sources are telling us that house republicans are on a conference call right now. they re trying to figure out what is the path forward to get a speaker in place. just within the last couple of minutes, we saw kevin mccarthy telling our team on the hill he thinks he will get to the magic number, 218, same game plan, he says. look at that right there. we have new reporting this morning into how he s trying to make this happen. he s been deploying five trusted allies to negotiate with these kind of republican so-called rebels here, trying to figure out what are the concessions that would be needed to peel off the votes for him to get there, even after they ve been negotiating for a matter of weeks now. listen to what one republican defector had to say this morning? it remains to be seen. i want a resolution. i want us to elect a speaker. another wrinkle this morning, you have former president donald trump giving kevin mccarthy his strongest endorsement yet, writing on socia
footsie with his far right colleagues. now because mccarthy is quarreling with that same group today does not mean he is resembling a moderate. it does not change the fact that right now in humiliating public fashion, kevin mccarthy is clawing and scraping his way he hopes to the speakership, trying desperately to halt what looks like at this hour, at lee, a runaway train. it s where we begin today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. nbc news senior correspondent, garrett hague, covering the action. and former stpho claire mccaskill is here, and claire and david are both msnbc contributors. ferret, what is happening now? right now we are seeing the third vote get ready to take place here, and this one will have kevin mccarthy introduced by steve scalise and placed in nomination by steve scalise, and for the second time in a row, you have people that could be foes to mccarthy, placing his name in nomination. the last round we saw with jim jordan, and far mor
i think that s become highly unlikely. i think kevin eventually bows out. the second scenario is the caucus finding somebody probably already in leadership, steve scalise, elise stefanik, somebody down the line. if you look at 1999, they had to reach down to sixth or seventh in leadership. but the third scenario is, republicans simply are not able to form a coalition. they re not able to form a coalition to governor the house and in that scenario, i think democrats begin to say, okay, what is in it for us? can we get some rules changes? can we get different committee representation? what about these investigations into the white house? and that s the fred upton scenario, but i don t know that it has to be fred upton. there are other members in the house. you could look to a tom cole of oklahoma. whoever that unity candidate would be is going to have to be almost universally respected by republicans, 150-plus republican votes and hakeem jeffries could
six weeks ago? i never thought he could get there which goes to the bigger question of we need a functioning house. america needs a functioning house. scenario is he finds a way to survive behind closed doors in the coming hours. another way, somebody else can get to 218. we don t know that s the case. the third scenario that could fascinate much of america is a unity ticket or speaker. you still have to have probably 150 plus republicans. it will be a strong conservative republican. it will not be a moderate. does it have to be a member? doesn t have to be a member. this is the fred upton scenario. universally respected by the house. led on healthcare reform. but you have to be able to get about 150 republicans and then jeffries and the democrats have to get to the point where they say we will release about 75 of our members to vote and it would be an exchange not for moderate