many, many americans. thank you so much for your reporting. >> thank you all for joining us. this has been "cnn news central." what could be the final "inside politics" of kevin mccarthy's tenure as speaker of the house starts now . kevin mccarthy wants to make. toads the republican may become the first house speaker to lose his gavel with a floor vote. after a pair of frenzied meetings, mccarthy says he would survive before and he will find a i way to survive now. i just don't give up. donald trump tries to convince america that a civil trial is a trap to keep him off the campaign trail. the truth is his choice to be in and back in front of a judge and the cameras. and hunter biden returns to the scene where it all fell apart. the president's son was in delaware to face a judge and plead not guilty to felony gun charges. i'm dana bash. let's go behind the headlines and "inside politics." up first, the republican house speaker's political survival depends on democrats, and he knows it. >> you guys do whatever you need to do. i get politics. i understand where people are. at the end of the day, if you throw a speaker out that has 99% of the congress, we're in a really bad place for how we're going to run congress. >> are you expecting democrats to back you up? >> personally, no. >> i'm told that house democratic leaders began this morning's behind closed-doors meeting by playing clips from kevin mccarthy on television this past weekend. he was trash talking democrats. is and that set the tone for the conversation and led most democrats to feel they don't oweowe kevin mccarthy anything. i want to get straight to capitol hill where manu raju is, who has been doing extensive roorting. what's the latest that you're hearing on that critical question. will democrats bail out kevin mccarthy? >> reporter: the short absentee is no. coming out of that meeting, you're right. there was the view among members that they cannot trust kevin mccarthy. i they listened to that video clip that you refer red to abou kevin mccarthy on the sunday shows, and a number of them went up to the mics, one after one, indicating that they can't trust him. there's no reason to save him. i did not hear from a single member. i talked to many in the meeting who are ready to vote to help him out in any way. that's the message coming from the democratic leadership. include ing hakeem jeffries, wh was quiet during the meeting, but wants the caugcus to come t a consensus position. it's let mccarthy sink. >> we encouraged a republican colleagues, who claim to be more traditional, to break from the extremists, end the chaos, end the dysfunction, end the extremism, we are ready, willing and able to work together with our republican colleagues, but it is on them to join us to move the congress and the country forward. >> reporter: but the math is just simplely not there for the speaker to save his job at the moment. that's because with no democrats expected to vote for him, we'll see if anything changes. we'll see if we can try to grab the speaker. mr. speaker? mr. speaker? will you put yourself up for a candidate for speaker? mr. speaker? as you can see, they are not wanting to answer questions. he did answer questions earlier this morning. there are a lot of them. the question that i have right now is something he alluded to. if he loses the votes, which is a procedural vote in which he's expected to lose to stop the effort from ousting him, that will fail. that will be the first time ever in american history that this has been successfully executed. we expect that to happen. then there will be a speaker's race, which n which any candidate can can put themselves up for speak er. i the question i wanted to ask, will will you put yourself up as a candidate in that setcenario? he's not quite fully entertained that question because he contends he can win on those first votes. that's one of the key questions in talking to allies, they fully expect the speaker to ride it out and put himself up as a candidate and let this process drag out. he doesn't have 2-- 218 votes. we could be in a situation where the house is paralyzed. it cannot act unless a speaker is elected. they will keep voting ballot after ballot after ballot until a speaker is elected. we'll see what the next move is. if he loses the votes, it will stop this from going forward. >> bifr let you go, i want to go back to one of the things that you mentioned. this is what we're going to be watching on the house floor pretty soon. that is the first vote that we are going to see will be a motion to table the motion to vacate. everybody, stick with me here. i know that sounds like washington gobblely gawk. it's really important because the question is, whether or not there will be a successful procedural vote just to do away with the question of whether th are going to oust him. the open question for now, it's whether there are enough democrats who will play with their votes to make it so mccarthy won't have to face that vote. >> reporter: if they can't get the votes to oust mccarthy. then the resolution is still alive on the calendar. they still have to come up for a vote. from our reporting and talking to members, mccarthy does not have the votes to stop that resolution so his fate will be met on the house floor this afternoon. >> unbelievable. nice try with kevin mccarthy there. i'm sure