans control the house, they control the budget. They control what allocations are appropriated for the president to put in play for israel, to put in play for ukraine. Thats the challenge that the next speaker will have. The question is what is this caucus willing to give the next speaker . Scalise or jordan, to sit at the Negotiating Table with joe biden when it comes to the budget. Where do they draw their lines . Remember, thats how Kevin Mccarthy lost his job was the debt deal. And now youve got this Budget Crisis complicated by the cost, which will be real for helping our ally in israel, the cost, which is real to putting that hedge against russian aggression in ukraine. What is the Republican Caucus prepared to do here . You cant just sort of close your eyes and ears and pretend its not happening, and thats the problem the next speaker is going to have. Hes going to have to give something, and the question, andrea, is what will the caucus allow him to give up in order to save face, if they have to, if you put it in those terms, but more importantly to advance the ball on the budget to get that behind us going into next year, and to secure the peace in israel and ukraine. And michael steele, you and i are experienced enough on capitol hill to know there was a time when republicans and democrats would come together in wartime, not just one war but two. This is really extraordinary. Andrea, youve put your finger on the heart of this whole thing. The fact that were even having to entertain these questions, that weve got to have this kind of discussion at this moment, whether or not there would be cooperation with the president or the administration regardless of party to address what is a very pressing concern, to me is just astounding, and it just speaks to how far leadership In Washington has fallen. How much partisanship and the ugly underbelly of partisanship has grown in our Nations Capital to affect the orkins of governing in a way that the administration has to sit there and wait to see what the response is going to be and to hope and pray, fingers crossed, that it is a good one so that they can then move forward in prosecuting the peace on behalf of israel, securing their interests as well as in europe with ukraine, its a profoundly different space than weve ever found ourselves in before, and my fear is, andrea, it doesnt bode well for the future because as the great reporting by our colleague has already demonstrated, the house is divided, and its not divided among democrats and republicans. Its divided among republicans, and that is going to be a profoundly important problem Going Forward. Ali vitali, youve got an update, i think. Andrea, were standing here waiting for the possibility of seeing congressman Steve Scalise. Of course the man who won that Behind Closed Doors balloting round between his republican colleagues. I think as we chart this from Behind Closed Doors to the very republican eye of the house floor, you can tell theres a frenzy here, members are coming in and out. Reporters just trying to track the latest. Part of the reason theres so much attention to individual members is because any individual member at this point really could throw this Counting Process off. We know its a very careful balancing act to get to 217 for Steve Scalise or frankly any of these men who want to be Speaker Of The House. That is also what weve seen as the reality of this entire congress, though, frankly, and if you look at some of those key eight members who voted to oust speaker mccarthy, several of them are sounding much different right now than they did even at this time last week. For example, i talked to Congressman Burchett who was one of those who ultimately voted against mccarthy, he was saying i think Steve Scalise is going to be here, lets listen to what he says. Thats what i was just going to say. First, i want to thank my House Republican colleagues for just designating me as the speaker. Obviously we still have work to do. Were going to have to go upstairs on the house floor and resolve this and then get the house opened again. We have a lot of work to do, not just in the house for the people of this country, but we see how dangerous of a world it is and how things can change so quickly. We need to make sure were sending a message to people all throughout the world that the house is open and doing the peoples business, making sure that were unequivocally standing in our first resolution that we pass under speaker Steve Scalise, will make it clear that we stand with israel, the resolution will be our first order of business. Obviously theres a lot more work to do. The conversations weve been having with my colleagues over the last few days leading up to this show that theres resolve that we need to get back to work. Theres a lot of business to take care of. Families are struggling across this country. You know, we passed a lot of legislation to help families get back on track, to address our border crisis, to get our economy moving again, to address the spending In Washington thats driving inflation, high energy costs. All of those bills that weve passed and that were going to continue to pass that are sitting over in the senate need to be taken up. Weve passed over 70 of the bills to fund the government, dealing with appropriations and setting the priorities of this nations spending, and the senate has taken up zero. The senate has to start doing their work. And by the way, in that legislation including the state foreign ops bill, the defense Appropriations Bill includes funding for israel, things like iron dome, precisionguided missiles. Things that could be used today to help them in this war. So there is a lot to do. Im also