it is different than becoming speaker of the house when you have a majority of the full house, which means you have to keep most of your caucus in line, particularly in the narrow majorities that republicans are going to likely have in the next congress. that s why kevin mccarthy has a math issue he runs into trying to get the majority of the house to give him the speakership in january. but to get a majority of your democratic caucus, if they have 208 or 209 seats or maybe a few less, a few more, that could getting half of that should not be an issue for nancy pelosi. but there will be some pushback within the ranks there, john. we ll watch this play out. manu, stay with us. as we watch. these are so-called bhin speeches on the floor of the house of representatives. we re watching the speaker of the house, who is presiding over the house at the moment. that is a rare move. most times the speaker is only there on big days in the chair. let s bring the conversation in the room with
tonight president biden returns to a familiar place and a familiar theme with the goal of drawing a clear midterm election contrast. a primetime address from philadelphia s independence hall with the 2022 framing of the soul of america debate the president used in his successful 2020 campaign. then it was a contrast with donald trump. tonight the president will make the case that trump himself still looms large in the gop and that trump allies are just as much a threat to democracy. and he will make the case they would advance an extreme agenda if given more power. with me to share their reporting and their insights, laura brown lopez of the pbs news-hour. cnn s kasie hunt. and politico s nicholas woo. let s listen to a bit of the president as we prepare for tonight. again, he goes to pennsylvania frequently. he loves the backdrop of independence hall when he tries to give these big addresses about somewhat he views as the state of america. but this time in recent weeks
operative. and we re seeing that with obviously senator toomey who said it publicly. more and more republicans privately have been saying this for a while. but, also, with the number of republican donors, really the top finance people who work with the rnc over the past years, in the trump years and before, they re starting to say, you know what, i ve had a little too much of the drama. and it s not about ketchup on a wall. it s about going to the capitol, knowing that they were armed, everything we ve seen over the hearings. they just want to inch away from donald trump bit by bit. laura, we ve heard privately from republicans for years who have not been supportive of or found some of the president s decisions distasteful. if they re not stepping up and that likely won t happen before the midterm, why should there be confidence in what toomey is saying, that people are going to walk away if they re not coming out publicly to talk about the president? yeah, i mean, just to your poi
about his chances for 2024. pat toomey says the party can do better from trump. i think he disqualified himself from running for office, especially with his post-election behavior. i think the revelations from this committee make his path to even the republican nomination much more tenuous. never say never and he decides whether to throw his hat in the ring, but i think we ll have a stronger candidate. let s bring in laura brown lopez, a white house correspondent for pbs news hour and a cnn political analyst, a republican strategist and a former rnc communications director. great to see both of you. doug, let me start with you. is there any way to quantify this? how many republicans do you think are either publicly or behind the scenes privately saying that very thing, enough is enough with trump, we can do better as a party? we can t quantify it but it s the behind the scenes that s
house is what can you get done legislatively in the next half year? there s two major components. one is build back better initiative. the other is voting rights initiative. as we sit here now, doesn t seem there is a path for either of them. both are being stymied in the form of joe manchin and, in the voting rights case, senators who are reluctant to do anything with senate rules reform to pass that type of bill. for the white house, that s a huge problem. now, can they run can the democratic party run in the midterms without those? yes. will it go well? no. you need to energize the base, produce for them, show them that they can that you can deliver, and when our colleague, laura brown lopez was talking to supporters in georgia yesterday, that was a big dynamic. they were disengaged, upset they d gotten out in 2020 only to see their voting rights less protected today than then. with respect to build back better, if the premise of the