Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea 20240703

Number of 217 votes to win the gavel. Reporter do you think you have the votes on the floor today . We feel really good. We need to get a speaker today. We feel really good about where we are at. Steve kornacki will be with me to break down the vote from the big board. The latest nbc reporting on the breaking news that President Biden will leave tonight for israel and jordan to get humanitarian aid moving into gaza, Work On Releaing the hostages, and how gaza will look if hamas is removed. Hamas released a video of a hostage. The question, is it a signal that the terror group might be willing to deal . Good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. A big day where the house is in session and ohio congressman jim jordan is the man of the hour. The Judiciary Chairmans bid for speaker is gaining steam within the House Republican conference. He is closing in on the 217 votes he needs to win. The battle for a man long viewed as the leader of House Revolutionaries to become second in line for the presidency, that is still very much in play. Joining me now, Garrett Haake and Steve Kornacki at the big board. Steve, just a second. Garrett, give us a refresher what we will see in the next hour. It will happen in the next hour or two. Tell us what jim jordan has been selling to win over his fellow republicans, especially the moderates. Reporter buckle up. We could be in for another historic day on the house floor. The doors have just opened. Members are starting to trickle in. What will be a series of votes after they go through opening the floor, the pledge, the prayer and so forth. I think we might see basically an Attendance Check Vote to see how many folks are here today. If that magic number will stay at 217. Then we will see nominating speeches for the candidates. Jim jordan, of course, the republican side. Hakeem jeffries will be the candidate for democrats. It wouldnt shock me if someone stands up to nominate Kevin Mccarthy. We know there are some republican holdouts against jim jordan who plan to vote for mccarthy as a protest vote. Some of the members are dug in. We will see that inperson Roll Call Vote like we saw so many times back in january where members will be asked to vote by name for Speaker Of The House. Just like in january, we will get an idea pretty quickly whether jordan is on a path to get to 217 as we get through the early part of the alphabet when folks who are antijordan holdouts will cast their vote. Complaints against jordan have run from his unwillingness to acknowledge joe biden winning the presidency, ken bucks complaint, to questions about how he would handle a possible Government Shutdown. Thats the concern of some of the appropriators. To the way he handled Steve Scalise and Kevin Mccarthy, the last two nominees for this position, some of the loyalists of those men feel like jordan bulldozed through them to get to this moment. As the house comes to order, andrea, we will see where the votes land this afternoon and possibly late this evening. Thanks so much. As the house comes to order, here is Steve Kornacki. We have been here before. What will you be watching for this time around . Andrea, garrett set the stage. What you are looking at here and as this vote progresses, when its taken, what you will be able to see here is we have put a big list together here. These are all republicans. These are republicans who have either indicated opposition to jim jordan, an intent to vote against him on this first ballot, or who havent said anything. Some of them we expect will end up being with jordan. They just havent made public pronouncements. The list we have got here is nearly 60 members long. Its going to be very interesting to see how many of these nearly 60 republican names you see here actually do publically vote against jim jordan on this first ballot. In terms of the math, the way this works here is, to become the Speaker Of The House, you need a majority of all members who are present in the chamber and critically who cast a ballot for somebody by name. They are called upon. They could vote for anybody they want. They could also vote present. If they vote present, it affects the math. Coming into today, there are 221 seats held by republicans. 212 seats that are held by democrats. Theres news that one florida republican, who is a supporter of jim jordan, will be absent at least for the afternoon. If that is the case, there would be 220 republicans perhaps in the chamber. The democrats have indicated all their members are present. If there were 220 republicans, 212 democrats voting on this first ballot, that would be a total of 432 votes cast. If they are all cast for a member by name, then you need a majority, which would be 217. Again, if there are 220 republicans present from this giant list right here, when you get to three defections for jordan, he reached his limit. A fourth defection, he cant win this thing on the first ballot. Again, as garrett is saying based on the public pronouncements we are hearing, the real question on this first ballot seems to be not if jordan will get it but how far from it he will be. Maybe as a point of reference, you could think back to january when Kevin Mccarthy had to go all those rounds to become the speaker. On the initial couple rounds of voting, in january, there were 19 republicans who voted for somebody besides Kevin Mccarthy. 