following too close. we have confirmed those reports are accurate, wolf. interesting. i know you re staying on top of this story. thank you very, very much. and erin, i know we re going to turn back to our top story right now. the bitter fight for speaker of the house. that s right, wolf. and a good evening to all of you. i m erin burnett. welcome to a special edition. because right now we are in the midst of an open revolt over who will become speaker of the house. and i m wolf blitzer here in washington. it has been a very, very historic and dramatic day here in washington.ngressman kevin m far unable to secure enough votes to become the next speaker of the house. it s been such an incredible day to watch. here we are making history. he lost the support of 19 members in the first two votes. as we re sitting here, wolf, in the third vote he loses nanothe one. this is not how this is supposed to go. it s not how it ever has gone. it s a bruising rebuke of mccarthy who
former vice president mike pence is fueling speculation that he could run for president in 2024 with his stop here today and new hampshire earlier in the week. but he told me in an exclusive interview he is only focused on the midterms. i asked if he agrees with the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell s sentiment that it could be difficult to win back the senate because of the quality of republican candidates. the american people long for a return to the policies that they saw the trump pence administration advance for a stronger and securer america. i believe that red wave is coming and i believe it s going to come at our candidates every level across the country. i will take all the time i have in the next 81 days to support the team. i also pressed pence about a statement from former president trump s legal team in response to the raid at mar-a-lago. the legal team said there was a standing order to declassify documents that trump took out of the oval office. whil
going to let you pick the guy you want. i understand all that. nonetheless, they have the leverage. and when kevin mccarthy failed to get the majority that he needed to insulate himself from this kind of extortion, he laid himself open to what we see today. and we don t know what valadao is saying privately to kevin. i would expect it could be very different than what he just said on television. i would expect as a loyal foot soldier on just the day of this epic defeat, which may lead into tomorrow at noon, to say what he said, but eventually once kevin realizes that it s another going to happen for him, i expect valadao to say kevin has decided to drop out of the race and he s given me permission to support somebody else. if kevin was witnessing what happened today, and he was because he was there, he must at some level know that this probably isn t going to happen for him. he s wanted it for many, many
state and that j.d. vance was going to handle it but, again, the race has turned out to be everywhere closer and now you see the senate republican fund putting 28 million into a race where they thought they might have to put in 5. that s money that they don t have to allocate elsewhere and, again, indication of what senator mcconnell was saying about the direction of this race moving away from republicans. bret: we shall see. all right. winners and loser, morgan first inner and then loser. rushdie my winner 75 years old. he is still in the hospital, so everyone is praying for him. it looks like he has escaped yet again another attempt on his life. so, good for him. loser of the week, liz cheney. i think everybody saw this coming for a while away. that was a pretty epic defeat this week. certainly a new republican party without her in it. bret: mollie, winner and loser? winner haight hageman who did crush that darling liz cheney by