going to be calling on President Biden to sit down and talk about the crisis at the border as we have an open southern border and weve seen millions come in in the last few years, including people on the Terrorist Watch List from all over the world. If he doesnt know now after what happened, we cannot have an unsecure border. Weve got to secure americas border. Weve passed legislation to do that. Its time we sit down and have a conversation about how to secure americas border, and its not a republican or a democrat issue. There are democrat merits all over the country who have been calling on the president to do this too. Thats a conversation we need to have today. There is a lot of busy work to do, a lot of important work to do on behalf of people who are struggling not only here in america but who are concerned all Around The World l. Were going to provide that vision. We have a lot of work to do. So Steve Scalise who is talking at least about having come in first in the vote count but not the majority yet saying they have work to do. Im very struck, ryan nobles about the fact that he said they passed in the house 70 of the legislation needed. Theyre waiting on the senate. The bills they passed, the Appropriation Bills were at a level lower than what the senate wants, what the white house wants, and theyre bills that would not be approved by the senate. So they were slashing the agreed upon formula that had been decided on back several months ago during the Debt Ceiling Talks which were negotiated between both houses, both parties. Reporter right, yeah, theres a lot of context that needs to be added around those comments by Steve Scalise about the budget process. Youre 100 right. They have passed four different Appropriations Bills that do make up 70 of the overall budget, but those bills go completely contrary to the agreed upon spending limits that were codified into law dug the debt ceiling negotiations. Theyre also a far cry from what the bipartisan Appropriations Bills that at least have been passed out of committee by the senate, and so its not necessarily a good faith explanation of the work that the house has done because and the other thing we should point out is that they pushed them through at the 11th hour, right before the shutdown was to take place, and there was no kind of logistical way possible that they were going to be able to reconcile the passage of those bills with the passage of the senate bills in time to avoid a government shutdown. All that being said, i thought the thing i was so struck by Congressman Scalises remarks right there is how hes acting as though hes the speaker designate, that hes won this internal conference vote, that he is going to march to the floor and bring the resolution to condemn hamas on the floor and act as though hes Speaker Of The House. Hes talking about setting up a meeting with President Biden, these are all things a speaker would do if they are guaranteed to win the job. He is by no means guaranteed to win the job. In the last few minutes while Congressman Scalise was talking, we caught one Carlos Jimenez of florida, whos a mccarthy backer, and he just told us a few seconds ago hes going to continue to vote for Kevin Mccarthy on the floor and that hes going to vote for Kevin Mccarthy until Kevin Mccarthy tells him otherwise. And so thats another vote out of the 217 column right now for Steve Scalise. Now, is that something that he can be convinced of between now and when they go to the floor later this afternoon . Thats obviously an open question, but there is still a serious situation here where the 217 votes are not available for Steve Scalise, and i think the big person everybodys waiting to hear from is his main opponent, and thats jim jordan and what jimenez told us about what happened inside that Conference Meeting and what, frankly, disappointed him was that jim jordan got up and said that the person who has 217 votes, this is what he told the conference after the vote, once a person reaches 217 votes, hell get behind that person 100 . That doesnt mean getting behind someone that won the majority of the conference, which is what many in the Republican Party were hoping for, so that certainly leaves an open question, and this certainly appears to be very much in doubt as to who the next Speaker Of The House will be. Ryan, just i want to bring in ryan alley and michael steele, Kristen Welker who was the moderator of Meet The Press. What brian was just saying is that they need a majority of the conference, but if Steve Scalise cannot get a majority of the conference, what then . Are there democrats who would join to make Steve Scalise rather than jim jordan who was, of course, The Fire Brand, the white house so outraged during the impeachments of donald trump. Thats going to be the big question, and of course that was the big question when the vote for Kevin Mccarthy was held, would democrats defend him. They of course did not, and thats why he was ousted, so of course attention will turn to democrats. Of course one of the elements that makes this moment so unique in addition to the discord and the chaos that we are seeing unfold is the pressure that is on House Republicans right now to get a speaker intact. You heard President Biden when he was speaking from the white house yesterday. He called for urgent action from congress to address this crisis. All eyes are on the u. S. Government right now. How will it respond to israel, and of course that includes congress. Theres no active ask for more aid, but they are not in a position to vote for more aid if that ask comes in. So thats where the Pressure Point is going to be on this, andrea. And kristen, while we were focused on the speaker