19 was the number there. It will be interesting to see here, i think very important to see how the jordan number compares to that potentially. Again, a number of these members here don bacon from nebraska who will be called early, have indicated opposition to jordan. How many more end up joining . Where does that number end up landing when you get through the roll call . See how it compares to Kevin Mccarthy. We will be tracking in real time all of these republicans in particular as the vote comes in. You will see right here on this screen who they have voted for. Keep in mind, if you see four of these republicans who for somebody besides jim jordan, then jim jordan cant, assuming all the democrats vote for Hakeem Jeffries, then jim jordan cannot win on this first ballot. Thank you so much, steve, for doing the math, setting the stage. Garrett, lets talk about some of the crosscurrents here. There are 14 minutes left on this call to make sure everyone is there. One person missing is a congressman who says he has a family funeral. He will eventually vote. Its 220 perhaps on this first ballot, 221 later in the day when he is able to join. Theres been fierce, fierce campaigning and lobbying and arm twisting by jim jordan. He started the Freedom Caucus. He was the revolutionary, set the place on fire during the impeachment when he was chairman of judiciary up against the Impeachment Push by the democrats against donald trump and has been really tough. What a lot of people are saying is the moderates are saying, this has gone on long enough. We have to vote for jim jordan. We dont like it. They got squishy because the Republican House cannot continue to stop congress and the government from doing anything, especially with two hot wars. Reporter thats exactly right. Part of what Kevin Mccarthy sold his membership on and part of what made him speaker for the time he was able to hold on to that position was that he was viewed as part of his job as protecting front line members, his members who won in joe Biden Districts. Its why mccarthy never formally endorsed donald trump. He did everything but. Jim jordan does not operate under that same set of principals. He is probably the most single members supporting donald trump. He argued it was stolen from donald trump. He has been trying to tell members he wont necessarily lead from that direction. But they have so much history with him as jordan the Freedom Caucus member, the shutdown proponent, the trump supporter, that its hard for them to get there. I think of someone who was Kevin Mccarthys star recruit in this congress, a Freshman Member from arizona, won in a biden district, young, hispanic, diverse. The idea of a modern Republican Party. He posted on twitter today that he will be voting for jim jordan for the reasons you just laid out. Its time for congress to get back to work and they have too many important issues to attend to. They cannot attend to any until they have a speaker. Its votes like that that democrats and their Campaign Committees are going to try to hang around the necks of folks like the new york republicans we talk about who are going to be at least in this moment forced to embrace the jim jordan of old before we find out if a speaker jordan behaves or conducts himself in any different way than what we have come to expect from him as the Judiciary Chairman and bomb thrower before that. Stay with us, Garrett Haake, Steve Kornacki. Joining us is michael steele, former press secretary, brendan buck and fred upton. Brendan, you know jim jordan. Is the jim jordan who refused any compromise going to be able to if he became speaker sit down, negotiate with the president of the united states, with the senate, both houses, both parties and come up with a continuing resolution . He has been against them all along. The reality is thats the job. The jim jordan we have known for many years is incompatible with the job of speaker. Thats something that he is going to have to figure out. Very quickly after we get a speaker, if we get one today, you are going to have to fund the government. At some point that requires working with the president , working with democrats in the senate. That is the type of thing jim jordan has worked his career against. Thats where the two things are going to clash. You cannot be a bomb thrower and only tear things down. My old boss john boehner said, he has never seen anybody tear things up more and not build up as he did with jim jordan. You cant operate like that. What j jordan has done his career has amassed a lot of power without any real responsibility. This is a change for him. Now the weight of the country is on him. People will be looking for him to get things done. I think he is going to find out the hard way just fighting doesnt do anything. Eventually, you have to get in fred, you served for more than 35 years in the house. Take us inside the caucus. What we are hearing from our reporter inside the chamber watching the vote count is that there are moderate holdouts. I would say that thats pretty accurate. There will be others that may vote for Somebody Else and not for jordan. I expect its going to be, as i say, a squeaker speaker election here. I dont think jordan is going to get it on the first vote, first ballot. Im not sure he is going to get it on the second or third, either. A lot to be determined by how many votes against him are there going to be on the republican side . All the democrats will vote for Hakeem Jeffries. Are there going to be 10, 15 republicans that vote no on the first round . Then on the second round, assuming that thats accurate, how many of those stick for the second ballot and maybe even the third . Then after the third ballot, then i think they have to go to a plan c, if jordan does not get the 217. Thats whether they will look at someone like mchenry or cole to see if we have divided government. Is there a way they can provide some relief that might lure democrats to say, enough is enough, lets join with most of the republicans to try to get things done. You have some huge issues. Lets face it, the world is on fire between israel and ukraine. We have a cr where no negotiations have taken place for the last couple weeks, a looming deadline on November 17th. Remember, whatever they decide, you have to get 60 votes in the senate to get it done. Its not just the republican vote. You gotta get