tonight on the reidout no person having received the majority of the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected. an epic fail and stunning humiliation for kevin mccarthy. who took the knee for donald trump, then gave away the store to the koo-koo fringe of his party but is still not speaker of the house. and we begin tonight with the new congress. the 118th. today was supposed to be swearing-in day, typically a big day for the country, filled with pomp and pageantry and often a feeling of hope and excitement as a new congress kicks off and implements its vision. for some, it serves as bring your kids to congress day, so that children get to see their parents or their grandparents take the oath, and perhaps make history themselves. history was certainly made on this opening day in the house of representatives when house democrats nominated their caucus chair, hakeem jeffries, of new york, to succeed nancy pelosi as speaker. i rise today a
news from ukraine, where a series of explosions rocked the capital city of kyiv this morning. ukraine says, the russian missile attack is targeting critical infrastructure. we will go live to ukraine for the latest. plus, the house under republican rule. we will look at the chaos the gop has brought in congress in its first week in charge of the house, and the latest on the investigation into president biden s handling of classified documents, and what s behind the double standard in how the biden case is being treated compared to the case of a certain twice impeached ex president. then, the featured author for today s edition of the velshi banned book club is a story to herself, and author, yes, but also a filmmaker. folklorist and voodoo expert among many other things. we will dive into zora neal hearst in, their eyes were watching god, next hour. velshi starts now. and good morning. it s saturday, january the 14th. we are one week into hundreds 18th congress. in four
relatively easy time passing its rules package, its first order of business, but the rules package includes provisions like the motion to vacate, which makes it easier to remove the speaker, kevin mccarthy. it also gets rid of pandemic era changes like proxy voting, it imposes rules and limiting spending and blocking tax increases. house republicans also passed a pair of disingenuous and deceitful antiabortion bills that were designed to push propaganda rather than addressing real concerns about women s reproductive rights. their decision to pass these bills during the first week of that new term, and despite the overall unpopularity of their antiabortion positions, demonstrates how they seriously are about governing in general. republicans made it clear months ago that they intend to use their tenure to investigate democrats. the rules package includes a provision that allows the house to create a new subcommittee to investigate the origins of covid and to scrutinize the wor
the gavel. this morning, he was not able to bring along a handful of far right lawmakers who oppose his nomination and are demanding more big power concessions from him as the price for going forward. we may have a battle on the floor. but the battle is for the conference and the country. that s fine with me. i don t see how a few people maybe it s 5, maybe it s 20 sit because they want a gravel that they can t earn. that s not what the constituents voted them for. this as house democrats united behind hakeem jeffries, with a new younger ship team holding business cards to play as the republicans dissolve into chaos. why is choosing a speaker important? the house cannot form committees or do work on any legislation until there is a presiding officer. it s been a century since it has taken more than one roll call vote to fill the position. at this hour, we don t know how many votes it will take to elect the next speaker or how long it will drag out and da minute dimi
major overhaul of the speech or - speaker selection process persons are the no changes we don t know for certain. we know more about the selection of the miss america then we do about the next speaker of the house and second in line to the presidency. kevin mccarthy of california does have the majority of the majority of the house republicans behind him. that you need 218 votes and can only lose four and four already said they were level for him. will split all play out on tuesday at noon eastern. the next big question is what are the rules of the house? will they be able to vacate the chair thus forcing john boehner to step down the speaker? committee chairs have unilateral subpoena power? will they end proxy voting how wild will they go with your marks? after that vote trying to accomplish three major thin things, first you have to actually legislate it s much more difficult in the scenes and republicans made a long list and they will be judged by their ability to get out