Many, many americans. Thank you so much for your reporting. Thank you all for joining us. This has been cnn news central. What could be the final Inside Politics of Kevin Mccarthys tenure as Speaker Of The House starts now. Kevin mccarthy wants to make. Toads the republican may become the first House Speaker to lose his gavel with a floor vote. After a pair of frenzied meetings, mccarthy says he would survive before and he will find a i way to survive now. I just dont give up. Donald trump tries to convince america that a civil trial is a trap to keep him off the campaign trail. The truth is his choice to be in and back in front of a judge and the cameras. And hunter biden returns to the scene where it all fell apart. The president s son was in delaware to face a judge and plead not guilty to felony gun charges. Im dana bash. Lets go behind the headlines and Inside Politics. Up first, the republican House Speakers political survival depends on democrats, and he knows it. You guys do whatever you need to do. I get politics. I understand where people are. At the end of the day, if you throw a speaker out that has 99 of the congress, were in a really bad place for how were going to run congress. Are you expecting democrats to back you up . Personally, no. Im told that House Democratic leaders began this mornings behind closeddoors meeting by playing clips from Kevin MccarthyOn Television this past weekend. He was trash talking democrats. Is and that set the tone for the conversation and led most democrats to feel they dont oweowe Kevin Mccarthy anything. I want to get straight to capitol hill where manu raju is, who has been doing extensive roorting. Whats the latest that youre hearing on that critical question. Will democrats bail out Kevin Mccarthy . Reporter the short absentee is no. Coming out of that meeting, youre right. There was the view among members that they cannot trust Kevin Mccarthy. I they listened to that video clip that you refer red to abou Kevin Mccarthy on the sunday shows, and a number of them went up to the mics, one after one, indicating that they cant trust him. Theres no reason to save him. I did not hear from a Single Member. I talked to many in the meeting who are ready to vote to help him out in any way. Thats the message coming from the democratic leadership. Include ing Hakeem Jeffries, wh was quiet during the meeting, but wants the caugcus to come t a consensus position. Its let mccarthy sink. We encouraged a republican colleagues, who claim to be more traditional, to break from the extremists, end the chaos, end the dysfunction, end the extremism, we are ready, willing and able to Work Together with our republican colleagues, but it is on them to join us to move the congress and the country forward. Reporter but the math is just simplely not there for the speaker to save his job at the moment. Thats because with no democrats expected to vote for him, well see if anything changes. Well see if we can try to grab the speaker. Mr. Speaker . Mr. Speaker . Will you put yourself up for a candidate for speaker . Mr. Speaker . As you can see, they are not wanting to answer questions. He did answer questions earlier this morning. There are a lot of them. The question that i have right now is something he alluded to. If he loses the votes, which is a procedural vote in which hes expected to lose to stop the effort from ousting him, that will fail. That will be the First Time Ever in American History that this has been successfully executed. We expect that to happen. Then there will be a speakers race, which n which any candidate can can put themselves up for speak er. I the question i wanted to ask, will will you put yourself up as a candidate in that setcenario . Hes not quite fully entertained that question because he contends he can win on those first votes. Thats one of the key questions in talking to allies, they fully expect the speaker to ride it out and put himself up as a candidate and let this process drag out. He doesnt have 2 218 votes. We could be in a situation where the house is paralyzed. It cannot act unless a speaker is elected. They will keep Voting Ballot after ballot after ballot until a speaker is elected. Well see what the next move is. If he loses the votes, it will stop this from going forward. Bifr let you go, i want to go back to one of the things that you mentioned. This is what were going to be watching on the house floor pretty soon. That is the first vote that we are going to see will be a motion to table the motion to vacate. Everybody, stick with me here. I know that sounds Like Washington gobblely gawk. Its really important because the question is, whether or not there will be a successful procedural vote just to do away with the question of whether th are going to oust him. The Open Question for now, its whether there are enough democrats who will play with their votes to make it so mccarthy wont have to face that vote. Reporter if they cant get the votes to oust mccarthy. Then the resolution is still alive on the calendar. They still have to come up for a vote. From our reporting and talking to members, mccarthy does not have the votes to stop that resolution so his fate will be met on the house floor this afternoon. Unbelievable. Nice try with Kevin Mccarthy there. Im sure youre going to get him as soon as you leave