Of funding in a few weeks, and also because the white house will be asking congress presently for an aid package for israel, one that by all accounts so far cant pass without a speaker. Lets goat that story first, and then right back to israel where things are rapidly unfolding as well. Jake sherman, Cofounder Of Punch Bowl News and msnbc political contributor. Thanks for being with us. What exactly is going on . So scalise, katy, won the republican conferences nomination to be speaker. This is the initial process by which the republican conference caps their candidate to be the speaker for a house floor vote. As you noted, he only won with 113 votes. That is nothing. That is more than 100 votes shy of winning the speakership and in an alarming sign for mr. Scalise, he has several republicans already saying that they will not vote for him on the floor. Now, some of that could be bluster. We dont know, but tom massey of kentucky, max miller of ohio both have said they have not committed to voting for scalise on the house floor. Remember, katy, this is the same situation that happened to Kevin Mccarthy. You can only lose a couple of votes. Hes halfway there to not being speaker. The earliest the vote can come is an hour from now. I do not think thats likely. I think theyll have to take a day or more to get the votes together because as i said, he is way short of 217. You do not think theres going to be a vote at 3 00 p. M. They dont want to go through 17 rounds of this. Listen, ive gotten out of the prediction business, but i do not think theres any chance in a vote in an hour from now. Listen, could he do it this afternoon, this evening . Maybe, i would put that well below 50 , because, again, he is way short. What about what congressman Mike Gallagher told Andrea Mitchell a moment ago, there was a sense in the conference, the meeting, that they needed to get together and get back to work, there were some big issues they needed to get working on, including this aid package to israel, that that was going to motivate people. Do you see that actually being a motivator to come together and vote for the person who did get the most votes, which is Steve Scalise, even though hes 104 short . I think its a motivator, whether it will actually motivate enough people to get behind scalise is an open question. I was on the phone with a republican member of the house, lets call him a Scalise Skeptic who said that for the time being israel does have enough aid money that the Biden Administration can draw down on. The ndaa, the National Defense authorization act is sitting in the senate, which authorizes more money for israel, so they think, you know, this is not as immediate. Its very immediate, obviously. But they say there are ways for congress to get aid to the israel people, the Israeli Military, without a speaker in place. Im not sure i agree with that to be honest with you. I would say this, we are two weeks of not voting on anything in the house floor because republicans have been squabbling about their leadership. This is embarrassing at this point for them, and they need to get behind a speaker soon because the house is frozen. Congress is frozen. What about Patrick Mchenry whos the pro tem speaker of the house right now. Theres been a lot of talk about what his authority actually is, what he can and cannot do. Any clarity on whether he can bring something to the floor . Its as clear as mud, katy. No, he can not. Listen, the parliamentarian of the House Of Representatives has told people on capitol hill that he does not have the ability to bring legislation to the floor. The house operates on precedence. There is no precedent for this situation. In a break glass scenario, if he had everyones cooperation, could he bring something to the familiar, perhaps, that is not the situation were looking at right now. The overwhelming thought in House Republican and democratic leadership is there needs to be an elected speaker to move forward on legislation. Were going to ask Representative Ken Buck where he stands in a moment. I wonder, what about the eight that ousted mccarthy, do we know where they stand . Do they plan to be as disruptive to the process . Do they like scalise . Do they like jim jordan . My punchbowl news talked to matt rosen daily, for scalise. Matt gaetz said long live speaker scalise, which it is what it is, i suppose. Those are two people who are Mccarthy Skeptics who have come out in favor of scalise, but there are some, Bob Good Of Virginia Has said hes not as much of a change agent as hes looking for. Im not sure who hes looking for alternatively to scalise, but, listen, katy, scalise has won the nomination, and theres going to be pressure, internal pressure to get behind scalise. Again, this House Republican conference has not changed. Its incredibly skeptical of anybody who wants to be in power. Scalise has been in leadership for nine years. Thats a long time. And there are skeptics of home. What about mccarthy, while we have been covering the war in israel, there have been whispers of mccarthy not exactly ruling out whether he would accept a gavel again, saying its up to the conference. Is that even in the realm of possibility . No, the conference has made its voice noun in electing scalise. Mccarthy has told people not to nominate him. I will say this, there were eight votes for people other than scalise and jordan. There were two present votes as well. Ken buck and Victoria Sparks who said they would both vote present for a variety of republicans. Kevin mccarthy is not in the mix. Hes