you're going to get him as soon as you leave us thp thank you. here with me in the studio to share their reporting is jeff zeleny and bloomberg's salia. thank you, all. we have covered a lot in washington and in politics. and this could be a first. >> as manu raju was laying out, it's a central question if kevin mccarthy is going to put himself up for speaker again. because that gets at this question. there's no one wait ing in the wings to be speaker. there's no center of gravity around one individual person. and that is what is unusual about this. if matt gaetz is trying to blow this up, but there's no sense of what is next. that's why this is so consequential. the last time this happened, at least they tried to, was in 1910. the cannon building on capitol hill is named after joseph cannon, a republican from illinois. he was the speaker then. he survived that procedural attempt by george morris. history aside, what is going to happen this afternoon is going to be modern history. we don't know. donald trump has been very silent. he's in a new york courtroom not paying attention to this at all. will he offer kevin mccarthy a lifeline, as he did in january? unlikely. so that is why this is consequential. but even though top democrats are planning to sink mccarthy, this is republicans are sinking mccarthy. democrats are not coming to his aid. this is a republican issue. that's what california heem jeffries said there. they are not going to come to their aid. this is a republican issue. >> totally agree. let's hear from some democrats after they came out of their meeting this morning, just to make that decision -- their attempt to seal kevin mccarthy's fate, that is in the hands of republicans. let's listen. >> do you have any appetite to save kevin mccarthy? >> no, he's not our leader. he has proven himself to be incredibly destructive and dishonest. >> i didn't hear a single member express any sense that we felt responsible for, quote, unquote, saving. kevin mccarthy or helpig kevin mccarthy. he has not asked for our votes. >> the american people deserve a functioning government. speaker mccarthy has shown he cannot govern. >> it's pretty tough stuff. they didn't mention other things they have been hearing from sources that were discussed inside this democratic meeting, which is january 6th and his actions or inaction after that. the impeachment inquiry and then a the lot of other other issues that have really enraged democrats, even though the question is, and i think we should say it over and over again, this is his fellow republicans ousting him. the question this morning was whether any democrats would him. >> just talking to my two colleagues, at this it moment, there are no democrats saying they would jump in to save kevin mccarthy. skip the vote, change the ratio, all that math they could do to stave this off. i think what you said is really important. what democrats are saying they don't trust kevin mccarthy. there are a couple reasons why they don't trust kevin mccarthy. one is they thought they were fwieng to avert a shutdown in the summer, but it goes back to that january 6th moment. because there was a brief moments so that is at the heart of the trust question. from the time that kevin mccarthy came to the house of representatives until now, if you look at the political reports calculations on how partisan districts have become, if you put those two charts on top of another, you will see how deeply red and deeply blue certain districts became that have enabled matt gaetz and the other handful of republicans that are kind of the tail wagging the dog to do what they are doing because their constituents want the fight and will continue to support that. >> it comes back to gerrymandering. you're speak ing my language. let's skip back to the here and now. the question you mentioned matt gaetz. he is in the words of many of their fellow republicans, a chaos agent. let's listen to what some of them said this morning. >> the only word is he's either a fool or a liar. >> i think matt gaetz is a chaos agent. sgri don't have tolerance for a psychopolitical fetish. we have to continue the work on behalf of the american people. >> i'm not sure what exactly he was saying there. he was very subtle. but seriously, it's not as if the majority -- and this is another point we have to undercore as we talk about the context around this, it's not as if the entire house republican conference, all 200 plus of them, are all ra ra matt gaetz chaos and anti-kevin mccarthy. he has a lot of support, just not enough. >> he doesn't have enough support, and he's part of the chaos. what we're see on the house side is republicans fighting amongst themselves. democrats fighting and no one is thinking about how much trust our rurals, our leaders are lose ing with the american people. trust is at 100-year low right now between the american people and the american government. and when you have people in congress fighting over power, while regular americans are struggle to pay their bills, they have to sell their cars to finance their next massive grocery bill, and then this is what you see in the house. no one is really working to rebuild that trust. it's actually just getting worse. >> it's about to get way worse. if this actually happens, if kevin mccarthy loses the speakership and then there's a scamable to replace him and there's