bipartisanship. I dont think that jordan is capable of getting bipartisanship on really any major issue, certainly based on the years that i served with him. Michael steele, lets talk about that. Youve got people like mchenry, the Interim Speaker pro tem. Theres talk of democrats getting together with other republicans, the more moderate republicans, lets say, and authorizing him to have the power to bring something to the floor, to bring a supplemental for israel and ukraine, for instance, to the floor. Right now he doesnt have that power. Theres no organization at the house. Mike mccall, from texas, the republican chair of homeland security, he has worked with democrats for years and years on foreign policy, he is used to doing bipartisan things exactly on that. He is a tough guy but someone that i could see the democrats supporting as a backup if we are three rounds down. Thats a long way off though. Michael . It is. I dont see any of that as viable, because if it were, thats the first play. Why not go and create that narrative from the front end . Nobody in the house wants jim jordan as speaker. Can we be honest about that . Nobody. Not republicans. Not democrats. But the republicans have backed themselves into such a corner that to brendans point, where are they to go . They could attach to tom cole or anyone else, but they didnt, because that vote isnt there. The expectation we need to be clear about this. It goes to what brendan was saying how john boehner pegged jim jordan from day one. Jim jordan is not about governing or managing this house. This is about how theyre going to try to push through an agenda that has no resiliency beyond the house itself. Its going to die on its way to the senate. What does that mean for us . Thats the struggle that we now find ourselves in, watching this narrative unfold and acting and pretending like theres a plan c, plan d. There is none. There is none beyond jim jordan. Watching from the gallery, jim jordan, according to kyle stewart, in the gallery, jim jordan is circulating, shaking hands of supporters, some of whom are recent supporters. The last weekend has shown a lot of pickup for jordan. Ali vitali caught up with him in the corridors. Ali . Reporter thats exactly right. We did catch up with jordan as he was making his way to the floor here just in the last hour or so. I will play for you the optimistic notes he was sounding with me. Watch. Sir, do you think you have the votes on the floor today . We feel really good. We need to get a speaker today. We feel really good about where we are at. Reporter what are some of the concerns you have heard . We have been picking up support every day. Again, i feel confident. Reporter look, jordan is right there, andrea. He has been picking up votes over the weekend and into last night. Going into this morning, theres wideheld belief that he is within ten or 15 votes of getting where he needs to be. Ten to 15 votes doesnt get him to 217 which is, of course, still the magic number that we are watching all of the want to be speakers try to count to in their quest to actually get the gavel. As we watch him circulate on the floor, theres a question of how many ballots it will take, how long until the fatigue sets in. A feature of the jordan strategy is taking this out from behind closed doors, from behind a secret ballot, and putting it into the public view on the house floor. That doesnt mean that on the first ballot he is going to get the number he needs. But it does mean the calculation is that as the balloting rounds go on my understanding from jordan sources is that he is prepared to go on this for several ballots knowing the realities of this republican conference. The strategy is to see if the fatigue and public pressure can break some of the folks who say they dont want to vote for jordan now, but maybe that wanes in the form of a present vote or in a possible yes. To Garrett Haake, from what you are looking at as you watch the vote, has he picked up any significant votes in this early balloting . Reporter no. At this point, we are trying to get folks into the room. The most significant thing to me is who is not there yet. Im waiting for Kevin Mccarthy to march from the office that used to be his in which he still occupies down the hall over my shoulder to the floor. Mccarthy still has some influence in this process. There are several of these holdouts who say they will only vote for him. They are waiting for Kevin Mccarthy to tell them to do otherwise. They have been saying that for several days. We are in the hour of the voting and those members have not been released by Kevin Mccarthy to vote for jim jordan or anyone else. The longer that goes on and the closer to the voting with that being the case, you start to wonder why. Is there any reason why these votes would remain outstanding beyond hurt feelings . Is there an effort in place to see if jordan cant get there, perhaps the mccarthy round two dream survives somehow. Perhaps there are discussions about if not jordan, who. I think thats unlikely. Everything that ali laid out is the direction we are most likely to head in. The weight of the conservative machinery behind jordan right now gives him, i think, every conceivable advantage going into this vote. As we have seen before and as we are continually reminded up here, anything can happen, especially if the few holdouts drag things on much later. Steve kornacki, as you look at the quorum call this is about a minute left, as we can see on the monitor. What do you think at this stage, just in terms of how many are present so far, whether they will have to call another quorum call. The democrats, Katherine Clark from the Democratic Caucus said they had full, perfect attendance. If thats true, that would be 212. We had the report of the republican from florida going to be absent for the early vote. A supporter of jim jordan. That would bring the number of