This hour, we continue cnns special live coverage of a historic vote on capitol hill. A moment, the House Of Representatives will hold a key vote on a motion to oust Kevin Mccarthy as speaker. A motion being brought by one of his fellow republicans. At the beginning of the day, we knew there were five republicans who would vote to oust him. Now, we know there are six. And were learning that mccarthys republican allies are attempting to make a lastminute plea to the 212 House Democrats there, to try to join them, to save him. But House Democrats appear to be united in not wanting to rescue mccarthy. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries just sent what is known as a Dear Colleague letter to his fellow democrats. Saying its the responsibility of the gop to end their own House Republican civil war. Lets go right to capitol hill now where we find cnns manu raju and cnns melanie zanona. Manu, to you first, what are you hearing from republicans as this vote gets closer and closer . Reporter well, theyre coming to grips with the reality that Kevin Mccarthy simply does not have the votes to survive the afternoon measures. The first vote will happen in just a matter of minutes. Theyre trying to block matt gaetz effort from going forward. The Matt Gaetz Motion Would Kick Mccarthy out from the speaker chair. Thats going to fail. That means mccarthy would lose that first vote, by bipartisan shorter to actually allow it to move ahead. Then that vote expected on that historic vote, to actually Eject Mccarthy from the speakership. That is expected later this afternoon, at the same time, mccarthy does not have the votes for that as well. Then, its major uncertainty about whats next. Because the house is essentially paralyzed in until it can elect a new speaker. As mccarthy puts himself as candidate for speaker, he almost certainly would not have the 218 votes needed to be speaker. And another candidate could come up as well and they wouldnt have the 218 votes to be elected. What will happen then . That is the question on everyones minds for the speaker . How long is he willing to go to fight this out . Congressman matt gaetz has made it Crystal Clear he plans to force this vote over and over and over again in mccarthy is forced out in what is historically a first. Never before in history has the speaker be kicked out of the speakership through a vote on the house floor. That what were going to see as we enter into a deep period of chaos in the house as they grapple with that. Speak of the house Joseph Cannon faced a motion to vacate in 1910, but he overwhelmingly survived. It does not appear that Speaker Mccarthy is a Speaker Cannon. Melanie, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries from new york, he said democrats are not going to rescue mccarthy. Are democrats totally united in that, all 212 are going to vote the same way . Reporter yeah, jake, its pretty clear in talking to democrats there will be no democratic cavalry coming to rescue Kevin Mccarthy. They huddled for two hours Behind Closed Doors and did soulsearching and talked about whether Speaker Mccarthy is worth saving. They determined that he is not. He launched an Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden and he walked away from a bipartisan Debt Ceiling Deal earlier in the summer. And he helped resurrect president trump. And jeffries did put out a statement saying it is now the responsibility for gop members to end the House Republican civil war. Given their willingness to break from extremism, House Democratic leadership will vote yes in vacating the chair. Were told by our colleague that some allies were making a lastditch attempt to try to get democrats to change their minds. Making calls, arguing to democrats that they cant punish mccarthy now that hes working with democrats. So far that message is not working. We are expecting at this point for democrats to vote in unison. Society math does not appear to be on mccarthys side. Jake. Melanie and manu, thank you so much. Lets bring our panel back into the conversation. First of all, one of the things that we need to ask ourselves is, if this happens, right, if mccarthy is removed from the speakership, immediately is a question about who is next in the line of secession, right . It goes president , Vice President , then speak of the house. Haw. And david you have insights on this because per the house rule and procedure, chapter 34 the speaker is required to submit a controversial list. In other words, when mccarthy became Speaker Of The House, he gave the clerk a list of people, if im never not Speaker Of The House, these are the people to take my place. Yes, i secret list. In my understanding in talking to some aides, this was a rule in the house that became implemented in the aftermath of September 11th of the Terrorist Attacks as part of a continuity government kind of thing. What is unclear, jake. Its a secret list that is handed over, i think it has ten names on it, in order, as you just noted that would take on the role of speaker pro tem. And member of House Of Representatives . And members of House Of Representatives. Marjorie Taylor Greene i dont know if greene is on Kevin Mccarthy