And you can bring your own device. Oh, and all on the most reliable 5g Mobile Network nationwide. Wireless that works for you. Its not just possible. Its happening. Working the phones, the strategy, the meetings and the appeal and pitch that the men running for Speaker Of The House are now making. New reporting coming in. Building more border wall. President biden vowed to never build another foot of southern border in 2020, and now hisway than a dozen federal laws to add miles to the wall. And now n iowa, ron desantis is restructuring the campaign and sending a third of the staff to the hawkeye state, and what does that say about the state of the race. Im john berman with kate bolduan and sara sidner. This is cnn news central. Maybe it is phone tag. Maybe it is a very serious and consequential game of telephone or maybe we should call it speakerphone, and the race of the gavel is on, and in full force since Kevin Mccarthy is out, and just learned that one of the two top candidates merged is staying in d. C. This weekend to work the phones. We are told that jim jordan is staying In Washington over the weekend and trying to lockdown some support to win over the gavel, but if either of these men jim jordan or Steve Scalise expect to win, they will have to do what seems almost impossible right now which is to unite the divided United Conference and reach 218 votes in support and do it possibly in less than 15 rounds this time. Cnns manu raju is join us from capitol hill. How does the next speaker pull off the impossible . Yeah, it is really in a great question, kate, because we dont know whether ooet ore of the candidates can get to 218 votes to be elected speaker and bridge the bitterly divided conference, and the emotions are raw, and a lot of the Kevin Mccarthy allies are seeking a retribution against the eight republicans and mainly matt gaetz who led the charge to push him out of the speakership from expelling matt gaetz and stripping the Committee Assignments and warnings for those key members who are running for reelection and Congress Nancy mace is with the threat of some funding for her race and we will see how that plays out, but as jim jordan and others are going to be making a pitch that they are the ones to be able to do that. But in talking to members and including one congressman from ohi ohio, he believes this all of this chaos could undermine their ability to take back the house, and the open possibility of expelling matt gaetz from the conference. I am going to stand here by the action that have taken place in the week, i am not hopeful to keep the majority and not hopeful to win back the senate, and i spoke to President Trump three times yesterday, that there is a Coalition Government that couldp ha and you know what we would lose in the house of representatives. What did trump tell you . He is incredibly upset, and this is what matt gaetz using maga cloak to go on twitter with no context to say that he has President Trumps support, and he is painting it in the Broad Strokes and this is why he is so good, because he is a b. S. Artist. That is showing you just echoing a lot of to republican concerns and criticism trudging up towards matt gaetz, but those two speaker candidates need to get the votes from the members on the far right like matt gaetz and the others candidates to oust matt gaetz and the other moderate members who are concerned about the tactics who pushed out Congressman Gates Including Ouster of the speaker and something that is dividing the issues that they have to work towards as they are looking for a speaker vote as early as next week, but can they get there with the votes is still a major joke. Good luck to everyone. Manu, thank you. Did he call dialing for support speakerphone. I did not come up with it. Genius. And now, no doubt, the recipient of a speakerphone is dusty johnson, congressman, let me lay it out and who are you with in the speaker battle . I am not with anybody yet. I think that we have a lot of questions that we need these candidates to answer. In part, because if we dont change the foundational problems within our conference, it is just going to be the same stupid clown car with a different driver. Max miller mentioned matt gaetz earlier in manus report, and i am glad that he did, because the reality is that jim jordan and Steve Scalise cant figure out how to deal with that saboteur, we will have another blowup, whether it is two weeks or six weeks or eight weeks, and matt gaetz and the hardliners are a real problem, and i dont think that pyromaniacs are going to be satisfied to burn down one house, but they will have a itching to burn down a couple more. You called them pyromaniacs and saboteurs, do i have that right . Well, i could have chosen my words a little more carefully, but it is not time for play talk. We have a southern border in doe crisis and 33 trillion in debt and these guys, Chaos Artists decided we needed to take a couple of weeks off from governing country. They have been playing silly d. C. Parlor games about leadership than getting things done, and because they crave the attention, because they crave the chaos, it doesnt end here. We have some real work to do if we are going to be a big boy and big girl place to govern the country. And this clown car caucus, and i am sorry, but i can see why on thursday of this week, you do have so much emotion about it, a i am not trying to demean it at all, and i fully understand it, but that is one side of the conference and the other side of the house that are the moderates that gave you the majority, and punchbowl put it this way appealing to jim jordan. We cant tell you how many moderates simply cant vote for jordan, because