fight, the White House Briefing announced that 17 americans are still unaccounted for, 22 have now been confirmed dead, so that is a terrible death toll. Plus, the hostage crisis, and no backing down from the netanyahu government, but of course the big news today there is not only are they amassing the tanks and other Armored Vehicles on the border with gaza imminently, as far as Richard Engels reporting from the ground is, but you now have a coalition government. Netanyahu has embraced one of his chief rivals, a highly respected military general, retired general benny gantz who was one of his opponents in previous elections for Prime Minister. Its really stunning, andrea, to think about how quickly these events have transpired, when you think about when the attacks first unfolded on saturday, there was discussion about a potential coalition government, but a lot of questions about whether or not that would come to pass because there are such deep divisions particularly after Prime Minister netanyahu proposed those judicial reforms, which prompted, of course, protesters in the street. So this is a significant moment. Israel coming together, a show of solidarity, and those comments yesterday from President Biden, the strongest, frankly, that we have seen from an american president saying that the United States stands with israel. Condemning hamas. So this is a moment that is bringing all sides together. Will we see that in congress, though . In his comments, Steve Scalise sharply critical of the administrations posture on immigration on the economy on the budget and of the senate on the budget as well, the democraticcontrolled senate. So theres no sense here of bipartisanship coming to the fore from any fore from any of these republican candidates for speaker at a time when we are in two hot wars that we engage, you know, actually but its of course ukraine and now the middle east. We are supplying weapons. Were supporting. We have agreements, you know, with israel that would be put in place if hezbollah were to attack from the north. Absolutely. And i think you actually touched on one of the critical questions right now. Once there is a new Speaker Of The House, What Happens Next . We know that theres a lot of discussion about potentially trying to link ukraine aid with aid for israel and as you know, andrea, the issue of ukraine aid has been a real flash point. A number of republicans saying that the United States cannot continue to write what they have described as a blank check to ukraine. Of course the administration would push back forcefully against that characterization, but i do think thats the question, andrea. What is Congress Going to do with its next steps once there is a speaker that is actually elected . Will that happen today . Will that happen several weeks from now . Well have to see. Where does that discussion coalesce. Remember, the government shuts down now in less than 40 days. So these are questions that are going to need to be answered in short order. Thank you so much, Kristen Welker, well look for all of your reporting sunday on Meet The Press and joining us now is republican congressman Mike Gallagher of wisconsin. Former marine, member of the Armed Services and intelligence committees and the head of the special select committee on china. Your reaction to Steve Scalise saying he is nominated because he has more votes, 113 to 99, but he doesnt have a majority of the conference yet. Is that an impediment to him being named speaker. My hope is everyone prior to the vote uniting behind everyone who has the most votes and is 113 is a narrow majority, as you know, we have Serious Business that we need to do and we cant be mired in a protracted speakers race. I think theres bipartisan action that we can take today or early tomorrow on israel, a bipartisan resolution as well as providing support so that the military support we provide to israel doesnt go dry. There are things we need to do that simply cannot happen until we nominate and choose a Speaker Of The House. My hope is that everybody in the Republican Caucus will unite on the house floor if we have a vote later today. What do you expect regarding israel . Do you expect a resolution, i presume on israel, but do you expect some kind of supplemental, assuming theres a speaker that would be israel alone, would it be israel and ukraine . What would you like to see as such an experienced member of the military and of the Military Committees . Well, i think a resolution is stable stakes. Im not trying to minimize the importance of a bipartisan resolution, i think it would send a strong signal right now, and it seems chairman mcccaul ad Ranking Member meeks, i think we have the momentum to treat israel separately to make sure our War Reserve Stock for Allies Program is sufficient, make sure that iron dome doesnt run dry. Theres a variety of things we can provide to israel in its time of need. The negotiations over ukraine might take a little bit longer. To me there is a bipartisan bargain to be had on Border Security and ukraine funding, and the thing working in the battleground of all of this is funding for taiwan, to make sure we dont have a failure of deterrence in the indopacific and war in the middle east and ongoing war in europe. In terms of the speaker vote, does Steve Scalise, would he need democratic votes on the floor to go over the top . If we have holdouts, it can be far less than 99. It can be five or ten, depending on how many members are present. If they choose not to vote for Steve Scalise and if you assume no democrats are going to vote for Steve Scalise, which i think is a safe assumption, we would have to try something different. My hope is my colleagues would