bipartisan coalition. that might force them back into the fold if there say risk of having to share power with the democrats. this isn t just academics, nicolaus. look, right now, there are 216 republicans. they re going to have a slim majority. but if 31 who voted for congressman andy bigs, far right member from arizona, if 31 of them hold fast then he didn t have the votes and congressman don bacon a moderate from omaha said maybe there needs to be a deal struck with democrats where the non-far right republicans bond with democrats and create obviously republican but a more moderate republican speaker. we re a long ways away from a speaker liz cheney for example. he said liz cheney is off the table. he did say liz cheney is off the table. very much a hypothetical that a lot of republicans don t think it s anywhere near a possibility but there is a real danger here.
as we ve been saying that leader mccarthy might not get to 218 votes. he s not going to get that from democrats but some republicans did try to reach out to one moderate democrat, congressman henry quar from texas and rejected them. this is the bigger problem for mccarthy. even if he becomes speaker of the house and you have to give him the odds that will happen, this far right caucus is really going to have power with him and as much as wants to steer them, he will want to do something. that s the problem of this very narrow. mccarthy needs 60 seats so these people are really empowered. what we re going to see is horse