us thp thank you. Here with me in the studio to share their reporting is jeff zeleny and bloombergs salia. Thank you, all. We have covered a lot in washington and in politics. And this could be a first. As manu raju was laying out, its a central question if Kevin Mccarthy is going to put himself up for speaker again. Because that gets at this question. Theres no one wait ing in the wings to be speaker. Theres no center of gravity around one individual person. And that is what is unusual about this. If matt gaetz is trying to blow this up, but theres no sense of what is next. Thats why this is so consequential. The last time this happened, at least they tried to, was in 1910. The Cannon Building on capitol hill is named after joseph cannon, a republican from illinois. He was the speaker then. He survived that procedural attempt by george morris. History aside, what is going to happen this afternoon is going to be modern history. We dont know. Donald trump has been very silent. Hes in a new york courtroom not paying attention to this at all. Will he offer Kevin Mccarthy a lifeline, as he did in january . Unlikely. So that is why this is consequential. But even though Top Democrats are planning to sink mccarthy, this is republicans are sinking mccarthy. Democrats are not coming to his aid. This is a republican issue. Thats what California Heem Jeffries said there. They are not going to come to their aid. This is a republican issue. Totally agree. Lets hear from some democrats after they came out of their meeting this morning, just to make that decision their attempt to seal Kevin Mccarthys fate, that is in the hands of republicans. Lets listen. Do you have any appetite to save Kevin Mccarthy . No, hes not our leader. He has proven himself to be incredibly destructive and dishonest. I didnt hear a Single Member express any sense that we felt responsible for, quote, unquote, saving. Kevin mccarthy or helpig Kevin Mccarthy. He has not asked for our votes. The American People deserve a functioning government. Speaker mccarthy has shown he cannot govern. Its pretty tough stuff. They didnt mention other things they have been hearing from sources that were discussed inside this democratic meeting, which is january 6th and his actions or inaction after that. The Impeachment Inquiry and then a the lot of other other issues that have really enraged democrats, even though the question is, and i think we should say it over and over again, this is his fellow republicans ousting him. The question this morning was whether any democrats would him. Just talking to my two colleagues, at this it moment, there are no democrats saying they would jump in to save Kevin Mccarthy. Skip the vote, change the ratio, all that math they could do to stave this off. I think what you said is really important. What democrats are saying they dont trust Kevin Mccarthy. There are a couple reasons why they dont trust Kevin Mccarthy. One is they thought they were fwieng to avert a shutdown in the summer, but it goes back to that january 6th moment. Because there was a brief moments so that is at the heart of the trust question. From the time that Kevin Mccarthy came to the House Of Representatives until now, if you look at the political reports calculations on how partisan districts have become, if you put those two charts on top of another, you will see how deeply red and deeply blue certain districts became that have enabled matt gaetz and the other handful of republicans that are kind of the tail wagging the dog to do what they are doing because their constituents want the fight and will continue to support that. It comes back to gerrymandering. Youre speak ing my language. Lets skip back to the here and now. The question you mentioned matt gaetz. He is in the words of many of their fellow republicans, a chaos agent. Lets listen to what some of them said this morning. The only word is hes either a fool or a liar. I think matt gaetz is a chaos agent. Sgri dont have tolerance for a psychopolitical fetish. We have to continue the work on behalf of the American People. Im not sure what exactly he was saying there. He was very subtle. But seriously, its not as if the majority and this is another point we have to undercore as we talk about the context around this, its not as if the entire House Republican conference, all 200 plus of them, are all ra Ra Matt Gaetz chaos and antiKevin Mccarthy. He has a lot of support, just not enough. He doesnt have enough support, and hes part of the chaos. What were see on the house side is republicans fighting amongst themselves. Democrats fighting and no one is thinking about how much trust our rurals, our leaders are lose ing with the American People. Trust is at 100year low right now between the American People and the american government. And when you have people in congress fighting over power, while regular americans are struggle to pay their bills, they have to sell their cars to finance their next massive grocery bill, and then this is what you see in the house. No one is really working to rebuild that trust. Its actually just getting worse. Its about to get way worse. If this actually happens, if Kevin Mccarthy loses the speakership and then theres a scamable to replace him and theres no math that makes anyone the easy next speaker, that shutdown that we just