unite behind the person who won the votes in the Secret Ballot. If that doesnt happen, were going to have to get creative. The problem is we waste further time that we need to be spending on doing work on critical Foreign Policy issues as we see the deterioration of deterrence in various theaters Around The World, in addition to providing support for our allies, we need to rearm ourselves. We havent passed the National Defense authorization act, the defense appropriation. Were running dangerously low on stockpiles that we need to maintain conventional and Strategic Deterrence globally, not just to deal with whats happening in gaza as well as whats happening in ukraine. And without democratic votes, of course, you would still have that problem that any five republicans could tank that and stretch it all out. What about the way the president has handled the israel crisis so far by stating such strong, extraordinary support for israel given the speech that we saw last night . Im glad the president has indicated his strong support for israel and now its time for us, Congress Working in concert with the Executive Branch to back those words up with action. The words mean nothing unless we actually provide the support that israel needs to defend itself, and make no mistake, israel is under attack from an evil terrorist group. What were seeing, the images were seeing come out of gaza, that hamas is deliberately leaking out of gaza are absolutely horrifying. This is an attempt to wipe israel off the map, to kill as many jews as possible, and its important that we stand firmly in support of our closest ally in the middle east in israel. Obviously i have some disagreements with the Biden Administration on their agreement with iran. I would not like the 6 billion payment for hostages to go forward, as well as the 10 billion we waived in order for iraq to pay iran. I think theres more we can do to isolate iran. When it comes to standing with israel, i hope that is a bipartisan thing in both word and deed Going Forward. John kirby said that would be an option, to refreeze the 6 billion, though none of it has been spent yet. Are you getting any other signals from the administration that thats something they would negotiate . No official signals thus far. I know there are concerns here in congress about that money Going Forward and that money being used to fund iran easter irans terrorist proxies, and whether iran had a hand in authorizing this attack on israel. Theres no question that iran has been hamass primary patron. Hamas benefits from iranian money, training and weapons, and more directly hezbollah is an action arm of iran in lebanon. If hezbollah got more engaged in the contract, and there was a twofront war launched against israel, there would be no question that we have to impose maximum pressure on iran. The reason we were seeing this historic level between israel and the gulf states, the saudi in particular is the sheer threat posed by iran. Thats the long pole in the tent. Israel and the suni are both states. Jim jordan has said hes not going to whip votes. Does that indicate hes going back off and let Steve Scalise go forward . Some of his supporters would join Steve Scalise and put him over the top . Honestly, i dont know. I think most of the people that supported jim jordan will vote for Steve Scalise on the floor and abide by the caucus rules or the caucus tradition, but as you have seen in recent months, sort of the unwritten rules of congress seem to be breaking down as people increasingly feel less loyalty to the institution. And so i worry that a small number of people could block the work that the house needs to do. We have a narrow majority. We have divided government. Nobodys going to get 100. Of what i want. There are things i would like to do on National Security issues and china issues that its going to be hard to get done, all the more reason in my opinion, we should be focusing our efforts in what remains in this congress of the Process Deficiencies that we can agree on. The budget and Appropriations Process is horribly broken, so why not, in a way thats policy agnostic and doesnt advantage any party fix the plumbing of congress right now when youre going to be limited in terms of what you can achieve on policy grounds. And just a quick question, was the motion to vacate brought up at all in the conference, to do away with that, the oneperson vote . We did talk about it in the conference, there are a lot of people, myself including, feeling like given what we saw last week with the removal of the speaker for the first time in history that we should raise the bar again for a motion to vacate, we did not take up a specific rule change. However, i think thats something thats going to have to be adjudicated Going Forward after we select a new speaker because then the concern is you just kind of go through this process every few months the minute eight or so members get dissatisfied with the speaker. Congressman gallagher, thank you so much for being with us. Our thanks to former congressman fred upton, michael steele, ryan nobles, and ali vitali for all of our coverage on this evolving story. That does it for this two hours of special coverage of the developments both overseas on the Israel Hamas War and on capitol hill, our special coverage continues right now with katy tur. Im katy tur, bear with us because we have two major breaking stories that are strange but necessary bed fellows. There is still more drama on capitol hill as House Republicans emerge from their Afternoon Meeting with a Secret Ballot nomination for Steve Scalise as speaker. But not one with enough guaranteed votes to get them the gavel, which is a big problem because