these are live pictures of the tennessee house floor where a debate is underway over an extraordinary and controversial push for republicans in the state house. they are voting to expel democrats today because they broke house to corm rules. one of them, justin jones, has already been ousted. at this time, the debate is over gloria johnston, and the vote is expected soon in the fight over the third democrat, justin pearson, republicans going after democrats for using a bullhorn on the house floor as they call for tougher gun laws and did so in defiance of republicans who would not recognize the right to speak. all this comes after last week s deadly elementary school shooting that killed six in nashville. this is just a third vote to expel a tennessee house member since the civil war, an indicator of how rare and critics argue, extreme, this move is. protest are currently rocking the state capital. these children and the adults in the school will never forget this. this is
now for the last word with lawrence o donnell. good evening lawrence. good evening alex. seeing is kevin mccarthy s first order of business in the house of representatives is to prove how much we do not need a house of representatives if it is to be run by the legislative crazies of the republican party. maybe that will never be seated. maybe this is it. maybe it s just about the upper chamber? so far, the republicans have done no damage in the house of representatives. the damage begins as soon as they have control of it with the speaker. we are wishing for the good old days when nobody was seated, once they do. and, alex, one nice note for history today is that the person who is next in line for the presidency, after the vice president, is, once again, a woman, because patty murray became the president pro tem of the united states senate, and there is no speaker of the house. so, as of now, the next in line for the presidency is a woman in the united states senate
chamber. so far the republicans have done no damage in house of representatives. the damage begins as soon as they have control of it, with the speaker. we will be wishing for the good old days when nobody was seated. and, alex, one nice note for history today is that the person who is next in line for the presidency, after the vice president, is, once again, a woman, because patty murray became the president pro tem of the united states senate, and there is no speaker of the house. so, as of now, the next in line for the presidency is a woman in the united states senate. so, you know, we could live with this. we could. they are welcome. have a great show. thank you alex. thank you. in other news, that you should know, that is actually happening in this country while, in a way, nothing is happening in the house of representatives, is that in south carolina today, the south carolina supreme court has ruled that the south carolina constitution provides a right to priv
deadly winter weather still wreaking havoc across the country. travel is still a nightmare. unless one of those passengers get a wild hair and decides with a group of other passengers to rent a car and drive 20 hours to their destination together. that s exactly what some of our guests tonight did. in a little while i ll introduce you to this group of intrep travellers, total strangers, who had quite the adventure. they recorded their trip, and it went viral. meanwhile, 10 million people across the south are under freeze alerts. and the death toll from this storm is rising. at least 49 people have died across the country. 27 of those are in the buffalo area. and authorities fear that they ll find more bodies in cars, as they begin to dig out from what s being called the worst storm in the region s history. you can see some of it there. and while police have their hands full with rescues, stores are being looted. so, i ll talk to a supermarket manager who spent christmas eve
alphabetical order, they didn t even get past the cs, sealing a round one loss in a matter of minutes. mccarthy failing to whittle down the small but significant group of republican outliars all dead set on voting against him. the damage a failed first vote like this will inflict on the speakership position from the get go even if he does win, if it s a mess for republicans, a mess for mccarthy and it is shaping up to be a long day ahead for the brand-new 118th congress. he reminded reporters he holds the record for the longest speech ever delivered on the house floor, saying he doesn t care if he gets a similar vote for most speaker vote rounds. we will see if that holds and he sticks to his guns there. joining me from capitol hill, we have garrett haake. also with me, punch bowl news cofounder and nbc news contributor, anna palmer, as well as susan page. buckle up, everybody. we ve got an hour ahead of us here. beginning with you, garrett, walk us through what is happening