he often just dishes out trump playing points and while it plays back in red ohio it does not apply in swing districts. What do you think about that . I think it is overreported. Jim jor dand Steve Scalise are very capable leaders. I think that the way that jim jordan talks about issues is more nuanced than the one report would have one believe. I am not a moderate. I am pretty right of center, but i talk to plenty of moderates, because i talk to everybody in the conference and the house, and i would say to the extent that there is any of that opposition to jim jordan nine months ago, it has absolutely softened. I do want to ask you about something and i do want to mention that you talk about the eight hardliners being a wing of the conference, lets keep in mind, 96 of the conference voted to keep Kevin Mccarthy. I dont know what the definition of a wing is, but 4 is a pretty tiny wing. Understood. This morning we are just getting word that 48 ukrainians have been killed and we have video of the aftermath, and this is a strike on a Grocery Store and you ski it, 49 people killed, and this is a Grocery Store there, and presumably civilians and innocent people, and ukrainians, and jim jordan when asked yesterday, asked if moved forward for a aid package, and jim jordan, i am against that. And ukrainians killed by this Missile Strike and he is against it, and you are supportive of aid to ukraine and what is the reaction . I dont agree with any member of congress on everything, and i think that jim jordans answer is not as nuanced as we need it to be right now. I dont know when the republicans quit being interested in killing communists. Vladimir putin is a thug. This is an illegal war, and of course i dont want american servicemen and women dying in ukrainian battlefields, but in the same way that our country gave United Kingdom ammunition and supplies to hold the line against the gnaw cyst we should be willing to provide some supplies to ukraine to hold the line against russia. Now that is not a blank check. And we do need more accountability. It is one of the things they have talked to jim obviously in the last couple of days, and i will continue to talk to him. I think that both Steve Scalise and jim jordan need to understand that we need to make investments to keep the strategic end in sight and pushing toward more accountability. We are getting word that the former president of the United States donald trump says that he going to do whatever he can to help republicans choose a speaker. I am not sure what that means. What would you like to hear from the former president in terms of the speaker race . I think that this is a decision to be made by the 221 people in the house. So often and i am not criticizing any particular reporter, but i would say that citizens back home, they only know these two gentlemen, and these two leaders through how it has been reported. They have not actually been in the rooms where these guys have been making difficult decisions and execute on them successfully, and sod rather than turning it to somebody outside of our conference, i think that we as a conference need to come together and figure out how to make sure that we are in a position to drive toward more prosperity and freedom. There are plenty of folks in the senate and the house who have different political views than i do, so id like to make sure that my side has their act together. Congressn ma, i have to let you run here, but have you heard from Congressman Jordan or leader scalise in the last 24 hours . Oh, yeah, for sure. I have had lengthy conversations with them both and i will talk to them both in the next 24 hours, i am sure. I am the chairman of the 75member republican main street caucus, and we are the pragmatists on the hill and we are a voting bloc or group that is going to be very involved in this race. Well, keep the phone close by over the weekend. Congressman dusty johnson, doi appreciate you being with us and having a frank discussion with us, and come back next week and tell us where things stand. Be well. I am happy to do so. Sara. President biden is going to build a border wall after all. He said that a border wall was not a serious policy solution, but now they are thing to waive federal laws to build more barriers in the rio grande valley. They are citing high illegal entry for that move. Priscilla alvarez is joining us from the white house. Why is this happening now . We are seeing what is happening at the border and pleas from many cities saying they cannot handle the influx of people. That right, sara. The reality of the administrations faced in this case is that they had appropriated funds from congress dating back to 2019, and the source tells me this morning that the administration has to either choose to use them or to lose them. So, they chose to use these funds for Border Barriers which is what they were congressionally appropriated to use, and they are going to focus the Border Barriers on the rio grande borders, and it is highly trafficked by migrants. From october to august there was nearly 300,000 encounters and in the notice to the register, the Homeland Security secretary cited the high illegal entry, so it would be what you would imagine, access roads, lights and gates and lot more than just a physical barrier going up here. This is something that the customs and Border Protection had talked to the community about through public input and what they seek when they are setting up barriers. Now, to your point, sara, there are an uptick of the border crossings, and this is a precarious issue for the administration. There has been political pressure from the democrats and the republicans, and republicans