defections that jordan could afford on the first ballot down, obviously, a little bit. Just look how this is going to play out alphabetically. These are the republicans we are keeping an eye on here. This is the big list. A lot of these are republicans who just havent said maybe they havent been tracked down by reporters. They havent said anything publically. A lot from this big list we do think arent on the fence and probably are going to be easy jordan votes. On the other hand, theres a lot on this list, starting with don bacon. Don bacon from nebraska, from the Congressional District in nebraska nebraska, they do the electoral votes in the president ial election by Congressional District. Bacons from the district in nebraska that voted for joe biden, voted for joe biden by seven points. Bacon has been saying, he is a no. He will be a no on jim jordan. Right away, you could have a vote against jordan very early on the republican side. You have ken buck from colorado who has been talking about jordans refusal to fully accept the 2020 Election Results would make him a no potentially. You have right here, chavezderemer, a republican in a district that voted for joe biden. Mario diazbalart this is almost five dozen deep, within the first set of names here, you could see jordan losing more than four votes. Thats all he can afford to lose, four votes. He cant win on this first ballot. The question that might raise if that number gets across four very early, does that set up some kind of a Snowball Affect . There are other members later on in this list who were unsure, like meeks from iowa, won by six points in 2022, do they start to see that it looks safer and safer potentially . Is there strength in numbers in voting against jim jordan . If they see antijordan votes right away. The expectation here is that jordan is not going to get that number on first ballot. He will try to ramp up the pressure, get these folks on the record here. But there is a question. Look back to the Kevin Mccarthy race in january. That first ballot it took 15 ballots to win. That first ballot, there were 19 republicans who voted for somebody other than Kevin Mccarthy. Maybe use that as a little bit of a benchmark as you work through this list of nearly 60. How many vote for somebody other than jim jordan in this balloting . Brendan buck, from what you are seeing so far, there are about 24 who havent voted yet. They are out of time. They can hold the Gaveling Down for a while to get them in. Are these people who are just trying to keep their powder dry and not be strongarmed on the floor in public. I have a sense the democratic whip or jordans operation, they know who is in town. This is not one of those things where you are not sure where people are. I think mostly they are trying to get everybody to the floor so that they can be present for the roll call and make sure nobody didnt realize, theres a vote. I think everybody is in town. These are probably just some stragglers. Of course, every single one of these votes matters a lot. You never want to be cautious or cavalier. You want to make sure that folks are there. I have seen a lot of innerparty conflict in my day. I think what jim jordan has going for himself is all of the infrastructure and incentives are on his side. A lot of those people that are on that border are moderate members, middle of the conference. There really is no system or mechanism in place to defend them when things are tough. We know that the conservative ecosystem can come crashing down on people at any time. Thats why you see a lot of the people who have been around, who are moderates who probably dont like the way jim jordan would govern, but they have come along because they know what its like to have the right coming after you. People in Biden Districts, in those swing districts, whats so tough is they are not immune electric primary pressures themselves. They have to worry about a primary like everybody else. For a lot of them, theres safety in numbers for voting for jim jordan. Theres an argument to be made if five or six people vote against him and he is defeated, that doesnt create a Snowball Affect. Maybe they will say, job is done, i dont need to stick my own neck out. Theres a lot of Cross Cucrossc that cross both ways. Why jim jordan is coming to the floor when Steve Scalise couldnt, they are trying to break down the moderates. They dont have anybody to come to the rescue when they are under attack. Garrett haake, you were going down the hallway with Kevin Mccarthy as he was heading to the floor. Did he have anything to say . Reporter i asked whether he encouraged some members who said they will only support him on the floor to instead vote for jim jordan . Mccarthy said, he has told those members to vote for jordan. It will be interesting to see whether that has any affect on the first ballot or thereafter. He took another question about the difference between now and january. Its a good point. Unlike what we saw in january in his 15 ballot odyssey to the speakership, theres a Rules Package in place here. Its not as though the house can only do this in a sense that they can they cant vote on anything else until they get this passed, but they could continue to do committee business, continue to do other things if we get, god forbid, in a situation where we remain stuck without a speaker past the two weeks, which that has been the case. He is on the floor now. We are keeping our eye out for the holdouts. I watched another Member Heading to the floor. I think we are close to the moment of truth with this quorum call ending. Donna edwards is with us. Hakeem jeffries was on Meet The Press and was very clear about not signaling the democrats will help republicans out of this, the moderate republicans. It doesnt seem likely, at least pending a couple of rounds of this, that the democrats would cross over and bail out those moderate republicans