no math that makes anyone the easy next speaker, that shutdown that we just averted, we're basically in another shutdown. >> possibly, but it could also shake people to their senses. you can't operate the house. it's a constitutional office 37 t. the speaker is not just a party leadership position. it's the constitutional office. it's second in line to the president here. this is why all this matters and why we're talking about this. >> that's why it's an open question whether democrats would vote for a regular party leader. this is because it's a constitutional office. great conversation. standby. we're going to be staying on top of everything on capitol hill. the question we have been asking, can speaker kevin mccarthy survive. but coming up next, we'll go to new york. donald trump is back in court there once again lashing out at prosecutors and even the judge who will decide the fate of his businesses and his wallet. we're live outside the courthouse, next. test. test. test. test. test. today a remind er that a picture is worth millions in free media. donald trump is back inside a courtroom getting the images he wants for day two of his new york civil fraud trial. but beyond the imagery, his campaign hopes will help him with gop voters. trump's courtroom stare and fraz theed pretrial rant tell us a lot about his state of mind. the trial strips away a me anesthesiology that the former president made himself, this he's really, really rich. brynn gingras is live outside the courthouse. what's happening so far today? >> reporter: yeah, so we just wrapped up a short break in testimony. when everyone returned back into the courtroom including the former president, the judge actually warn ed the defense tht he needs to start in a timely fashion. apaparently, there was people that were late inside that courtroom, and basically, made they can them acknowledge the fact that they will be on time. this is as the former president took to the microphone during that short break making comments, disparaging about this trial in general, but also saying that he will testify in this trial. now that's not a huge surprise. we have heard he's eager to do so, but this maybe the first time we heard it from his own mouth. it's important to note that reporters say the former president and his son, they are extremely engaged in this testimony that is continuing with their former accountant, donald bender. they are looking through the documents up on screens. they are discussing issues with their attorneys, as they continue to really defend their brand, as you just pointed out. this was their life. this is what they campaign on as they head into the next election season. but also, this was what their lives were before the presidency. but let's go to sound of what he was saying prior to that short break. >> the judge has been given false and extremely misleading information about my net worth. a private company, nobody is supposed to know my net worth, but now everybody is and will. i hope you're impressed. we built a great company. but he's been given false information, misleading information and corrupt information by a very corrupt and incompetent attorney general. >> reporter: so that's getting at to what you were talking about, the fact that he still continues to hammer home he's very rich and the judge is wrong, the a.g. is wrong about bringing this trial forward. the big question is how long will trump stay for today's testimony. we don't have that answer yet, but going forward, how many times will he return. said he would like to testify. would he return for other people's testimony. we'll stay tuned to find out. >> thank you for that reporting. appreciate it. let's go back and talk around the table here. because this is "inside politics" and they are going to do the legal, very important legal discussions elsewhere today, the question that donald trump is asking, no, the allegation he's putting out there is that the judge and the d.a., they are doing this to take him off the campaign trial. let's listen to bwhat he said about that. >> this is politics. it has been very successful for them because they took me off the campaign trail. i have been sitting in a courthouse all day long instead of being in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, or a lot of other places i could be at. >> that was yesterday, as this began. fact check. he doesn't have to be there. there's no requirement. he's not compelled legally to be there. his campaign aids make it pretty clear that they think this is the best campaign stop for him, the best use of his time as a candidate in the short-term, as he could possibly have. despite how painful it might be when it comes to the core of who he is, a businessman. >> he's on the campaign trail. he is talking to his lelectorat, his base when he's out there saying, look what they are doing to me. he's sewing more seeds of distrust. we have been talking about that a lot around the table. he's out there saying, vote for me again. bet on me. i'm being mistreated by everyone else and i'm your guy. he's ahead in the polls. it's working for him. so of course, he's going to stick with that line. you're not letting me on the campaign trail, so i'm going to do it here in the courtroom. >> he's consuming all the oxygen in this republican presidential race, which is frustrating his rivals. once