scalise, okay, look at this alphabetically, ken buck is voting, four members will have voted before him, there will be 16 of these anti-mccarthy republicans still to come. so if buck gets it rolling just by saying the name steve scalise, do you hear any of these other anti-mccarthy folks pick up on that and also say the name steve scalise? that s something i think i m now looking for in this next round of voting. because yes, there has been no movement. nobody who has been with kevin mccarthy is actually jumping ship to the anti-mccarthy side today, except as i said, again, victoria sparks, voting present for whatever her reasons are. but nobody who has been against mccarthy has moved over to his side. so they seem completely dug in. and that possibility, to have somebody out there, you know, floating now the name steve scalise, which has been on everybody s mind i think as this
votes. this could be the fifth vote. cloud, donalds. and there it is. so that is again, five votes for congressman donalds which means as we all recall, kevin mccarthy can only afford to lose four republican votes and he has lost a fifth republican vote. this is the sixth ballot, and the sixth time that kevin mccarthy lost it in the cs . they were voting alphabetically, and he did it again. that lady made a joke about drinking on the floor. they re sitting here going around and around, waiting for this. the republicans we have been speaking with that after this round, the plan is likely to adjourn. the question is what happens behind closed doors. once they do that and they start talking about this, and other names emerge. the question you asked ken buck
for andrew clyde. we have the fifth ballot for speaker and the fifth ballot that seems to be moving in the same direction as the first four? exactly. it was 21 on the last ballot. 21 republicans who did not vote for mccarthy. 20 voted for donalds. one voted present. and again we re just tracking as they go through the list alphabetically. how are they voting on the first ballot? and none of these have voted for kevin mccarthy on any of the previous ballots. all sticking with donalds on this ballot. waiting to see exactly what happened with michael cloud of texas, he has not been with kevin mccarthy on any of the previous votes but andrew clyde of georgia, eli crane of arizona, all with donalds. mathematically, what it means is assuming all 212 democrats continue to stay put and continue to vote for jeffries, it means unless there is a bunch of republican abstentions that we haven t seen before, that magic number will be 218, and
stay in the chamber. as long as all the democrats stay in the chamber and continue to vote for jeffries as they have done on the first two ballots, that means the maximum number of defections mccarthy can have is five, and you see right away, the first five names alphabetically who voted against him on the first two ballots once again voted against him on the third ballot. i know there are some talk are the democrats going to stay? at some point will they start leaving? if that is an issue as this progresses, the denominator, the magic number could change a bit. as long as every democrat is there and voting for jeffries as has happened on every ballot so far, then the number mccarthy can afford voting for somebody else is five, and again, every ballot so far he has hit that number basically right away, within the first five or so minutes.
saying that he s diminished, he s not going to have the senate candidates be the ones that are picked by former president trump. so i think this also shows that mitch mcconnell is willing to do what he wants to do in order to sort of promote what he thinks is a good law. so it s a very interesting time i think in the republican party and the democratic party to see these two men side-by-side in kentucky, it s going to be definitely be something that s going to be interesting and fascinating in this moment. exactly. we do expect an announcement very soon, possibly even this month, from joe biden about a second term. garrett, very briefly, very, very briefly, is this a secret ballot? i know it s going to be playing out during our shows tomorrow, so we will be on the air when it s all happening. is it a secret ballot or is it right reporter: no, this is unlike any other vote innings could, they re going to go down name by name alphabetically and everyone has to stand up and speak th