not going to be speaker again. You cant really come back once youre gone. Jake sherman, who sounds like the representatives, he knows so much about whats happening. You might as well be in the conference yourself. Jake, thank you very much, appreciate it. Lets bring in ali vitali. Steve scalise was speaking to reporters, as ryan nobles said much like he was the speaker. What did he say . Reporter acting like he was the speaker, speaking to the landscape within which he now finds himself, a house per lized paralyzed in great peril. That is the backdrop to this. I think the conversation you were having at the top of the show is the right one. Just because its a tumultuous geopolitical climate doesnt mean that the Decision Process is any easier. Yes, theres urgency around needing to put a speaker in place so they can move forward on things like resolutions, condemning hamas. Like considering how aid packages will flow from the u. S. Through congress and to israel at this moment. It doesnt make the process any simpler because of the realities that jake was talking about, the fact that i have heard from multiple members, even in the few minutes i have been standing here waiting to talk to you saying that they dont think scalise has the votes right now. What we have learned in the last few minutes, congressman jim jordan is not actively whipping members, hes not telling people, hey, i want you to keep voting for me. They can still do that. I have talked to several members who say theyre going to keep voting for jim jordan on the floor, that is their prerogative. But jordan is not mounting an official operation to keep himself in the conversation. Im also interested in the meeting that jim jordan is having right now with none other than Steve Scalise. They are behind closed doors, hashing out whatever needs to be hashed out so they can try to take this to the floor in a more organized and less chaotic fashion. I also think its important to think about the ways that as we talk about how congress can work in somewhat bipartisan fashion on things like israel and foreign aid, the conversation that democrats are having amongst themselves. Theres so much angst and consternation that i have heard from democratic members of all stripes about how the house is effectively paralyzed and chaotic in their eyes because of republicans but this is certainly something that impacts all of them. They would like to see a speaker of the house installed. They know its not going to be Hakeem Jeffries but of course all of them are unified behind them. Scalise was the person democrats felt more comfortable with. Thats something thats important to the larger bipartisan picture. I want to play a piece of what Steve Scalise says in the last few minutes. Watch. I want to thank my House Republican colleagues for just designating me as the speaker. Obviously we have work to do. Were going to have to go to the house floor and resolve this and get the house opened again. We have a lot of work to do. Not just in the House Of The People of this country, we see how dangerous the world is and how things can change quickly. We need to make sure were sending a message to people throughout the world that the house is open and doing the peoples business. Reporter certainly thats the message that scalise and most others ive spoken to are trying to send now. In the last few seconds, Julie Tsirkin and frank thorpe with jim jordan as he was leaving the speakers suite, some of the headlines, hes not whipping votes for himself. The meeting was good, and his focus is on unifying the conference. Ali vitali, thank you very much. Were going to come back to you with whats happening on capitol hill, the two major stories were following today make strange bed fellows. Steve scalise saying the first resolution will make it clear that Congress Stands with the people of israel, so let us tell you where things stand in israel right now. It is just past 9 00 p. M. And the night sky is once again glittering with iron dome intercepts. It was another hard day in israel, both for more rocket fire in border cities like ashkelon and the spreading word of how brutal hamas militants were in massacring innocent civilians, including children and babies. As President Biden put it yesterday, isis level terror, which is exactly what one soldier described to my colleague. Its something that i never saw in my life. Its something that we used to imagine as our grandfather and grandmother in europe and other places. It is also hard in gaza where israeli strikes continue to batter and are still battering the strip. An Idf Spokesperson says the finding will get worse and warns that the scenes coming out of gaza will be quote, difficult to understand and cope with. For gazans will be spent in darkness as the power plant is out of fuel. In one hospital there, you can hear the cries of children huddled with family in hallways, looking for the only hopefully safe place they can find. And for the hostages in gaza, some of them potentially u. S. Citizens. Every next step made is critical as President Biden works alongside the Prime Minister to bring them home safely. The two spoke for a third time today, and we are expecting to hear again from the president himself in just a couple of hours. And what of the american citizens trapped in gaza. The State Department estimates 500 duel Passport Holders could be in the strip. How do they and other innocent civilians get out. Can they . Secretary of state Antony Blinken is on his way. What will he be assuring Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, and what will he be warning against . As the threat of a bigger, regional conflict is heightening, as israel now says lebanese aircraft have violated the countrys airspace. A live report from that border in a moment, but first, lets get on the ground in southern israel. Joining us now from arim, israel, is nbc news Foreign Correspondent raf sanchez. Tell us about your day . Reporter just breaking news to share in the last couple of minutes. Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu announcing he is forming an emergency unity government for the duration of this war. You and i have talked many times that Prime Minister netanyahu leads the most right wing government in israeli history, including parties in the far right, but in the face of the crisis, he has invited one of the large centrist parties to join his government and at the heart of this National Unity government is going to be what is called a war management cabinet. It will have three members, the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister and the leader of one of these centrist parties and both of the Defense Minister and leader of the centrist party are former senior israeli generals and that will be the very small threeman committee which is expected to manage this war, and, katy, everyone is taking this as a sign, one of the final bits of preparation being put into place on the political side before what we all expect is going to be a large scale Israeli Ground offensive. The atmosphere in israel today is one of stunned National Unity. Its a feeling that americans might remember after 9 11, and in this environment, with so much horror, such an endless stream of nightmarish news, israelis are looking for moments of inspiration, looking for moments of hope, and i want to share with you one of those stories from a house we went to earlier today. Were at the home of an elderly israeli couple, david and rael. They were held hostage for 20 hours by hamas gunmen, and i want to show you the scene of devastation in here. You can see bullet holes all over the walls, against the stairs there, more gunfire. But this is the truly Extraordinary Part of this story. Rael, this grandmother, she fed the men holding her hostage. You can see some of the cans of tuna she fed to them. She sang to them, and the entire time she was trying to buy time for Israeli Forces to gather. Now, her son is a policeman, and at some point, he came to the door to conduct negotiations, and rael sent him what she realized was a secret signal. She put her hand over her face like this to signal that there were five gunmen inside. I want to take you upstairs, and i just want to warn, it is a little graphic up here. As i said, the walls riddled with bullets. There is blood on the stairs. Theres more blood as you go up, and rael and her husband david were held hostage, mainly up here on this upper floor. The group of gunmen were gathered here. You can actually see some of the food that she served to them. They were held over in this corner, and all the while, Israeli Special forces outside were preparing to storm the building. And they did eventually come bursting in through this window. They killed at least one of the terrorists here. I dont know if you can see this, but these are family photographs. This looks like a picture of a little girl. Just in a pool of blood. The Israeli Forces came bursting through this door, back out into the main room. The gunmen were here. David threw his body over his wife to shield her from the bullets. The police came storming in. And they were able to save this couple. They were unharmed. And this is one of these rare, rare moments of good news that israelis are trying to draw inspiration from right now. Rare moments of good news, katy, in a fiveday period where there hasnt been a lot of it. There is not much good news in gaza tonight. Gaza just a couple of miles that way. The night sky illuminated, iron dome missile intercepters, israeli aircraft overhead. Gaza has now no electricity because its sole power plant has been switched off having run out of fuel, according to the gaza health ministry. If you think of the implications of that for the 2 Million People who live inside gaza. Think just in the hospitals that you were showing earlier, the Dialysis Machines that are potentially no longer going to work, the incubators in neonatal units that are potentially not going to work. The sheer scale of the humanitarian disaster that is potentially looming in gaza, to say nothing of the fact that every indication we have is that Israeli Forces are amassing for a Ground Offensive into the densely populated strip. It is potentially very very dark days ahead, and there is a feeling that they are coming very soon, katy. Its a horrific situation over there as well. Raf sanchez, thank you very much, and thank you for that little bit of good news. I think everybody does need it. Lets bring in msnbc anchor, ali velshi. Thanks for being here. We have been hearing about rocket fire, strikes, just all day long. What have you been seeing in that city . You were just mentioning in your introduction, about ashkelon, right behind me. The lights of the city you see. You will see intercepts from iron dome going up there. We counted eight in a row, and every few minutes, jets were flying above us. Youll hear a big percussive boom. The whole area around the gaza strip, there are a lot of kibbutz like where raf was, and those people have been evacuated. This is now south of here, South Of Ashkelon is a Military Zone where the mi