who want to see him do more, and the democrats who say it is a humanitarian crisis playing out, and one that is also playing out in interior cities among the democratic allies and all of this is coming to the head today with the news of this happening in the rio grande valley. Thank you, priscilla alvarez, of explaining the money and where it came from and why today. And today, top cabinet leaders sitting down for high profile and high level talks with the mexican government, and the focus is the influx of migrants we see crossing into the United States as priscilla just talked about and the broader concern of the smuggling of drugs like fentanyl trafficked through mexico into the United States. Cnn Alex Marquardt has more on this, and fresh reporting for us, and alex, what are you hearing about the meetings today and what the Biden Administration is hoping can come from this . Well, kate, it is a series of meeting throughout the day when the mexican president and other top level mexican officials, and high level cabinet officials, and secretary blinken, and alejandro mayorkas, and kate, it is rare to see so many top level officials going on a single trip like this outside of the bigger international conference, and it is the unique challenges with mexico, and the immediate neighbor to the south, and the u. S. s biggest trading partner, and two of the biggest issues that the United States is facing and those are directly emanating from and the crisis of fentanyl and migration. We have heard the officials in recent days and for quite some time talk about the crisis with fentanyl. 110,000 americans killed from fentanyl and synthetic opioids and the biggest killer of opioids. The Biden Administration has taken aim at the Sinaloa Cartel and extraditing the son of the infamous king ppin el chapo. I wanted to play what was said ahead of this trip from merrick garland. We know who is responsible for bringing in fentanyl, and shattering families with the poisoning of fentanyl and opioids, and we know that behind this is a carteldriven network that is spanning countries and continents. So, kate, fentanyl and the surge of migration is at the top of the pressing issues between these very senior biden officials and the mexican counterparts today. Thank you, alex. John . Brandnew polls showing key of the republican state, and new fundraising numbers. And it is iowa or bust for ron desantis. And commander biden is booted from the white house. And more biting incidents than we thought. Donald trumps zcivil fraud is back under way. And For The First Time trump did not show up today and went home to maralago, but all week on the attack of the judge, the clerk and the Attorney General. And the Attorney General has also been responding to the attacks. I am stuck here because i have a corrupted Attorney General that is communicating with the doj In Washington to keep me nice and busy. I will not sit idly by to have anyone subvert the law, and lastly, i will not be bullied. Former Trump White House lawyer jim schultz is joining us now. I do want to clear something up, because we have heard this over and over again, and he is stuck there, and it is affecting his abilities to be on the campaign trail, but he does not have to be there for the whole trial, dawes he, because it is a civil trial. No, he does not necessarily have to be there, but he does have a need to defend his interests, and to a certain extent, he is on the biggest stage of the world, and this is covered when he is able to come out of the courtroom and make statements and what he believes this is a witch hunt and all of the things that we have heard about and he takes shots at the prosecution and takes shots at the judges and this is some democratic conspiracy. And now the Trump Legal Team has filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges, and the hush money case that new york brought and part of the argument is that he was indicted to interfere in the 2024 election cycle and this is just mere interference in that cycle to keep him from being able to run. Is this a legal strategy or is this a political one . I think it serves both, right. It serves more the public facing political narrative than it does any Legal Defense that he has, because i dont believe that he is going to have any success, and it is a big hill to try to get over, a urd hle to climb to get over that to make the arguments, so it is going to serve him more in the context of the public facing arguments than in the courtroom. I wanted to ask about him, but as he has gone on the attack and attacked everyone including a clerk, and he had a gag order put on him because of a post he made on the new york case, and he has been called for new york judge to be disbarred and the Attorney General is a monster and racist, and called special counsel jack smith who is prosecuting him in the Subversion Case and deranged and a psycho, and so now he has a gag order because of what he did with the clerk, and is this a problem for him Going Forward and the prosecutors are going to be looking at orders to put gag orders on, and they can look back to see what he said, correct . Sure, it is part of the prosecutions strategies in every one of these cases, and he is giving them a ton of fodder to file the motion, but like at the same time, he is not going to be dialing back what he has in the public realm and he is uncontrollable in that realm. No way the lawyers will talk him out of that or political advisers, and if he believes it is in his public interest, he will say it publicly. You know that as you have dealt with him. Thank you, jim schultz, for coming on and talking about this with us. And now, can there be new life into