averted, were basically in another shutdown. Possibly, but it could also shake people to their senses. You cant operate the house. Its a Constitutional Office 37 t. The speaker is not just a Party Leadership position. Its the Constitutional Office. Its second in line to the president here. This is why all this matters and why were talking about this. Thats why its an Open Question whether democrats would vote for a regular party leader. This is because its a Constitutional Office. Great conversation. Standby. Were going to be staying on top of everything on capitol hill. The question we have been asking, can speaker Kevin Mccarthy survive. But coming up next, well go to new york. Donald trump is back in court there once again lashing out at prosecutors and even the judge who will decide the fate of his businesses and his wallet. Were live outside the courthouse, next. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Today a remind er that a picture is worth millions in free media. Donald trump is back inside a courtroom getting the images he wants for day two of his new york civil fraud trial. But beyond the imagery, his Campaign Hopes will help him with gop voters. Trumps Courtroom Stare and fraz theed Pretrial Rant tell us a lot about his state of mind. The trial strips away a Me Anesthesiology that the former president made himself, this hes really, really rich. Brynn gingras is live outside the courthouse. Whats happening so far today . Reporter yeah, so we just wrapped up a short break in testimony. When everyone returned back into the courtroom including the former president , the judge actually warn ed the defense tht he needs to start in a timely fashion. Apaparently, there was people that were late inside that courtroom, and basically, made they can them acknowledge the fact that they will be on time. This is as the former president took to the microphone during that short break making comments, disparaging about this trial in general, but also saying that he will testify in this trial. Now thats not a huge surprise. We have heard hes eager to do so, but this maybe the first time we heard it from his own mouth. Its important to note that reporters say the former president and his son, they are extremely engaged in this testimony that is continuing with their former accountant, donald bender. They are looking through the documents up on screens. They are discussing issues with their attorneys, as they continue to really defend their brand, as you just pointed out. This was their life. This is what they campaign on as they head into the next election season. But also, this was what their lives were before the presidency. But lets go to sound of what he was saying prior to that short break. The judge has been given false and extremely misleading information about my net worth. A private company, nobody is supposed to know my net worth, but now everybody is and will. I hope youre impressed. We built a great company. But hes been given false information, misleading information and corrupt information by a very corrupt and incompetent attorney general. Reporter so thats getting at to what you were talking about, the fact that he still continues to hammer home hes very rich and the judge is wrong, the a. G. Is wrong about bringing this trial forward. The big question is how long will trump stay for todays testimony. We dont have that answer yet, but going forward, how many times will he return. Said he would like to testify. Would he return for other peoples testimony. Well stay tuned to find out. Thank you for that reporting. Appreciate it. Lets go back and talk around the table here. Because this is Inside Politics and they are going to do the legal, very important legal discussions elsewhere today, the question that donald trump is asking, no, the allegation hes putting out there is that the judge and the d. A. , they are doing this to take him off the campaign trial. Lets listen to bwhat he said about that. This is politics. It has been very successful for them because they took me off the campaign trail. I have been sitting in a courthouse all day long instead of being in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, or a lot of other places i could be at. That was yesterday, as this began. Fact check. He doesnt have to be there. Theres no requirement. Hes not compelled legally to be there. His Campaign Aids Make it pretty clear that they think this is the best Campaign Stop for him, the best use of his time as a candidate in the shortterm, as he could possibly have. Despite how painful it might be when it comes to the core of who he is, a businessman. Hes on the campaign trail. He is talking to his lelectorat, his base when hes out there saying, look what they are doing to me. Hes sewing more seeds of distrust. We have been talking about that a lot around the table. Hes out there saying, vote for me again. Bet on me. Im being mistreated by Everyone Else and im your guy. Hes ahead in the polls. Its working for him. So of course, hes going to stick with that line. Youre not letting me on the campaign trail, so im going to do it here in the courtroom. Hes consuming all the oxygen in this republican president ial race, which is frustrating his rivals. Once again, its all about donald trump. We are seeing one thing here. This is deeply affecting him. This was