list or not. If you know youre on the list or if you know youre on the list or is it secret to you as well and it just becomes revealed, if indeed the speakers chair is vacated here. And then the clerk opens up that list and gets. I have a question you can but i dont know ill be able to answer it. But is this a case where the house is taking action to remove the speaker . Thats my question. Or is it only when if the speaker is, you know, killed in a Terrorist Attack or something . I think its whether the speaker cannot fulfill the role. Not just when vacated. Its my reading of it, but i am not a parliamentarian. But what i will say is, there has been debate, and this i dont think we have answers to, among house rules experts that ive been speaking with and trying to communicate all morning on this, as to how much power that speaker pro tem would have. Would they be able to fulfill all of the responsibilities of speaker . Or as we expect, their only role here is to oversee the speakers election in the speaker is elected. Back in january, going through 15 rounds of this, the key difference, when that election for speaker was taking place, they werent members of the congress yet. Right. They had not been sworn in. They were memberselect. So theres literally nothing they could do from a Governing Perspective in a speaker was elected and swore all members in to become members of congress. Thats not the case here. Nancy pelosi was still Speaker Of The House at that moment. There was no house. No, there was no house. Exactly, there was no house. Now that the Writers Strike is over in hollywood this is a great idea for like an idiot version of designated survivor. Dana bash, in another way, looking at this conundrum, this pickle that Speaker Mccarthy finds himself, you can look at this and say, you know, he is the person who empowered this flank, the gaetz now six, the gaetz six, he gave them power after power. Including the one Person Motion to vacate power. Yes. He gave that because of his desire for power. He gave up the ghost. People might be wondering why in a body like the house which is partisan and has become more partisan over the years, why this kind of motion has not happened before. And in recent times, you just gave the answer, because the congress hasnt had this kind of power. Nancy i mean, you can speak to this, because you actually worked in house leadership, but nancy pelosi didnt allow this to happen. She didnt allow for any one member to make a motion to vacate the chair. The reason Kevin Mccarthy did this is because he was giving out concessions to republicans whose votes he needed, vote after vote after vote, and he didnt get. And he ultimately got those votes, number 15, back in january, by making a concession like this and this i remember sitting right here, talking about this. Right. And questioning whether or not this was going to come back to bite him. Of course it was, if you introduce a gun in act one, its going to go off in act three. The other thing, past speakers, they wielded power in different ways. Right. Some of them ruled by fear. Boehner would punish people, you stemmed out of line, youd get out of your committee. Nancy pelosi, and paul ryan was very respected. They begged him to be speaker. He didnt want to be speaker. He wanted to be chairman of the Budget Committee. Where it Kevin Mccarthy, is he feared . Is he i dont know the short answer. Thats not good. No its not. Ultimately, thats why were having this day and the speaker is only as powerful as the majority allowed them to be. Nancy pelosi had the same size as Kevin Mccarthy. A very different speakership. And mark meadows just threatened in a letter to make a motion to vacate the chair. It became such a big deal, the house blew up. And thats the anecdote in mark meadows book that john boehner got on his knees. Working on the implementation of house rules, we havent even talked about it. Youre talking a different language that most people who work on these things even know about. Well, we should note that fear of the House Freedom caucus by the republican speaker has been going on for at least a decade or so. Its why Speaker Boehner left before the end remember, he didnt leave at the end of the term. He left before the term was over. One random day. One random day, yes. Also, i remember Speaker Boehner, you were probably at this breakfast at least two of the three at this breakfast, when he was talking about how he was going to introduce Immigration Reform because he was making fun of republicans who didnt want Immigration Reform. And ultimately, he buckled, bus he was afraid they were going to remove him from the speakership. House republican retreat 2014 in williamsburg. We present our immigration principles, Speaker Boehner, and rogers and a guy names Kevin Mccarthy. That meeting lasted an hour. We never talked about that issue again. Dana would call me and say what are you doing on this . And it usually went to voice mail because i didnt have a good answer for her and never picked. You. Now, he tells me. You never listen to them. Well s, where does the Kevin Mccarthy power lie . Why are we here . Everything that you just described was predonald