and try to come up with some way to stop jim jordan, if that was what they wanted to do. I mean, theres no reason for democrats to bear the responsibility of saving the Republican Party. This is their mess. They have to clean it up. I think from democrats perspective that to the extent that no republicans were willing to come together in a bipartisan fashion to work out what an agreement would be for the future, it seems to me that this is a Republican Party that is not really interested in governing. I think should jim jordan get the nod for speaker, whether thats on a first or third or fifth ballot, that its going to be very difficult for him to put together the kind of coalition that he needs within the republican conference to actually get business done. Donna and gentlemen, we will take a quick break. We will be back, more from the capitol and the vote for house speaker, thats all coming up next. You are watching Andrea Mitchell reports. This is msnbc. Tchell reports. This is msnbc. The ball is out and theres a pileup. Lets go get in the pile ugh, ill deal with this tomorrow. You wont. Its ripe in here. My eyes are watering. Im a busy man. Look how crusty this is. Shameful. Ugh, its just too much. Not with this. Tide. Tide can tackle any pile. That a tackle pun . Just clean the pile, ron. Okay. This too. That was easy. When stains and odors pile up, its got to be tide. The power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. And thats a good thing . Great in my book who are you . No power . No problem. Introducing stormready wifi. Now you can stay reliably connected through Power Outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery backup to keep you online. Only from xfinity. Home of the xfinity 10g network. Republican conference. It has been bruising. I know that both former speaker Kevin Mccarthy as well as trump have been working the phones, working members that may have been undecided or maybe leaning for Somebody Else, they have been breaking their arms and legs. This quorum vote, its a little bit unusual. You dont often have a quorum vote to start legislative business. You do at the beginning of a congress. Thats about the only time now these days. But this is yet another opportunity for jim jordan and his folks to say, im looking for so and so. Theyre going to come here and vote. Were going to grab them, particularly if they have been avoiding that phone call or avoiding the meeting or not showing up or whatever. This is the opportunity to go really put them in the corner and work them over, because the next vote is going to start pretty soon here. It is alphabetical. Its going to go a couple of ballots, as i said earlier. I think jordan is going to be short. The real question is what happens on the second and third ballot . Do the numbers stay the same . Do people vote the same as they did before . Is there some slippage that then leads to jordan actually becoming speaker . The real issue i think as you look at the folks who have come out and said theyre not going to vote for jordan, particularly on the first ballot is, they want to govern. We have to have a cr. We dont want a shutdown. We didnt want a debt ceiling that collapsed last june where Kevin Mccarthy went into trouble. Not only did he deal with the democras and the biden administration, but he also did that to avoid the shutdown on september 30th. He tried every which way to get republicans to vote for a cr that had massive cuts in spending. He couldnt get it done. At the end of the day, the only way that we could keep the government open was that he worked with the democrats, virtually all of them voted for the cr, most of the republicans did as well. So it was bipartisan. They got huge majority in the senate where you have to get 70 votes. Its the same scenario now as we look at the next Government Shutdown potential on November 17th with a continuing resolution. We have to get 60 votes in the senate. You will have to have a bipartisan cooperation in the house. You have some folks that have been on the record for years and years in the republican conference who have said, i am never going to vote for a cr. I am never going to do that. Thats why you had to reach across the aisle and try to keep the government open. Then you have the issue of israel. I have to believe there is strong bipartisan support for that in terms of what happened. We also know that we have had a couple of test votes on ukraine, its probably a three to one proposal in the house for more ukraine aid. Yet, its jordan and some others that have actually absolutely stopped the assistance for ukraine, which in my view needs to go forward, particularly the next couple of weeks. Garrett haake, this could be a vote that is basically for ukraine or not for ukraine and a vote of, do you believe in a shutdown or a continuing resolution, and now we have Brian Fitzpatrick, Asuggesting E able to vote for jordan. Reporter i doubt any of these republicans will look at it through that prism. I think its a fair way to consider it. We got a statement from Brian Fitzpatrick, republican from pennsylvania, our viewers may be familiar with him, the republican who heads up the problem solvers caucus. He is as much of a moderate as anyone is inclined to think exists. This very lengthy statement, he makes the case that he will grudgingly vote for jim jordan for a lot of the same reasons i explained. The government needs to get back to whatever kind of functionality it can by electing a speaker. He goes to Great Lengths to describe the problems in this country that he thinks need to be solves, border, israelhamas war, the war in ukraine, issues that Congress Needs to address and cant without a speaker. He also continues to attack the eight members who forced republicans and the country into this situation by voting to oust mccarthy. That irresponsible action he places at the root of this. Tries to express