not the president who was the most engaged president. Often, he didnt read Intelligence Briefings or steeped in policy. He is steeped in this. This is his life. You can tell how much its getting to him. I dont know if that will have an effect on his psyche here, but separately, outside the courtroom, hes not under oath. When hes in that witness stand, he will be under oath. So this is something we have also not seen from him. So it looks good politically, but its perilous in the longterm here. Hes on a campaign trail. He might as well be in cedar rapids. He is. Hes on the tv in cedar rapids. Its not like hes hanging out and eating burgers. I want to take this up several notches to the core question of donald trump and should he be president again. And jake tapper got some great reporting from one of Donald Trumps many former chiefs of staff in the white house john kelly. And heres what he said. A person a that has no idea what america stands for and what america is all about, a person who cavalierly suggests a selfless warrior who served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason. Hes talking about milley. And expectation that somebody will take action. A person who admires autocrats, a person that is nothing but contempt for a democratic institutions, our constitutions and our rule of law. This is in response to a lot of things, but most recently, in response to the fact that donald trump put on his Social Media Platform that mark milley, the outgoing, decorated chairman of the joint chiefs deserves the death penalty, suggesting that at least. This is a bigger question about whether he should be president again from a man who served steps from it him for months in the white house. I think john kelly going on the record with these concerns and validating the information that had long been reported on background is really important. I think youre seeing a lot of people who are either nonpartisan or right leaning or republicans who served donald trump in some capacity over the course of his presidency going on record now, whether its john kelly, chris christie, mark milley, talking about why they are concerned and how catastrophic that would be. The bulk have made their decision about whether they should trust Donald Trumps word or kellys word. And here these people get their news, how they get their information, who are the validaters, how they maybe swayed, thats what will make the difference here. Very well said. Standby. Just a short time ago, the president s son walked out of a delaware courtroom after pleading not guilty to three felony gun charges. Were going to get all of the latest, after a quick break. This morning hunter biden was back in court. The son was arraigned on three firearms charges. He pleaded not guilty. This marks the first time a child of a sitting president appeared in court to fight criminal charges. Joining me now from wilmington is Senior Legal Affairs correspondent paula reid. It was a very quick moment today inside the courtroom. Tell us what happened inside. Reporter this was a quick procedural hearing. Hunter biden sat quietly, Listening Attentively as the judge laid out the charges that have been filed against him, the possible penalties and the conditions for his release, which includes that he abstain from drugs and alcohol and prohibited from owning a firearm. He entered that not guilty plea through his attorney. Even though this was a short hearing, this is still historic moment. But shortly after the hearing, a statement was issued accusing the Justice Department of bending to pressure from former president and his maga allies, to bring this case against the president s son. They appointed to the fact that no one in the district of delaware has ever been charged with Something Like this based on a similar fact pattern, and legal experts have questioned the strength of the governments case here. This was supposed to originally be resolved with a plea deal. That plea deal fell apart. It would have included tax charges. Its unclear if prosecutors will file tax charges. What we have seen over the past nine months, we have seen a much more aggressive strategy from hunter biden and his lawyers. This has been spear headed by one of his lawyers. He brought on his attorney, they have been a lot more litigious with some of his retrack tors like rudy giuliani. They sued him several days ago. Were also seening these public statements. Statements that some people around his father would prefer that hunter biden not say anything. Even though this has gone to a plea deal to a criminal case, it does not appear they are backing off with that more aggressive strategy going forward. Thank you so much for that reporting. Appreciate that. And democrat after democrat, when they are speaking out and speaking up against whats going on and in favor of hunter biden will argue, wait a minute, these charges are nothing. If somebody were name d jim smih and not hunter biden on these gun charges, it wouldnt be brought. Its very unusual. And that its only being done because a plea deal fell apart and theres political pressure on the now special counsel running the investigation of hunter biden. Democrats certainly say that. There might be some truth to that just given the nature of the charges, but the reality here is the president s son is in this