Good morning, everyone. Im poppy harlow along with Phil Mattingly live outside of the capitol in washington, d. C. , this morning. It is wednesday, october 4th, and there is no Speaker Of The House. We are going to discuss the politics of how this happened and where we go from here. Certainly were going to talk about the process of What Happens Next, but we are really focusing on the implications. The peoples house is paralyzed. It cannot do its job for you, the American People, after Kevin Mccarthy became the first Speaker Of The House in our nations history to be removed. The office of Speaker Of The House of the United StatesHouse Of Representatives is hereby declared vacant. Take a look at these, the front pages from the major papers across the country, as you wake up this morning. Our nation enters uncharted territory. The house is in chaos. Republicans are now scrambling to find a new leader after a small rebellion, just eight members, led by matt gaetz, was able to topple mccarthy. In todays world if youre sitting in congress and you took a gamble to make sure government was still open, and eight people can throw you out as speaker, and the democrats who said they wanted to keep government open, i think you have a real divide. I think you have a real institutional problem. That is not a government that works. That is chaotic. While there is no clear frontrunner, some names are emerging as possible successors to mccarthy including his number two, House Majority leader Steve Scalise, jim jordan. Lauren fox is here with us on set. The question now, once you pick your jaws up from the floor, this is the first time in the history of the institution this has happened, What Happens Next . Were in unprecedented time. When will a race for speaker begin . It will not start at the earliest until next week. That is when House Republicans plan to return to the capitol and begin this process. Right now theres no alternative, phil, and that is really why we are in these unprecedented times. Former House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy vowing not to run for speaker again after an unprecedented vote tuesday plunging the House Of Representatives into chaos. Unfortunately, 4 of our conference can join all the democrats and dictate who can be the republican speaker in this house. I dont think this rule is good for the institution, but apparently im the only one. The motion to vacate was filed by representative matt gaetz who, along with seven other gop members, voted to oust the speaker. The motion passed 216 to 210. Those eight people are anarchists. Mccarthys speakership was the third shortest in history and was plagued with gop infighting over spending cuts, border security, and providing aid to ukraine. You all know matt gaetz. You know it was personal. It had nothing to do about spending. Speaker mccarthys time is over. I wish him well. I have no personal animous. Now the race is on to elect a new speaker as another possible Government Shutdown is 44 days away. What id like you to take away from it is im tired of being lectured by people who have been here for decades, okay, and have put us in 33 trillion in debt. Several names have emerged as possible contenders for speaker including House Majority leader Steve Scalise. Scalise has already started reaching out to members gauging a possible bid for the role. No one really knows who has the votes, so now were going to go through that exercise right now and see who has our support. Reporter another possible name floated Is House Judiciary chairman jim jordan. I thought it was unfair to kevin. Hes a good man and he didnt deserve this . My judgment. Will you run for speaker . Reporter one person not interested in the job is gaetz. Are you putting yourself forward . Absolutely not. Reporter mccarthy, for his part, says he has no regrets about his tenure as speaker. I dont regret standing up for choosing governing over grievance. It is my responsibility. It is my job. Reporter and House Republicans, because they dont have a speaker and because we dont know how long this process is going to take, there is legitimate questions about whether or not the government is going to be funded in just a little over a month and a half at this moment given the fact that right now the House Of Representatives, the building behind us, has descended into chaos. It was so shocking yesterday when the news came they were going home to socialize with others, a different way to interpret socialize, but to come back in a week to get this Business Done for the American People. Lauren, thank you very much. Lets bring in analyst kasie hunt, axios reporter eugene scott. Guys, welcome. Eugene, i want to start with you. We can get into the nittygritty, in the weeds of the speakers race and what delegations are meeting and how they will try to play this out, but to start to pull back a little bit, this was a week republicans were supposed to start moving on two more spending bills, which is at the trucks of this entire problem. Instead the institution is completely paralyzed. It is a critical piece of one of the branches of the federal government of the United States of america, and no one has any idea if theres a path forward at this point. How is it possible we got here . If we think about how this began, Mccarthy Ascending to the speaker leadership position, we shouldnt be surprised. He had a hard time getting there in the