again, it's all about donald trump. we are seeing one thing here. this is deeply affecting him. this was not the president who was the most engaged president. often, he didn't read intelligence briefings or steeped in policy. he is steeped in this. this is his life. you can tell how much it's getting to him. i don't know if that will have an effect on his psyche here, but separately, outside the courtroom, he's not under oath. when he's in that witness stand, he will be under oath. so this is something we have also not seen from him. so it looks good politically, but it's perilous in the long-term here. he's on a campaign trail. he might as well be in cedar rapids. >> he is. he's on the tv in cedar rapids. it's not like he's hanging out and eating burgers. i want to take this up several notches to the core question of donald trump and should he be president again. and jake tapper got some great reporting from one of donald trump's many former chiefs of staff in the white house john kelly. and here's what he said. a person a that has no idea what america stands for and what america is all about, a person who cavalierly suggests a selfless warrior who served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason. he's talking about milley. and expectation that somebody will take action. a person who admires autocrats, a person that is nothing but contempt for a democratic institutions, our constitutions and our rule of law. this is in response to a lot of things, but most recently, in response to the fact that donald trump put on his social media platform that mark milley, the outgoing, decorated chairman of the joint chiefs deserves the death penalty, suggesting that at least. this is a bigger question about whether he should be president again from a man who served steps from it him for months in the white house. >> i think john kelly going on the record with these concerns and validating the information that had long been reported on background is really important. i think you're seeing a lot of people who are either nonpartisan or right leaning or republicans who served donald trump in some capacity over the course of his presidency going on record now, whether it's john kelly, chris christie, mark milley, talking about why they are concerned and how catastrophic that would be. the bulk have made their decision about whether they should trust donald trump's word or kelly's word. and here these people get their news, how they get their information, who are the validaters, how they maybe swayed, that's what will make the difference here. >> very well said. standby. just a short time ago, the president's son walked out of a delaware courtroom after pleading not guilty to three felony gun charges. we're going to get all of the latest, after a quick break. this morning hunter biden was back in court. the son was arraigned on three firearms charges. he pleaded not guilty. this marks the first time a child of a sitting president appeared in court to fight criminal charges. joining me now from wilmington is senior legal affairs correspondent paula reid. it was a very quick moment today inside the courtroom. tell us what happened inside. >> reporter: this was a quick procedural hearing. hunter biden sat quietly, listening attentively as the judge laid out the charges that have been filed against him, the possible penalties and the conditions for his release, which includes that he abstain from drugs and alcohol and prohibited from owning a firearm. he entered that not guilty plea through his attorney. even though this was a short hearing, this is still historic moment. but shortly after the hearing, a statement was issued accusing the justice department of bending to pressure from former president and his maga allies, to bring this case against the president's son. they appointed to the fact that no one in the district of delaware has ever been charged with something like this based on a similar fact pattern, and legal experts have questioned the strength of the government's case here. this was supposed to originally be resolved with a plea deal. that plea deal fell apart. it would have included tax charges. it's unclear if prosecutors will file tax charges. what we have seen over the past nine months, we have seen a much more aggressive strategy from hunter biden and his lawyers. this has been spear headed by one of his lawyers. he brought on his attorney, they have been a lot more litigious with some of his retrack tors like rudy giuliani. they sued him several days ago. we're also seening these public statements. statements that some people around his father would prefer that hunter biden not say anything. even though this has gone to a plea deal to a criminal case, it does not appear they are backing off with that more aggressive strategy going forward. >> thank you so much for that reporting. appreciate that. and democrat after democrat, when they are speaking out and speaking up against what's going on and in favor of hunter biden will argue, wait a minute, these charges are nothing. if somebody were name d jim smih and not hunter biden on these gun charges, it wouldn't be brought. it's very unusual. and that it's only being done because a plea deal fell apart and there's political pressure on the now special counsel running the investigation of hunter biden. >> democrats certainly say that. there might