courthouse and a lot of it takes away some of the high ground that President Biden likes to assert. Even though its totally different, its not a split screen moment. This is different. Hes not a candidate for high office and these are minor charge cans. It just makes you wonder, why wasnt this all dealt with, why didnt he plead to something in the last several years. Its clearly mist taken. This gets to the president without a doubt. Because hunter is so close to him. Hes all he has left of his family. And so thats why this is a big deal. Absolutely. It is a huge deal to have a sitting president s son go in and my impression is that it wouldnt have been the worst thing from the perspective of the biden side to get a plea deal, but it was impossible and then we saw what happened when it all fell apart. Margaret, you heard paula talk there about the legal strategy, which is legal and political. From Hunter Bidens team, kevin morris, his attorney and friend, abbi lowell was brought on, lets talk more about what they have been trying to do. They are countersuing, Filing Lawsuits against rudy giuliani, thats just a suit, alleged hahacking. Robert costello, who was giulianis attorney, alleged hacking. The irs, allegedly illegal releasing tax information. Because his attorney is not joe bidens campaign manager. Hes Hunter Bidens lawyer. Hes going to say and do whatever he thinks would put his client in the best posture to be free or to be limited in terms of legally. Theres an irony to all of this. If these are successful arguments, it will feed the argument that joe biden controls the justice depasystem. The reality is that the fact that hunter biden is facing prosecution, totally on bliteras the argument that joe biden controls the deep state. Youre so logical. Would donald trump allow one of his children to be prosecuted by the Justice Department if they had violated a law or charged . This is joe biden saying, let the Justice System take its course. Thats why his son is in this position, because he has not sought to control the process. At the same time, if this was happening to donald trump and his children, trump would not be as silent. Were going to set this aside, which makes a lot of contracts frustrated. Using that to campaign. I will say that hunter biden, joe biden has meat made his family part of his brand as a president. He talks about what his father told him and his grandfather and he talks about beau biden a lot. So bringing hunter in and talking about the politics of it while some democrats might say thats not fair game, its his child, even he said my son took trump during a president ial debate. He has brought his family into the force so much that now we need to talk about it. Everybody, standby. Coming up, well go back to the big story that is happening on capitol hill right now. Whether or not history will be made, whether a House Speaker will be ousted through votes on the house floor by his own party. Were going to talk to a democratic congressman about whether theres any chance they will try to save him. The question of the hour, will any House Democrats step in to save republican speaker Kevin Mccarthy from are revolt within his own party. The House Democrat you can caucus just met to discuss that and much more. Joining me now to chair his insight is a member of that caucus, democratic congressman richie torez of new york. Thank you so much. Its nice to see you in person. Whats the mood right now in your caucus . Within the democratic caucus, theres a presumption against speaker Kevin Mccarthy. The burden falls on him to reach out to House Democrats in pursuit of a negotiate d outcom, and there are members like me who will vote for a motion to vacate, unless theres a compelling reason. At the moment, i see no compelling reason. The burden is on Speaker Mccarthy. The ball in the court of House Republicans. In government, theres no sufficient thing a as a fee lunch. No democrat should be expected to bail out Kevin Mccarthy for free. We are repeatedly told they are against free lunches, so no free lunch. What could he say that could sway people like you . Look, for me, its not a decision i would make individually. Its a decision we should make collectively as a caugcus under the leadership of leader jeffrey. So my rule is simple. I in Hakeem Jeffries i trust. I am going to defer to the judgment of Hakeem Jeffries. The burden falls on Kevin Mccarthy to reach out to the leader. But understand that, that you seem to be quite unified when it comes to this. First of all, take me inside the caucus meeting this morning. My understanding, and the reporting from my colleagues on capitol hill, is that it was very unified, but very heated, and people were pretty angry, particularly after there were clips played of Speaker Mccarthy just this weekend kind of Trashing Democrats for the way that you acted when it came to the shutdown and more. I never comment on family conversations, but its fair to say that theres democratic discontent with Speaker Mccarthy with his Kangaroo Investigation into President Biden and the erosion of trust. Speaker mccarthy negotiated an agreement with President Biden around spending levels, only to renig on the agreement if and an attempt to pander to the right, he opened a Kangaroo Investigation into President Biden. So that erosion of