of staff at the department of homeland security and tom peck, political sketch writer at the independent. welcome to the programme. it s starting to feel a bit like groundhog day on capitol hill. that s because the house is trying again for a third day to elect a speaker of the house. we ve now had eight votes. and in all eight, the republican kevin mccarthy has failed to receive enough votes. he hasn t even been able to swing the needle in his favour at all. this is the scene live in the house now where a ninth vote is under way. it already appears that he has lost to this vote as well. at least seven republicans have voted for other options. in the last vote, 20 republicans voted for an alternative candidates to mr mccarthy mainly for byron donalds, and there was also a shock vote for donald trump. remember, the speaker of the house doesn t need to be a member of congress. that vote for the former president came from matt gaetz, one of the ring leaders of those refusing t
msnbc road headquarters here in new york. welcome everyone to alex witt reports. re beginning with breaking ne. a colorado judge ruling that donald trump can be on the ballot when saying he engaged in an insurrection. he gave him both a rebuke as well aslegavictory. the wording of section three of the 14th amendment does not apply specifically to the office of the president. joining me now, christie greenberg former federal prosecutor former deputy chief for the southern district of new york criminal division. let s get into this, chris. the insurrection is certainly a key part of the 14th amendment that would keep trump off of the ballot. are you surprised by this ruling? mainly, the judge concluded that trump engaged in an insurrection through incitement. take a moment to pause on that. saying, there is a judge saying that former president trump engaged in an insurrection. that is a momentous holding. he gets off on a technicality here because the judge also found that he
international journalists. russian s foreign minister is in syria trying to keep it from being the latest arab government to fall. many world leaders say moscow is ignoring the slaughter of civilians. ivan watson is in istanbul, turkey, covering this for us. is there any optimism that russia can rein in this violence? reporter: that s a big question. the russian foreign minister definitely got a hero s welcome as he arrived in damascus. he seemed to be one of the biggest allies and friends of president bashar al-assad right now. the russian line has been that the western governments have not been putting enough pressure on the opposition groups to stop violence as well. if you want to know how wide the differentiation is between the two sides in syria, just about 100 miles away the artillery shells continue to rain on the opposition held city of homs where hundreds of civilians are believed to have died in just the past couple of days, kyra. now you re also seeing a growi