sans speaker. kevin mccarthy failing again on a fifth ballot to capture the necessary number of votes, the number of opponents among house republicans has actually gone up from 19 to 20, to 21. now republicans are looking for a way out, an exit strategy. is that tossing mccarthy to the curb? is that brokering a deal with democrats to lower the vote? they have to get these 23 rebels on board. me melanie zanona is with us. what s happening here? reporter: republicans are searching for an offramp as it s become clear that kevin mccarthy s efforts to win over his opposition not working. i m told republicans have approached democrats on the house floor and tried to feel them out to see, what would it take for you to vote present or not show up? we re told these are informal conver conversations. it s still early. democrats said they would not bail out mccarthy, but they would be willing to talk about a consensus candidate. we ll see. the fact that republicans are even thinking a
in mind the us has already committed around $15 billion to ukraine, just in security assistance, since russia launched its full scale invasion last year. what we are going to hear today, we understand, is another $1 billion in a mixture of security and other assistance. we have not been told the details, the mix yet. but it is yet another pledge by the americans, in what has become a very, very constant stream of pledges of all sorts of assistance to keep ukraine float and fighting, as this war goes on. i think what is interesting about this visit, which is the sixth visit by the secretary of state since the war, since the full scale invasion happened, is that it full scale invasion happened, is thatitis full scale invasion happened, is that it is his first trip since ukraine launched its counteroffensive in the south back in june. counteroffensive in the south back injune. ithink counteroffensive in the south back injune. i think it is an opportunity for him to hear directly
babben, mccarthy. facon, mccarthy. baird, mccarthy. alderson, mccarthy. all right. we are now in the sixth ballot for speaker of the house. let s go to cnn s manu raju with new reporting. you re hearing signs of a potential thaw between mccarthy allies and the 20 republican rebels. tell us more. reporter: yeah. welcome news for kevin mccarthy after days two days of seeing him fall short at ballot after ballot, not getting the 218 votes of becoming speaker. there are signs of talks moving in a direction that these opponents want. one of them is chip roy. he s 1 of the 20 who voted over and over again against kevin mccarthy.
he will have sanctions like he hasn t seen before. he know it s not just on him and people right around him, but it s also on the russian economy both meetly by sanctioning these three largest russian banks, but also squeezing his economy by denying him the electronic components, sophisticated electronic components that he needs. so he s heard all of this and he has to make a decision. he has to decide whether to invade and bear those costs or negotiate. and you re right. we ve been hearing signs, even from president putin himself, that he s willing to negotiate. hasn t started yet. those negotiations haven t begun. they are long-term. they take time to address the concerns that he s raised and address the concerns that we have about what the russians are doing. they re concerned about what we re doing. that s the basis of negotiations. so that can still happen and it looks like he, president putin,
on the president. there is at least in a way, hurricane harvey, as traj iks and awful as it is, is an incentive for the government not to shut down. also, if you are hearing signs from republican leaders in congress say, look, the debt ceiling is about making good on the bills we ve already run up. it s not about it s not necessarily about new spending. it s about covering our debt. at least you re hearing those sorts of tones right now coming from the upper echelons of the party. whether those leaders can keep their rank and file in line and whether the president s base starts to get very active on some of the fiscal issues errol, very quickly. no chance the government shuts down quickly, right? not with people at deadly risk in texas, absolutely not. hydrogen bombs being fired over and missiles flying over our ally, tokyo, it s unimaginably bad. i understand steve mnuchin not wanting to do all he ll have to