the frustration we have heard from a lot of republicans who dont want to be in this moment, dont want to face what to them is a choice that in some cases almost untenable between jim jordan and Hakeem Jeffries. In this moment, Brian Fitzpatrick says he will choose jim jordan, taking another name off our board of potential holdouts as we approach the start of the vote. Michael steele, speak up here. Let me hear what you have to say about that. I have a lot to say, andrea. Im sorry. With all due respect to everybody who is sitting here talking about, you know, im voting for jim jordan so congress can get back to work. In what universe does that happen . Can we just be honest . Jim jordan has stood against everything that would move the congress towards work. Now as speaker, he is going to do what . Tell all those folks who were mad at they were mad at mccarthy for sitting down and cutting the deal on the debt and cutting the deal on inflation, to keep the country from falling apart, they fired him for doing that. Now theyre going to say, okay, jim, go sit down with the president and do everything that we have been fighting against having done over the last two or three years. It makes no sense. This is not about governing. This is about positioning. This is about putting the house in the position to square up against the administration. The country is not going to move forward under jim jordans leadership. The man is impeaching joe biden. Where does this work, people . Lets get the fog out of our eyes here and understand exactly what the political reality of this is. This is not about governing. This is about positioning the party to be the objectioner to everything that Theed Aminute that the administration wants to put forward and blame the democrats for when it falls apart. They blamed the democrats for not supporting Kevin Mccarthy. Jeffries didnt call to vacate the chair. Matt gaetz did. And eight republicans followed. Now the democrats who follow after voting for Hakeem Jeffries on 15 ballots, on the 16th support Kevin Mccarthy . This is upside down world. I think we just need to be realistic. The country needs to be prepared for what is to come. Theres not a bone in jim jordans body that indicates he wants to govern and find compromise and to work with the moderates in the house to build a coalition to move the country forward. I just dont see it. Theres nothing in his history that shows thats there. We can continue to pretend if we want. Brendan buck, is there a jim jordan 2. 0 . If he gets the gavel, once he has the power. Whats so funny about what michael just said theres great irony to this. That is the pitch jim jordan is making. That i alone can govern, because i can cover for you on the right. I can provide the cover you need. I have the credibility with the right. We will be able to govern without there being a lot of blow back. This is one of those situations when you are whipping people, there are people who want to get to a yes and there are people who want to get to a no. It sounds like you have people who want to get to yes. Give me some rationale to use to say im there. A lot of these appropriators, their job is to fund the government. Jim jordan has been trying to blow up the appropriations process for years. He is telling you, im your guy now. I think that you have people who are give me something. Give me something i can use and they are willing to use it to say yes. Steve kornacki, where do we stand now on getting everybody into the room . This is a very long, extended quorum call. Its usually 15 minutes. I think we learned when that clock goes down to zero, it often doesnt actually mean zero in the house. I think its key what you saw up on the screen there now. You do have every democrat, 212 accounted for. You have all but one republican accounted for. You have 220 republicans checking in, 212 democrats. Again, that one not voting republican we believe is from florida who is probably going to be out for the afternoon for a funeral. Here we go. Nominations are now in order. The chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from new york. Mr. Speaker pro tem, madam clerk, colleagues, on behalf of the House Republican conference, i rise today to nominate the gentleman from ohio, jim jordan, as speaker of the peoples house. [ applause ] we are at a time of great crisis across america. A time of historic challenges in this very chamber. A time when heinous acts of terror and evil have been committed against our great ally israel. As this body convenes for the sacred responsibility to elect the next speaker of the peoples house, i am reminded of the book of esther. For such a time is this. Jim jordan will be americas speaker for such a time as this. A time when hard working American Families are struggling under the vice of inflation. Not able to afford groceries, heat, or gas because of the trum trillions of dollars by reckless spending by failed far left government. Millions are being trafficked across our borders due to the catastrophic and inhumane wide open borders of joe biden. A time when Violent Crime is skyrocketing across america, destroying our great cities, suburbs and small towns, where people no longer feel safe in their homes or in their communities. A time when American Energy production has been crushed by joe bidens radical failed far left policies causing seniors, farmers, and families to pay more at the pump and struggle with skyrocketing utility bills. A time when the federal government is weaponized against we the people, who they are supposed to serve. Stripping us of our godgiven Constitutional Rights and wrongfully targeting conservatives, catholics, and parents at school board meetings. A time when the people of our closest and most precious ally israel suffered the Bloodiest Day since the holocaust, with acts of inhumane evil committed by Hamas Terrorists backed by iran, grotesque