negotiate with people who, frankly, aren t acting in good faith. it s hard to nail them down on certain things. he has been making concessions. he put out a rules package that would lower the threshold, not as far as they wanted, but lower on the motion to vacate. doesn t seem to have gotten him anything because they don t want to come to the table. their goal is to go to the floor and defeat him and then negotiate. we may be entering, again, an unprecedented in modern times situation on the floor. are you surprised that there hasn t been more public support from donald trump after mccarthy spent years pledging his loyalty to trump, including that embarrassing visit to mar-a-lago just days after the insurrection he d criticized? he made clear he supported mccarthy. it s been reported that he has been making phone calls. maybe more surprising that hasn t gotten the job done. kevin mccarthy was almost speaker seven years ago. mccarthy stepped down right before he was about to succeed
kevin mccarthy keeps making concessions and republican insurgents say not enough and humiliating mccarthy by denying him the gavel. and the 19-year-old who attacked three new york police officers with a machete new years eve wanted to become a taliban martyr. and this from one of donald trump s most trusted aides, we all look like domestic terrorists now. revealing a realtime reaction from senators and others as the mob laid siege of the united states capitol. and who s on first among house republicans, except it isn t funny because of the giant issues the country faces as nancy pelosi and democrats yield to the new and narrow gop majority. today kevin mccarthy s title remains house republican leader. by this time tomorrow his hope is to be the speaker of the house. to wield the gavel, to be second in line to the presidency, but despite years of planning and campaigning for this it very
said to be held. that s in addition to morning meeting on tuesday. warehouse gop members for a coalescing talk about what they plan to do when that election is finally held. this is because mccarthy knows is gonna come down to a tricky game of numbers. remember, he needs that magic number 218 votes to win the speakers gavel. right now, there are more house gop members publicly opposing him then he can afford to lose and still win. right now, we know he s making concessions. he s considering making these concessions like changing committee rules. lowering the threshold on something called the motion to vacate. that would make it easier for house gop members to oust a sitting speaker. something we know far-right members of his caucus have been pushing for four months. something that would put him even more of a vulnerable position if he does gain the speakership. the last thing that mccarthy wants to happen on tuesday is to not have that solid amount of support to be able to get this don
anything about santos? sure. anything that isn t about the speaker s vote, kevin mccarthy and republican leadership is not going to talk about. they are focused what will happen on tuesday and hoping that process begins and ends on tuesday. anything else is a distraction. we have to be mindful regardless of what happens with george santos, he s going to have a vote for speaker. he was dually elected, regardless of the lies and another shoe dropping every day, he will be in the house chamber and will have a vote and that plays a role in this, as well. scott, cnn has learned that kevin mccarthy has made one key concession, reducing the threshold required to force a house vote on a sitting speaker. how do you see this playing out? i m not a fan of making concessions. it looks weak.
capitol hill correspondent nbc news. ali, kevin new year. tell me what s the latest here on the race for the house speakership here. do we think of mccarthy s going to be able to pull this off. yamiche, happy new year to you to. that s a question that those who mccarthy world are surely still asking themselves. as they try to lock in every last ounce of support which is two days left before this make-or-break moment for mccarthy. they know this is going to come down to a tricky numbers game. to be able to reach that magic number of 218 votes needed. to win the speakership. as you said, there are more house gop members publicly opposed to mccarthy than the number he can safely afford to lose in this. the last thing he wants us to not have enough votes to be able to secure this on the first vote of the speakership election. that would trigger this going into multiple rounds of votes. something we haven t seen happening on capitol hill in around 100 years. as you mentioned, he s making