trust undermines bipartisanship within the house. Thats of Kevin Mccarthys making. Is there any republican, you say theres an erosion of trust, things are not exactly kumbaya on capitol hill. Its been partisan in the house, but it feels different right now. Im not asking you to name names, but do you think its possible for someone other than Kevin Mccarthy to be speaker, where that erosion of Trust Subsides . Its hard to know if the House Republican conference were a country, it would be a failed state. It has all the elements of a failed state in competence, a republican civil war, it has dysfunctional house. The house has been gone from the longst speaker vote in more than a century to a near default on the debt, to a near shutdown of the u. S. Government, to the first motion to vacate in more than a century. Theres been nothing but chaos, crisis and confusion. Not to get too far into the process, but thats what were going to be seeing in about 45 minutes. The first vote is going to be whether or not even to allow this motion to vacate, even to allow a vote to oust him. Its a procedural vote. Do you feel confident that democrats are going to be united, even on that, meaning that democrats will allow the vote to oust Kevin Mccarthy . I think its fair to say that democrats are going to be united and that the presumption is against Speaker Mccarthy, unless he reaches out and pursues a negotiated outcome. As far as i know, theres been no negotiated outcome. Congressman, thank you so much for coming in. I really appreciate it. Good luck the next few hours. Its going to be wild. Unprecedented times. For sure. Thank you again. Up next, a texas congressman was carjacked on the streets right here in washington, d. C. What hes saying about the terrifying ordeal. To duckduckgo on all your Devie Duckduckgo comes with a built n engine like google, but its pi and doesnt spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. And theres no catch, its fre. We make money from ads, but they dont follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. Texas congressman Henry Cuellar was carjacked as gunpoint just about a mile from the u. S. Capitol. Police are searching for three suspects who stole his car, phone, ipad and even his dinner. Luckily, the congressman was unharmed. Cnns gabe cohen is on the scene. Gabe, what is the congressman saying right now about this carjacking . Really scary. Reporter yeah, dana, it is really scary. And he seemed upbeat. He even joked around a little about it. But no doubt this would have been terrifying as it played out last night right around 9 30 near this intersection behind me. He told police he was coming home for the night, parking when three men with guns came up and demanded his car. And with it they took his phone, his ipad, even his dinner, dana. Now, fortunately, all of that stuff was recovered just a couple hours later, and the congressman wasnt injured in any of this. But look, we are less than a mile away from the u. S. Capitol. You can see it over my shoulder. And that is where the congressman addressed media just a little while ago. Heres what he had to say. Three guys came out of nowhere, and they pointed guns at me. I do have a black belt, but i recognize when youve got three guns. I looked at one with a gun, another one with a gun, another one behind me. So they said they wanted my car. I said sure. Youve got to keep calm under those situations. And then they took off. Reporter and so you can hear, pretty positive about the whole thing, dana. He even joked after that he was most upset that they had taken his sushi dinner, though fortunately that was recovered along with the rest of his belongings. But it got more serious when he was asked about safety for congressional leaders around this area. He said that its not just him. He lives in a building along with several other prominent congressional leaders. So it is something that needs to be addressed as we are seeing Violent Crime rising here in the district. And it seems, gabe, that he was carjacked in spite of the fact that he is a congressman, not because he is a congressman. We dont know all the details. But the point im making is that this is becoming much more common in d. C. , carjacking, than it was. Reporter yeah, dana, thats right. He said that as far as he could tell the people who carjacked him didnt have any idea who he was. And we know that Violent Crime based on Police Statistics is up close to 40 this year here in d. C. A big part of that is carjackings. They have more than doubled in 2023. You can see if that statistic is up on the screen right now close to 750 of those carjackings this year compared to just around 360 at this point last year. So that is a major issue. And look, its not just people who live in the district. It is also those congressional laeshds. Representative angie craig was attacked. Shes from minnesota. She was attacked in her d. C. Apartment around eight months ago. So there have been a lot of congressional leaders talking about this. People on capitol hill, about their safety, about their staffs safety, a lot of concern about this rising crime rate here in the district. As a d. C. Resident, as you are, we understand completely. Thank you so much for that report. Thank you for joining Inside Politics. Cnn news central starts after a break