be some truth to that just given the nature of the charges, but the reality here is the president's son is in this courthouse and a lot of it takes away some of the high ground that president biden likes to assert. even though it's totally different, it's not a split screen moment. this is different. he's not a candidate for high office and these are minor charge cans. it just makes you wonder, why wasn't this all dealt with, why didn't he plead to something in the last several years. it's clearly mist taken. this gets to the president without a doubt. because hunter is so close to him. he's all he has left of his family. and so that's why this is a big deal. >> absolutely. it is a huge deal to have a sitting president's son go in and my impression is that it wouldn't have been the worst thing from the perspective of the biden side to get a plea deal, but it was impossible and then we saw what happened when it all fell apart. margaret, you heard paula talk there about the legal strategy, which is legal and political. from hunter biden's team, kevin morris, his attorney and friend, abbi lowell was brought on, let's talk more about what they have been trying to do. they are countersuing, filing lawsuits against rudy giuliani, that's just a suit, alleged hahacking. robert costello, who was giuliani's attorney, alleged hacking. the irs, allegedly illegal releasing tax information. >> because his attorney is not joe biden's campaign manager. he's hunter biden's lawyer. he's going to say and do whatever he thinks would put his client in the best posture to be free or to be limited in terms of legally. there's an irony to all of this. if these are successful arguments, it will feed the argument that joe biden controls the justice depasystem. the reality is that the fact that hunter biden is facing prosecution, totally on bliteras the argument that joe biden controls the deep state. >> you're so logical. >> would donald trump allow one of his children to be prosecuted by the justice department if they had violated a law or charged? this is joe biden saying, let the justice system take its course. that's why his son is in this position, because he has not sought to control the process. >> at the same time, if this was happening to donald trump and his children, trump would not be as silent. we're going to set this aside, which makes a lot of contracts frustrated. >> using that to campaign. i will say that hunter biden, joe biden has meat made his family part of his brand as a president. he talks about what his father told him and his grandfather and he talks about beau biden a lot. so bringing hunter in and talking about the politics of it while some democrats might say that's not fair game, it's his child, even he said my son took trump during a presidential debate. he has brought his family into the force so much that now we need to talk about it. >> everybody, standby. coming up, we'll go back to the big story that is happening on capitol hill right now. whether or not history will be made, whether a house speaker will be ousted through votes on the house floor by his own party. we're going to talk to a democratic congressman about whether there's any chance they will try to save him. the question of the hour, will any house democrats step in to save republican speaker kevin mccarthy from are revolt within his own party. the house democrat you can caucus just met to discuss that and much more. joining me now to chair his insight is a member of that caucus, democratic congressman richie torez of new york. thank you so much. it's nice to see you in person. what's the mood right now in your caucus? >> within the democratic caucus, there's a presumption against speaker kevin mccarthy. the burden falls on him to reach out to house democrats in pursuit of a negotiate d outcom, and there are members like me who will vote for a motion to vacate, unless there's a compelling reason. at the moment, i see no compelling reason. the burden is on speaker mccarthy. the ball in the court of house republicans. in government, there's no sufficient thing a as a fee lunch. no democrat should be expected to bail out kevin mccarthy for free. we are repeatedly told they are against free lunches, so no free lunch. >> what could he say that could sway people like you? >> look, for me, it's not a decision i would make individually. it's a decision we should make collectively as a caugcus under the leadership of leader jeffrey. so my rule is simple. i in hakeem jeffries i trust. i am going to defer to the judgment of hakeem jeffries. the burden falls on kevin mccarthy to reach out to the leader. >> but understand that, that you seem to be quite unified when it comes to this. first of all, take me inside the caucus meeting this morning. my understanding, and the reporting from my colleagues on capitol hill, is that it was very unified, but very heated, and people were pretty angry, particularly after there were clips played of speaker mccarthy just this weekend kind of trashing democrats for the way that you acted when it came to the shutdown and more. >> i never comment on family conversations, but it's fair to say that there's democratic discontent with speaker mccarthy with his kangaroo investigation into president biden and the erosion of trust. speaker mccarthy negotiated an agreement with president biden around spending levels, only