good evening from new york, i m chris hayes, you re looking at a live image of the well of the house of representatives, the nation s capital, where they re set to reconvene out there about three and a half hours pm journey, when they do reconvene, they ll be setting about the business of electing a speaker of the house, for the 118th congress, something they have failed to do for the first time in 100 years. today, kevin mccarthy, the house leader of the republican party, long expected to be the next speaker, should republicans take the, house was put up for speaker, and failed to obtain the magical 218 votes threshold he needs to become speaker. he failed once, he felt twice, even three times. that s right, today, three more votes, three more failed votes for kevin mccarthy, which brings the total to six. and that s because he has a very narrow majority in a caucus of about 20, exactly 20, in the last few, votes republicans, who do not want to vote for kevin kathy, the spea
candidate for speaker of the house. i bet you are going to tell me. i am going to tell you, you are on the show. let s see if this video refreshes your memory. watch it. this was something kevin mccarthy planned to say on fox news, including the word on trustable un-trustable when kevin mccarthy said some stupid stuff on tv that just killed that killed his candidacy for the speaker of the house. and here we are seven years later! seven years later, and the man is still struggling, alex. houston still has a problem. houston very much still has a problem. and struggling is a euphemism, lawrence. it is going to be a long night for mr. mccarthy. we will be watching tomorrow. thanks, alex. thanks, lawrence. we have breaking news about the house representatives at this hour. and this is from george santos. and you will be shocked to know that the very first thing that george santos has done in the house of representatives is lie. here is the lie. g
will see you again tomorrow. and now it is time for the last word with lawrence o donnell. good evening, lawrence. i was wondering if you remember where you were the last time that kevin mccarthy flamed out as a candidate for speaker of the house i bet you are going to tell me. i am going to tell you, you are on the show. let s see if this video refreshes your memory. watch it. this was something kevin mccarthy planned to say on fox news, including the word on trustable un-trustable when kevin mccarthy said some stupid stuff on tv that just killed that killed his candidacy for the speaker of the house. and here we are seven years later! seven years later, and the man is still struggling, alex. houston still has a problem. houston very much still has a problem. and struggling is a euphemism, lawrence. it is going to be a long night for mr. mccarthy. we will be watching tomorrow. thanks, alex. thanks, lawrence. we have breaking news about the
anybody out here. so the sooner we all come together, just keep a calm head, i know you guys are getting excited. i don t think if you watch me that i get excited do i want to go through all this, no. but i think at the end of the day it s better to go through this now so we could be successful for this term. if you fail three times, how do you possibly pull this off? you get to 218. this morning, a speakership stalemate. the house adjourned last night without a speaker after kevin mccarthy failed to win enough support in three rounds of voting. we ll walk through what happened and how today is shaping up. plus, republican congressman-elect george santos had an awkward first day in washington. he kicked things off with another statement about something that didn t actually happen. we ll tell you what it was. also this morning, the family of damar hamlin says he s still fighting after his scary collapse monday night. we ll have the latest on his condition straight
reporter: all of these options are thorny. if they go to another round of balloting, it s not clear i would be surprised if mccarthy were able to peel off the number of people that he needs from this 20 no vote coalition on his side to actually become speaker on this next ballot. what we are hearing is that the mccarthy team could go for a motion to adjourn until tomorrow. you are right, that would buy them time. it would save them another round of embarrassment if he were to lose on this fourth ballot. as i was walking over here, i tried to find some key members of that 20 no vote coalition to ask if they would support that motion to adjourn. right now, democrats have said they will not represent republicans do that. they are whipping against that motion. republicans would have to go it alone. they would not be able to pass that motion to adjourn unless some of these 20 republicans were also on board and supportive of it. i talked, for example, with congressman andy bigg