atrocities. The beheadings of babies. Rapes, kidnappings and slaughter of women, children, and the elderly. Israelis and americans taken hostage. We are here in this very chamber for such a time as this. Jim jordan will be we the peoples speaker for such a time as this. Our friend and colleague jim jordan is a patriot. He is an America First warrior who wins the toughest of fights, going after corruption and delivering accountability at the highest levels of government. Jim is the voice of the American People who have Felt Voiceless for far too long. Whether as judiciary chair, conservative leader, or representative for his constituents in west central ohio, whether on the Wrestling Mat or in the committee room, he is strategic, tough and he is a mentor, a worker and above all he is a fighter. The American People know, we know that jim jordan is a winner on behalf of the American People. Almost ten years ago, many of us sat with our colleague jim jordan in this very chamber when Prime Minister netanyahu delivered his historic joint address, which some of our colleagues across the aisle shame it wilfully boycotted out. Bibi pointed out that we serve under the watchful gaze of moses. He said, quote, Overlooking All Of Us in this chamber is the image of moses. Before the people of israel entered the land of israel, moses gave us a message that has steeled our resolve for thousands of years. Be strong and resolute, neither fear nor dread them. He went on to say, my friends, may israel and america always stand together strong and resolute, may we neither fear nor dread the challenges ahead, may we face the future with confidence, strength, and hope. End quote. On behalf of the American People, lets face the future with confidence, strength and hope. Lets elect jim jordan our speaker of the peoples house for such a time as this. I yield back. [ applause ] the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Speaker pro tem, as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, im directed by the vote of the caucus to present for election to the office of the Speaker Of The House of representatives the name of the honorable Hakeem Jeffries, the pride of crown heights, a representative from the state of new york. [ applause ] this is not the history we wanted to make here in the house. Its something that none of us imagined when we were sworn in to this office. We are here because the house has been thrown into chaos. We are here because this Hallowed Chamber has been led to a Breaking Point by two dangerous forces, extremism and partisanship. The American People placed their faith in us to tackle their most pressing issues, lowering costs, growing the middle class and standing up to those set on delivering a National Abortion ban. The choice before us is simple. Come together on a bipartisan path forward or take us over the cliff. Abandon the extremism preventing us from getting things done or triple down on division and dysfunction. A vote today to make the architect of a nationwide abortion ban, a vocal election denier, and an insurrection insider to the Speaker Of The House would be a terrible message to the country and our allies. [ applause ] it would send a more troubling message to our eneies that the people that would seek to undermine democracy are rewarded with positions of immense power. We are talking about someone who has spent his entire career trying to hold our country back. Putting our National Security in danger, attempting Government Shutdown after Government Shutdown, baseless investigations with dead ends, inciting violence on this chamber. Even leaders of his own party have called him a legislative terrorist. He once said, quote, i didnt come to congress to make more laws. His words speak for themselves. What new yorkers recovering from Hurricane Sandy needed, he said no. When wildfires ravaged the west destroying homes and businesses and those residents needed disaster assistance, he said no. When the Mississippi River floods devastated the south and communities across state lines needed to act, he said no. When our veterans were suffering from disease and dying as a result of their service to our country and Congress Passed a bipartisan solution, he said no. When our ally in ukraine looked to congress for Additional Support to help defeat putin, he said no. And just before hamas brutal Terrorist Attack on israel, he said no to fully funding military aid for our ally. This body is debating elevating a Speaker Nominee who has not passed a single bill in 16 years. These are not the actions these are not the actions of someone interested in governing or bettering the lives of everyday americans. This is nothing less than the rejection of the oath that we swore to uphold is duly elected members of this body. But on this side of the aisle, and throughout this chamber im convinced order still matters. To fulfill our obligations to the American People, we have no choice today but to vote for a leader of both character and conviction. When the Congress First began he proudly we proudly stood next to him as our leader and made a promise to every american. House democrats would work to find Common Ground on the issues that matter most to the American People, whenever possible. That would that we would stand up to extremism whenever necessary. Only Hakeem Jeffries can be trusted to keep his word. Only Hakeem Jeffries can lead us out of the chaos and toward a path of governance. It brings me immense pride to nominate our friend, the democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries as speaker. [ applause ] im not done yet. Hakeem. Hakeem. He may just be the candidate with the most votes, but he is also the candidate with the most credibility. If the goal is to continue a 30year march to hollow out our democratic institutions, weaken our democracy and embolden extremists, there is a candidate for you. If the goal is to continue