none can officially start until they choose the house speaker. it could be a long day. congress convenes for the 118th timeless than an hour from now. shortly after that the vote for who gets the gavel. we can see a second round of votes for the first time in a century. speaker designate kevin mccarthy is facing some head winds. five firm nos. he can only afford to lose four votes. someone pretty familiar with the post, former speaker newt gingrich says just get on with it already. i don t understand what they are doing. they are not voting against kevin mccarthy, they are voting against over 215 members of their own conference. the choice is kevin mccarthy or chaos. i think it is a remarkably short-sighted and self-ish position. i don t understand where they re coming from. harris: newt never minces words, always puts it right
party here is looking disunited and disorganized and part of the reason they didn t win is that they didn t really have a framework for the election that the voters felt confident about. i think this is just showing exactly that. bill: give me call for two. newt gingrich on monday. he wasn t holding back, the former speaker. the choice is kevin mccarthy or chaos. nobody will replace him. he has far more people totally dedicated to him than this handful of never enders. the result is going to be anybody who tried to replace kevin would face total chaos. it would be impossible to govern. it is a remarkably short sighted and selfish position. bill: what do you think, karl? had republicans won more seats mccarthy wouldn t be in this situation. absolutely. let s be clear. one of the leaders, if not the leader is the congressman named
i don t understand what they re doing. they re not voting against kevin mccarthy. they re voting against over 215 members of their own conference. their conference voted overwhelmingly, 85% for mccarthy to be speaker. this is a fight between a handful of people and the entire rest of the conference. and they re saying they have the right to screw up everything. well, the precedent that sets is so do the moderates, so do the members from florida. i mean, any five people can get up and say i m now going to screw up the conference too. the choice is kevin mccarthy or chaos. i think the republican party right now is in the greatest danger of melt down that it s been since 1964. i thought at least the house was going to be a sign of stability, and these five guys decided to go out as kamikazes and see if they can t sink the whole republican party. this is not about kevin mccarthy, this is about the
has given concessions. i believe also the motion to vacate, as well. nobody is perfect, but we have to look at the big picture and not hold out on what the republicans need to do, start their investigations on afghanistan, start the investigations on the origins of covid. the fbi files, the twitter files. there is so much work that needs to be done, and even they can t get sworn in. my brother-in-law is supposed to get sworn in today and i can t even congratulate him. harris: well, you can come he s just congressman-elect again as of eight and a half minutes ago. before we move forward on this, this vote today, when they take this vote, however this shakes out, if we get to a second vote, is that better or worse? bill: not sure, because we haven t been there in 100 years. newt gingrich was talking about kevin mccarthy or chaos. can you imagine if mccarthy ever gets the job? it appears as if this is a majority in the house that is going to be full of surprises at every turn.
the conference too. the choice is kevin mccarthy or chaos. these five guys decided to go out as kamikazes and see if they can t sink the whole republican party. mike: marie, how do you read it and some would say this is republicans stumbling out of the gate. it is. republican congress in disarray. went to the american people put us in charge of the house starting off on day one not having their act together. i do not think mccarthy is going to be speaker. that s one of my 2023 predictions. definitely won t win the first ballot as olivia said will be historic. i do not think he will be able to convince enough of these holdouts to actually come over to his side. there aren t enough concessions. right in the speaker doesn t actually have that many things he or she can give. can he give committee assignments and promise investigations. some of these holdouts don t seem to be open to any concessions. so i think that there is someone, whether it s steve scalise or someone else that the h