Page 6 - Governing Majority News Today

Its not some ideological agenda or some policy preference. it is to own the lips. this is the ultimate example of this. try to have this big fight to win something. they dont even know what they want to win. social security or medicare cuts? defense cuts? increasing defense spending? is it defunding -- like jordan tweeted about the other day. they have no idea. there is a principle here. and that is you cannot allow one half of one branch of congress to use the threat of a global financial crisi...

Party independent candidate can tip the ballot and do the damage that was done to jimmy carter or george herbert walker bush in those respective elections where you have somebody come in. doesnt get many electoral votes if any but we get a president elected with less than 45% of the vote. >> bret: you are saying if its former president trump against president biden, that someone else, like throwing it out there, joe manchin, someone else gets in the race. >> or a business person. >> bret: or a b...

Cannot win. >> congressman walsh, what does this tell you about how things are going to be like in the house in the next two years in terms of just getting stuff done? >> yeah, thats why anderson, this may be a really boring take, but i dont think it really matters which republican ultimately becomes speaker. because the maga trumpist wing of this party, and its no longer a wing, it is the party in the house, theyre going to control the next two years no matter who the speaker is. they want to i...

Chaos. and, what we saw yesterday really was chaos. and the goal is to govern. so its really not about kevin as a speaker or a speaker in general. its about can the republicans vote to have a governing majority. and the speaker is the first step. theres going to be a lot of difficult bills on this journey. and, quite frankly, i have been to a lot of battles in my life. and i have. not every commanding general is george s. patton. we win because everyone does their job. the front line wins battle...

>> i think youre right. and a party that were you a member of, joe, was a party, as i need not tell you, but prided itself on the fact it was able to manage. i mean, nixon, for instance, in 1968 after the democratic convention, that smashup in chicago said a party that cannot unite itself cannot unite america. no ones goal to unite america, sadly, in this moment in 2023, but at least yesterday we got our first look at the republicans as a governing majority in the house, and it was a food fight....

Governing majority. thats what his allies wanted. they wanted 230 seats, 240 seats, certainly not 222 seats because theyre in the very problem they were fearing would essentially happen here. and now they have to deal with it as a result. and as you said, i talked to bob good yesterday. he said he will still vote no. thats the problem here, no matter what kevin mccarthy does, he has this immoveable conference who doesnt really care whether or not they -- the congress goes into chaos because esse...

So, as of tonight, how does mccarthys path to the speakership, how does it look like he will get there? >> its really uncertain at this point. this is precisely the concern that mccarthy and his allies had in the run-up to the midterms. they spent a ton of money to try to build what they called a governing majority, they wanted 230 seats, 235 seats or even 240 seats and i got probably 222 seats and that means to become elected speaker you need to have 218 votes on january 3 so more than four rep...

To him. and they are blaming trump for the outcome. but hes got this josh hawley wing, it is small, but has grown a little bit in the last few years, that are agitating, trying to be sort of the new conservatives that are thoughtful, and also considered sort of populist, a little bit trumpy, but their ranks are pretty small over in the senate. it is not as -- nearly as big a problem as mccarthy. >> and not entirely clear who would succeed him as republican leader. on the house side, i mean, if r...

Kevin mccarthy. because of the majority they may have, it will be very narrow if they are in the majority. that means only a handful of republicans who defect could make his life very difficult not just in gaining the support to become speaker, but also advancing his agenda, which is why the mccarthy team had pushed for what they called a governing majority, hoping they could get 20 seats. it appears they will not get that much if they do end up in the majority, all of which points to a very dra...

The cuff remarks as well. we expect to hear from other republican officials through the course of the night, ronna mcdaniel, as well as newt gingrich. mccarthy has been raising enormous sums of money. he has traveled to 40 states over the last several weeks. today in virginia, two districts in which they believe could help them take back the majority. mccarthy and his team im told have set the bar at 20 seats. that is more than enough to take back the majority. they believe they clear that bar. ...