and good evening, along with jake tapper in washington, d.c. we are watching the house of representatives longest running drama since the civil war era. republicans failing time and time again, 11 times so far to elect kevin mccarthy speaker. 11 times. the latest vote, not only on that, merely on whether to adjourn and end kevin mccarthy s rolling humiliation for this evening. manu raju has new reporting on the state of play tonight. he joins us from the capitol. m manu, if they adjourn for the evening, what happens then? then the negotiations will continue. actually, the motion to adjourn is a good sign for kevin mccarthy, who has had one bad result after another. 11 straight times being rejected, not being able to get a majority of the house to elect a speaker, paralyzing this institution, the start of the 118th congress. that is the first order of business. if they can t elect a speaker, then they can adjourn. that s really the only two options. but the majority of
elect a speaker, but we have to tornado watch talk to each other. i believe we re making progress. it s very good to have progress. and honestly, you know, we need to come together. because we have to govern in republicans, and we have to make our differences known to each other. so if kevin is able to get us, it s great. if not, we can come back as a conference and have this discussion. i think it s important. and i truly believe we have some positive movement in having these talks, and we will come up with a speaker. are you open at all to voting for someone else, perhaps the number two house republican steve scalise for speaker if if mccarthy were to withdraw his name from consideration? so i ll be personal to tell you something. i am not worried about the constitutional processes. i think a lot of good things happen as a part of these talks. we do not want to be a
number of those, they really believe i would disagree with it, but they believe this is way to get to whatever their end goal is. there are a number of people, particularly these five or six that enjoy being in this position. they relish being the one standing up, being the ones kind of throwing a wrench in this. and that s what i think the concern. if they end up being only five, that s probably for them even a better situation, because they can get more attention. look at matt gaetz, nominating donald trump. and i think i know some of those folks. and i can tell you, they enjoyed being the five and the six people that are going to deny kevin a speakership. it doesn t even have to be because it s kevin. it s because they can be the ones to do it. and the idea you might get some of them to at least vote present so this can finally resolve itself. i think it s possible if you get to like ballot 50 or 70. but i think by then, i think enough. and that is kind of what we have
to now start watching, which is what you have been discussing is how many folks we ll say it s the middle generically, the average number of republican congress is going to be worried about what s being given up. they re going to realize that at this point you re really picking a person over the health of the party, and by extension, the health of the country, and you start floating alternative names. once alternative names start get floated by we call them the regular members of congress for lack of a better term, i think kevin is done at that point. it s the problem with some of these folks that have pledged only kevin. i understand the purpose. it s like hey, we re as committed as you guys are, but you have to have an out, because this could grind on forever. and i don t think kevin can win in the long run. david? i was going to say, congressman, that assumes the 20, they ve been offered something. the toothpaste sought of the tube in this. how do you put it back in now and sa