taking Marching Orders from a twice impeached former president with more than 90 pending felony charges, then there is a candidate for you. The world is watching, mr. Speaker pro tem. Our allies in ukraine and israel are watching and waiting. So lets so lets have this vote, but lets be clear, a vote for the gentleman from ohio is a vote to turn your back on National Security. It is a vote to turn your back on a bipartisan path to fund the government and avoid shutdowns, something we can only do if we reject his nomination. House democrats are in a minority, we realize that. If House Republicans want to elect a speaker without us, they could have. There is still a path forward for both democrats and republicans to come together to elect a speaker who can unite us behind a common purpose. Keeping the government open on a bipartisan compromise that won more than 300 votes just four months ago in this chamber. Taking up an up or down vote on help so israel can defeat hamas and ukraine can defeat putin, and reassuring the American People that their legislators have their backs. It is that simple, mr. Speaker. And we can do it today. Lets work together, lets elect a speaker who will reach out a hand of bipartisanship and deliver for the American People. That is why once again, mr. Speaker pro tem, i am proud to nominate Hakeem Jeffries for speaker. I yield back. [ applause ] nancy pelosi, in a blue suit behind him, and steny hoyer, the old guard certainly, Nancy Pelosi Playing A Key role as a close confidante. Patrick mchenry, lets see what he has to say if there are any other nominations. The names of the honorable jim jordan, representative from The State Of Ohio and honorable Hakeem Jeffries, representative from the state of new york have been placed in nomination. Are there further nominations . There being no further nominations, the chair appoints the following tellers. The gentleman from wisconsin, mr. Style, the gentleman from new york, mr. Morelli, the gentleman from georgia, mr. Lauder milk, the gentlewoman from alabama, miss seoul. The tellers will come forward and take their seats at the desk in front of the speakers rossum. Garrett haake, there you got it, two candidates head to head, well see who votes present or whether or not they have more votes right now for jim jordan. He needs the 217 to go over the top. And you do have one absent. Thats right, andrea. The absence likely wont affect the total at least on this first vote. We dont expect to see jordan get over the hump. I think this our card here on the right corner of the screen here is useful because we will see kind of this frustrated protest votes that might show up for Steve Scalise and for Kevin Mccarthy, especially in these early rounds. A lot of members deeply upset they have found themselves in this moment because of their own compatriots on the republican side. Im struck watching this as i was back in january with how the different dynamics at play here between the two parties. Democrats, who are 100 united behind Hakeem Jeffries, are able to turn this into a rally, able to really have one very clear message at play here about what they believe is the extremism of jim jordan in this case, and of the party that stands ready to back him. Republicans are just not going to be able to present this in the same way and it is a useful moment for democrats to begin defining jordan if he does win the speakership as someone without a significant legislative record. And by the way, it is not an accident that pete aguilar there in nominating Hakeem Jeffries mentioned new york and the Superstorm Sandy and the fires out west. That is a message tailor made to reach those republican majoritymakers in places like california and in New York State where this will be a very, very difficult vote to back, you know, one of the ultimate far right members of congress and then go back and explain it to your joe biden district. Aguilar setting up that contrast with his nominating speech for Hakeem Jeffries. And the other theme that we have been talking about, garrett, which is the Government Shutdown looming, National Security, Steve Kornacki, weigh in on that. Looking at here at what garrett was talking about there are 18 republicans who are going to be voting here, who represent districts that voted for joe biden. And politically this could be a difficult vote for them. It looks like at this point, seven of them have committed to voting for jordan in this first ballot. There are 11 who may vote against him or at least seem open to voting against him. Thats one thing were looking at. How many of those republicans who represent districts that voted for joe biden actually end up voting against jordan on this ballot. There is also a number of other republicans who are not from Biden Districts who have also indicated opposition here to jim jordan. So, again, with the way the math plays out here, if you get four votes from republicans for anybody other than jim jordan, jordan will have lost on this first ballot, and the question then will become how many votes are there against jim jordan from republicans on this first ballot. A potential benchmark or at least point of reference as we have been saying, the first ballot back in january when Kevin Mccarthy fell short in his quest to be speaker, there were 19 republicans who voted for well see how this compares. Lets listen. The role will now be called and those responding to their names will indicate by surname the nominee of their choosing. The Reading Clerk will now call the role. Adams. Jeffries. Aderholt. Jordan. Jordan. Aguilar. Jeffries. Alford. Jordan. Alan. Jordan. Jordan. Allred. Jeffries. Amore. Jordan. Armstrong. Jordan. Jordan. Airington. Jordan. Jordan. Auchincloss. Jeffries. Jeffries. Babyn. Jim jordan. Jordan. Bacon. Mccarthy. Mccarthy. Baird. Jordan. Jordan. Balderson. Jordan. Jordan. Balance. Jeffries. Jeffries. Banks. Jordan. Barr. Jord