to renig on the agreement if and an attempt to pander to the right, he opened a kangaroo investigation into president biden. so that erosion of trust undermines bipartisanship within the house. that's of kevin mccarthy's making. >> is there any republican, you say there's an erosion of trust, things are not exactly kumbaya on capitol hill. it's been partisan in the house, but it feels different right now. i'm not asking you to name names, but do you think it's possible for someone other than kevin mccarthy to be speaker, where that erosion of trust subsides? >> it's hard to know if the house republican conference were a country, it would be a failed state. it has all the elements of a failed state in competence, a republican civil war, it has dysfunctional house. the house has been gone from the longst speaker vote in more than a century to a near default on the debt, to a near shutdown of the u.s. government, to the first motion to vacate in more than a century. there's been nothing but chaos, crisis and confusion. >> not to get too far into the process, but that's what we're going to be seeing in about 45 minutes. the first vote is going to be whether or not even to allow this motion to vacate, even to allow a vote to oust him. it's a procedural vote. do you feel confident that democrats are going to be united, even on that, meaning that democrats will allow the vote to oust kevin mccarthy? >> i think it's fair to say that democrats are going to be united and that the presumption is against speaker mccarthy, unless he reaches out and pursues a negotiated outcome. as far as i know, there's been no negotiated outcome. >> congressman, thank you so much for coming in. i really appreciate it. good luck the next few hours. it's going to be wild. >> unprecedented times. >> for sure. thank you again. up next, a texas congressman was carjacked on the streets right here in washington, d.c. what he's saying about the terrifying ordeal. to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch, it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. texas congressman henry cuellar was carjacked as gunpoint just about a mile from the u.s. capitol. police are searching for three suspects who stole his car, phone, ipad and even his dinner. luckily, the congressman was unharmed. cnn's gabe cohen is on the scene. gabe, what is the congressman saying right now about this carjacking? really scary. >> reporter: yeah, dana, it is really scary. and he seemed upbeat. he even joked around a little about it. but no doubt this would have been terrifying as it played out last night right around 9:30 near this intersection behind me. he told police he was coming home for the night, parking when three men with guns came up and demanded his car. and with it they took his phone, his ipad, even his dinner, dana. now, fortunately, all of that stuff was recovered just a couple hours later, and the congressman wasn't injured in any of this. but look, we are less than a mile away from the u.s. capitol. you can see it over my shoulder. and that is where the congressman addressed media just a little while ago. here's what he had to say. >> three guys came out of nowhere, and they pointed guns at me. i do have a black belt, but i recognize when you've got three guns. i looked at one with a gun, another one with a gun, another one behind me. so they said they wanted my car. i said sure. you've got to keep calm under those situations. and then they took off. >> reporter: and so you can hear, pretty positive about the whole thing, dana. he even joked after that he was most upset that they had taken his sushi dinner, though fortunately that was recovered along with the rest of his belongings. but it got more serious when he was asked about safety for congressional leaders around this area. he said that it's not just him. he lives in a building along with several other prominent congressional leaders. so it is something that needs to be addressed as we are seeing violent crime rising here in the district. >> and it seems, gabe, that he was carjacked in spite of the fact that he is a congressman, not because he is a congressman. we don't know all the details. but the point i'm making is that this is becoming much more common in d.c., carjacking, than it was. >> reporter: yeah, dana, that's right. he said that as far as he could tell the people who carjacked him didn't have any idea who he was. and we know that violent crime based on police statistics is up close to 40% this year here in d.c. a big part of that is carjackings. they have more than doubled in 2023. you can see if that statistic is up on the screen right now close to 750 of those carjackings this year compared to just around 360 at this point last year. so that is a major issue. and look, it's not just people who live in the district. it is also those congressional laeshds. representative angie craig was attacked. she's from minnesota. she was attacked in her d.c. apartment around eight months ago. so there have been a lot of congressional leaders talking about this. people on capitol hill, about their safety, about their staff's safety, a lot of concern about this rising crime rate here in the district. >> as a d.c. resident, as you are, we understand completely. thank you so much for that report. thank you for joining "inside politics." "cnn news central" starts after a break.