trump. These five or six now, if donald trump called them did this might end right now. If you go back to january, you remember the time when marjorie Taylor Greene got a call i think it said d. T. Oh, my goodness, trump just called her and it was settled. Here comes House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy. Lets listen. I think this is a big honor to do this. I think we were successful. I just wouldnt understand if theres a handful of republicans who join democrats who get to determine who the Speaker Of The House is. But it is what it is. Mr. Speaker, what has gone on here . What are they talking jab. These are the same ones who opposed me before. So, theyre turning the floor over to the democrats. Somemr. Speaker the first speaker to face this since 1910, the back that youre facing this does that Say Something about the speakership or the majority . No one not about that before in the boehner part, and boehner didnt work through it with me, i continued to work through it. If this goes through a vote, will you continue to stand for speaker vote after vote . Well see what happens. Mr. Speaker, are you ready to grind out mr. Speaker all right. I think weve heard all that were going to hear from him at this briefing, although no doubt, Speaker Mccarthy and allies for him will be speaking when they get to the well of the House Of Representatives. But let us continue our conversation, you were talking, im sorry. No i think this is a donald trump issue because you have people donald trump dispensed all rules even if they were still written on paper. So, now you have Kevin MccarthyMaking Promises, and it did come back to bite him. But again, if donald trump wanted to intervene right now and call some house members, i think this might end in a different way. And also, if Kevin Mccarthy had not gone down to maralago after january 6 and bowed to donald trump again, he may not be in this situation with democrats. Donald trump is the backdrop of a lot of this, jeffries mentioned maga, he doesnt say trumps name, he said this is the time to distance yourself from this democracy and youre not as a party. Its two sides of say coin, right . We treat them as capitol hill and whats happening here, as a separate story, but its the same story. Right . We saw signs of it way back in 2008 when john mccain had to, you know, forcefully rebuke members of his party who stood up and had racist things to say about barack obama but then he gave into it when he picked sarah palin who was really the first candidate really in this mold. You saw tell emerge in house race after house race. These house races are easier to win. Theyre smaller areas, theyre more gerrymandered. And Tommy Tuberville is a sign of this who is willing to basically hold up the entire United States military and make a point. Its all related and we shouldnt pull it apart. Its a generational transformation. Were going to take a break. Well come back and talk about the big picture. If you missed what Kevin Mccarthy just said, a big question from a reporter, will you continue to stand for speaker vote after vote, of course, the expectation being the motion to table will fail, the motion to vacate will succeed. And then Speaker Mccarthy will continue to stand for speaker and lose vote after vote. And Kevin Mccarthy saying well see what happens. And in fact, we will see what happens, all of these votes coming minutes from now. And perhaps my predictions will be wrong. Who knows. Our Special Coverage continues after this short break. Welcome back to our Special Coverage. Any minute, the u. S. House of representatives will hold a key vote on a motion to oust its leader. Speaker Kevin Mccarthy. We now know there are at least six republicans who will vote against him. Mccarthy, of course, is a fellow republican. Lets go to lauren fox on the hill. Lauren, what are mccarthys allies saying about these pending votes were expecting any moment . The first one will be a motion to table, that will possibly be followed by a motion to vacate. Reporter yeah. You can expect, jake, that his allies are deeply frustrated, irritated an upset at matt gaetz who they feel like is just a minority voice in their conference. Mccarthy, they say has broad and widespread support but as Stephanie Vice told me, one key ally of the speaker, right now matt gaetz is playing a n narcissistic game of charades. You also have this. If mccarthy loses the votes today, do you think hes going to fight, do you think hes going to run for speaker again . Kevin mccarthy has never given up on anything in his life. He never lets the clock run out on him and he knows his resilience is his superpower. And hes got a lot of members right now tells him to stay in the fight. There that theres no other person that can get to 215 votes. Kevin mccarthy is going to be the Speaker Of The House at the end of the month. Listen, there may be a few hours here and there when hes not speaker, but Kevin Mccarthy is the only one supported by 90 of the caucus. Reporter are you going to stick with Kevin Mccarthy even if this goes on for a month . Kevin mccarthy is the only person who can possibly run this absolutely insane House Of Representatives ri