first place. We didnt know it would happen within 12 months, but he would find himself in a state someone would bring forward a motion to vacate based on disagreements on policy, procedure, behavior, ideology, and he had a hard time keeping this Party Together for various reasons, various ideological diversity. There are also some petty grievances. This is what happens when you have those issues. So, phil, i go back to and i know you have known Kevin Mccarthy over the course of your career, and ive been in a lot of different situations with him, public, private, listening to how he talks to people. When you are listening to him, he is almost always telling the person across the table from him what they want to hear. That is how he got into this position in the first place. When your job is to recruit candidates and raise money, it works really well. I think the challenge here, and participate of why youre seeing so many of these hard line members talk about personal reasons theyre upset with mccarthy is once you actually have the gavel, once youre in power and you say things, there are actually consequences when you dont deliver on them. I think he got himself into a little bit of trouble here. The way he has done business, the way he rose, simply didnt work once the responsibility was on his shoulders. Lauren, what about americans waking up to this news, going to work, making breakfast for their kids, can they ask themselves, can we trust republicans to govern, to do their job . This is one of the issues democrats were weighing when they were trying to decide how they wanted to proceed. Republicans were making the argument to their colleagues that dont you want this institution to function . And i think democrats were thinking to themselves, yes, we do, but not with Kevin Mccarthy. And there is a possibility this is prolonged, that this goes on for a very long time, and the American People whats very long, lauren . The American People start to see this is what republicans do when they govern. A long time could be weeks. It could be days. But, you know, even if this is wrapped up by next friday, thats still two weeks lost in the Appropriations Process. And that is two weeks that House Republicans want to try to pass standalone bills phil was talking about. Those bills are going nowhere in the United States senate, which means its sort of a shell game happening on the house side before you get to the larger problem of actually negotiating with the senate and getting a deal. And the next person who becomes speaker, that problem that existed for mccarthy will exist for them. Its about keeping the government open, right . What are they, 42 days now and counting . 43, 42, yes. Ukraine funding. So many Critical Issues in these few weeks. Maybe they waste two weeks or more. Theyre playing a shell game when it comes to the actual bills themselves, but they havent even set up the table and put the shells out. They took it all back yesterday, so now everything is frozen. Trying to continue the metaphor. Lets also look, i dont want to be doomsday but big picture, this is the United States of america. Its a major player on the world stage. We havent had a the rule that was written that means that Patrick Mchenry has that gavel, it was actually put into the rule book formally after September 11th because there needed to be a plan for couldnt f continuity for government, what feels very in the weeds, spending bills, the Appropriations Process is very hard to understand. If there were to be a crisis, which there could be at any moment, the reality is there is no one running this show. And that is potentially a major problem. Lets play that out for a minute. The power Patrick Mchenry has right now is extremely limited. Basically he can run a speakers race. He cannot take further legislative action, which speaks to kasies point, if you have the crisis, and we dont want to be doomsday, but if you have a crisis, you dont have a way to solve it in the House Of Representatives. Lets play this out, poppy. Phil, i think you were there when they passed the t. A. R. P. , the plan that bailed out the banks. It took a couple of shots. If Lehman Brothers were to fall, the way it did at that time, they cant organize this body to actually do anything quickly. Think about what happened when covid was declared a pandemic and they had to suddenly make sure americans had enough money in their pockets to get food. We can hope in the event Something Like that happened the republicans would recognize if and say lets get Steve Scalise in the chair so we can quickly do things. I think its important for people to remember the congress in moments of Great National crisis and strife actually plays a significant role. Lets talk about options for who it could be. Kasie makes a great point, maybe theyll move quickly on Steve Scalise, he is number two. He and jim jordan were asked what they want to do. Take a listen. Are you physically up for the job as speaker . Do you think can you handle that . If the conference comes to you next week, would you do it . Im going to talk to the conference over the next week. I think thats the key. I think this is a day we say, look, what happened here was not good. What happened to Kevin Mccarthy was not fair. Lets figure out how we come together as a conference and focus on our agenda. So two things here, one, Steve Scalise has health issues. He was just diagnosed with