garamendi. all right, just to make a note here where we are on the vote count, at the beginning of this, we noted that kevin mccarthy could only afford to lose four republican votes in order to fall short of the 218 votes he will need this this vote. he has already fallen way short of that and lost eight votes already. and we still have a number of opponents to get to. so as of right now, unless votes change before the final gavel comes down, kevin mccarthy will not win the speakership on the first vote. that is historic, dana bash, that has not happened since literally in 100 years since 1923. and so many times those of us who are covering congress have a sense that, okay, if something doesn t happen, in plan a, then it ll go to plan b or c that we
he has to peel off not one or two people, but it is going to be a dozen or so republicans to change the vote. 15. it is going to seem like impossible at this point. but we have to underscore the fact that he can only lose four or five votes, and he is in this position right now with those five notes now, and 19 votes, because it is all connected, because you hear rodney davis talk about it, and charlie dent, and i am hearing from the sitting republican members of congress that the only reason that he is in this position to beg, borrow and steal is because the majority is so small, and the reason that the majority is so small, is because the republicans misunderstood the electorate, and they got so many candidates who were won in primaries and too extreme for the district. and those who are still there
involved in these discussions, they plan to keep voting. go on to the second ballot. kevin mccarthy is not bowing out. you did see him walk into the cloakroom. that s the only way to have discussions off the floor, otherwise they ll be voting on the floor so some of these talks still happening. jim jordan you mentioned earlier had told me he has no interest in becoming speaker of the house and wants to be the house judiciary chairman. he is a key ally of kevin mccarthy and at the moment he still has those same allies who are prepared to battle this time to grind it out and move forward on the second ballot, and the conservatives have said that they may have a dark horse candidate to push forward and they have not said or revealed who it is, and it is highly doubtful if they can get to 218 vote, and mccarthy said they will not give into that demand
you look at numbers, a black liberal democrat from the bronx, brooklyn, excuse me, just won the first vote of the republican congress. just came out on top. not enough to be speaker. not enough to be speaker but the democratic leader just came out on top in the first vote of the new republican congress. kevin mccarthy was just humiliated in public then you saw him open the cloakroom door trying to save his hide in private. what more can he give or give enough because as i said, sometimes math is upside down. you mentioned jordan as congressman davis notes, he has good relations with all 19 of those people who voted against kevin mccarthy. but what can jim jordan give them because jim jordan has been working them and jordan s friends have been working them for weeks and unable to get anything. they can go to that room and say we ve embarrassed ourselves, a democrat came out on the first vote but many members don t care about that. that s not the world they live in. they don t live in a
just to note here, we are long past the four votes that kevin mccarthy could afford to lose. he has now lost 13 votes including congresswoman-elect anna paulina luna voted for jim jordan and i think there was another vote from congressman troy nails of texas, although i m not quite sure but that s 13. let s go to melanie zanona on capitol hill to give us an update and, melanie, no indication from congressman kevin mccarthy, the republican leader who is on his way to defeat in this first ballot in his attempt to be speaker, no indication that he is going to step aside. no, and in fact, jake, it s quite the opposite. i talked to a source close to kevin mccarthy who said his mentality right now is, quote, we re going to war, never backing down and the source made the point that kevin mccarthy has already made concession