cancer of the blood a few weeks ago, at least publicly. He made that clear. There are concerns about that. Concerns getting to 218. Jim jordan, that answer is very, very telling. Hes leaving the door open, which is different than he was during the 300 votes for mccarthy, and he has a lot of support within the conference. He has some popularity issues. Jim jordan has been a bit of a fire brand in the gop. Hes moved to the center the past few months, but hes upset many republicans in how he handled things in january, and some havent forgotten that. The reality is there are moderate, more centrist republicans, who are in districts that biden won and theyre concerned about what they put forward and who they put forward to lead the gop as they try to figure out if theyre going to keep the house in the next election. Theres 18 of them and theyre the reason that Kevin Mccarthy was speaker for 246 days. Stay with us. Were going to continue to follow all the twists and turns. A Mass Shooting on the campus of Morgan State University in baltimore. Those details coming in overnight. Happening now, the Biggest Health care worker strike in u. S. History has just again. Kaiser permanente employees will strike at locations across the country in an effort to get better pay, higher Staffing Levels and guaranteed bonuses. What that means for hospitals nationwide. Kevin mccarthy, where is kevin . There is kevin. [ applause ] kevin told me in the heat of battle, right, kevin . Kevin mccarthy, the great Kevin Mccarthy. We have a great man, and hes going to be, hopefully, a great Speaker Of The House. We have to get him there. Donald trump did help get Kevin Mccarthy there, but mccarthy worked for it. We all remember that trip to maralago mccarthy made to patch things up with trump after criticizing him in the wake of the january 6th attack on the capitol. The man affectionately dubbed my kevin finds himself ousted kevin. Do you support matt gaetzs efforts . I like both of them very much. That was on sunday but just yesterday i dont know the guy. After the vote to remove mccarthy as speaker, congressman matt gaetz suggested he may have had the former president s backing. Listen. My conversations with the former president leave me with great confidence im doing the right thing. The only official comment was on truth social. Why is It Republicans are always fighting among themselves . Why arent they fighting the radical left democrats who are destroying the country, closed quote. Lauren fox, kasie hunt and eugene scott. The sound says it all. The question i was trying to get in right after that was did you talk to the president , former president , today . And he did not answer that question. One of the biggest questions right now are these rightwing hardliners did this and they had no alternative. There was no plan, no game for here is how were going to play this out. It was just we dont like mccarthy. Were getting rid of mccarthy. Why theyre not going to come back today and try to figure this out, the reality is if they did that right this moment they would have a 15round speaker race. There is no plan b. We are talking about a couple of candidates, Steve Scalise, kevin hern, that work is beginning for Steve Scalise and his team. They have done this before. They know how to fundraise. Kevin mccarthy likes that life, knows how to do it. Theres a question about the other people in the race. Do they know how to do that and can they put a Team Together to try to lock things down . Thats why Stepheve Scalise has such an advantage. When the dog catches the car or the car stops and the dog runs into it breaking its muzzle and other bones. Trump weighing in on this is not subtle. He holds enormous sway over a significant portion of the House Republican conference, more so than he does in the senate. In the house he can control things. He can move things around. When does he get involved explicitly, do you think . My understanding from talking to sources the calculation was he didnt see anything in it one way or the other. Gaetz heard what he thought he wanted to hear from the former president. Mccarthys team didnt seem to send any signals. On the campaign side, man, i think im going to stay out of this. I dont know that he needs to have a dog in the fight as long as hes not unhappy with whoever the choice is going to be. If he weighs in and says i want jim jordan to be Speaker Of The House, that could change the conversations pretty quickly. I will say, there was a lot of speculation and we covered this when he had those 15 rounds and you tie that back to what happened on january 6th and the way mccarthy switched, the picture of maralago, that did not come to pass here. So i do think, also, trump he knows how to affect what they do here by throwing bombs into it. The number of times paul ryan had to get on the phone with the white house, i need your help. Please fix this. Well see if he ncontinues in that vein. You made an interesting point mccarthy, in your view, didnt he ca extend an olive branch. Would they have gone their own way and come in to save him . Probably not. Certainly hurt him when you look how he handled the past week. The comments about democrats this past sunday. In terms of the shutdown, blaming them. The impeachment inquiry. Just days after so many of them tried to figure out how they were going to find a way to not have to force so many individuals who would suffer if