Ac 360 with Anderson Cooper begins right now. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com tonight on 360, the dysfunction is coming from inside the house, as republicans fight republicans over what happened and who will be the next speaker. New yorks attorney general Letitia James says the donald trump show is over, as his fraud trial continues and the former president heads back to florida. The first person to be charged in tupacs killing 27 years after the killing. Well talk to the d. A. On the case. We begin tonight with the dysfunction, infighting, and back biting among House Republicans, after eight of them made their party leader, Kevin Mccarthy, the first ever House Speaker to be voted out of a job. That and why none of it should be surprising to anyone. The dysfunction got so bad after the vote, we learned that Republicans Cannot even stand to be in the same room with each other for more than a few minutes. There was a meeting last night, as you may know, of republicans, and that room would have devolved into, i think, physical attacks on one another if people stayed in there for a long period of time. Thats a republican congressman describing the anger and resentment that left members last night unable to agreen a success or anything else except putting off a decision until next week. Steve scalise and jim jordan throwing their hats in the ring, and Marjorie Taylor greene saying the former president should get the job. Nothing happened, nothing but anger and recrimination against the gop rebels who voted to oust Kevin Mccarthy, especially the instigator, floridas matt gaetz. I think yesterday we saw from matt gaetz one of the grayest acts of hair si that ive seen in a while. Matt gaetz undermined the entire conference. He undermined the entire institution. What the guy is doing is not in the best interest of the united states. You can kiss my ass. You go around taking your big game and thumping your chest on twitter, come to my office and come to the debate. I cant believe people like matt gaetz were so dumb to fall for this. Hes going to have to earn some respect within the conference. There needs to be accountability for the eight individuals who selfishly upended our House Majority and put their own interests above the country. Matt gaetz is using the American People as pawns in his narcissistic game of charades and i think weve had enough. The house adjourned until friday. The effort to find a new speaker on hold until next tuesday or wednesday. Aid to ukraine is in limbo, along with all the important Things Congress needs to do, including passing measures to keep the government running and the troops paid. Again, none of this should surprise the former speaker, the rebellion within his own party cost him the speakership, aided by the rule that he himself agreed in exchange for the job, a rule allowing a Single Member, in this case, Congressman Gaetz, to launch the effort to unseat him. Instead of looking inward last night, he said this. I think today was a political decision by the democrats. And i think i think the things they have done in the past hurt the institution. They just started removing people from committee. They just started doing the other things. And my fear is the institution fell today because you cant do the job if eight people you have 94 or 96 of your entire conference, but eight people can partner with the whole other side. How do you govern . And for them to make a motion on me because i made a decision for the country that they agreed with, but they choose to do the other. That becomes a problem. Keeping him honest, that claim, focusing attention on democrats, is disingenuous at best. The rule allowing the a Single Member any member could have done what matt gaetz did during Kevin Mccarthys time as speaker. No democrats did. Gaetz, a republican, used that rule, which again, mccarthy agreed in order to get the job. Which in turn made his job impossible, something the Republican Senate leader underscored today. To do that job for anyone, you have to get rid of the motion to vacate because it puts whoever the speaker is in a hammer lock of dysfunction. So potential dysfunction. That concession by mccarthy was part of a series of steps he took that have fed and nurtured the radical cleaning of his party. To borrow from jake tapper, it fed and Fashiating Leper that would later eat his face. That coddling of political assassins began before republicans controlled the house, starting when he abandoned his criticism of the former president just two weeks after saying he bore responsibility for january 6. It continued with the forcing out of liz cheney, after she and congressman Adam Kinzinger joined the January 6th Committee and built into conspiracy pushers like Marjorie Taylor greene. Speaker mccarthy said, quote, i will never leave that woman, talking about greene. The move he made to appease her wing of the party, including the launching of the Impeachment Inquiry of the current president , after he said he wouldnt without a vote, and flirt being a government shutdown, only Empowered Republicans who dont mind throwing a Monkey Wrench into the works, including the one who pushed those same hard liners to shut down the government and push the speaker, he once into a corner he could not get out of. The former president , who should be noted, spent today in court on trial for fraud. Congressman, are you surprised that most House Republicans are not blaming Kevin Mccarthy for teeing up all this . I guess in a way they have to give their, kind of, public view. But i think at their heart, they know. I mean, i think in their heart, they know that he made concessions to the very people i mean, he gave them their concessions to the very people that he had to earn their vote. And he got their vote but for only eight months. They turned against him. This was the most foreseeable thing. Its disingenuous for mccarthy or anybody to blame the democrats for this motion to recommit. Lets think about the motion to recommit, the motion to vacate. Do you really think that a single republican, if the script was flipped, would have voted to not vacate nancy pelosi from the speakership . Of course they all would have voted to vacate. You think Kevin Mccarthy this is the point. As you mentioned in the opening, he opened an Impeachment Inquiry without the promised vote. He went to maralago and resurrected donald trump. I mean, literally, he took i guess not literally. Figuratively, he took the paddles out of the ambulance and brought them back to political life. I think republicans today, republicans in the house, are, kind of, scratching their heads saying, how did we get here . But all they have to do is think back a few months and you can see it. Do you think the next speaker, whether its jim jordan, Steve Scalise, or someone else will have to cut deals with the far right in the same way . Will they have to agree to the same one person can vacate the chair . I think so. I mean, i think the only way that changes is if we go a month without a speaker and we have multiple races and eventually people are desperate to put a speaker in. But this is where i think its going to get interesting is you have folks that are willing to obviously vacate the chair. You have folks that are willing to hold the Speakership Up for whatever their demand is and by the way, theyre all extreme demands. The question is, what does this do to ukraine aid . What i really worry about is whoevers running for speaker is going to promise no ukraine aid. Now, keep in mind, those that move to vacate Kevin Mccarthy, with exception of nancy mace and i have no idea where she came from on this. But theyve all been talking about things like regular order. And to the viewers, regular order means, if youre a member of congress you should be able to bring up a resolution or you should be able to bring up an amendment and it should get voted on, the regular way of the order of business. These are the same people now saying they dont want to come to the floor, an Up Or Down Vote on ukraine. That would pass overwhelmingly. Theyve got to get their message straight. I worry, though, that whoever runs for speaker is going to have to commit to know ukraine aid jim jordan has already said that. Of course. Ive got to tell you, i think hes going to be in the catbird seat on this. I can get into that. I think its important for five or ten members of the house, of the republicans, to refuse to vote for anybody that wont bring ukraine to the floor for an Up Or Down Vote. Will they do that . Probably not. They should. Why do you think jim jordan is in the Cat Bird Seat . Its all about i think if it was valid, Steve Scalise would win overwhelmingly, or anybody but jim jordan. What youre going to start seeing, anderson, is on the emails, on the fundraising, on other cable news networks, jim is going to be now the new litmus test of are you a true conservative or not. Steve scalise wont be. It will be jim jordan. There will be a Small Acquiesce Ens to jim jordan from everybody. If he becomes speaker, it will be interesting how a shut it all down kind of guy governs a country. Thank you. Much more now on the bitterness the speaker fight brought to the surface. Lauren fox has that. Good morning. Reporter in one of his first moves, which sources say was directed by mccarthy, temporary speaker Patrick Mchenry ordered representative steny hoyer and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi remove frd their offices at the Capitol So Mccarthy could move in. Pelosi writing in a statement, quote, office space doesnt matter to me, but it seems to be important to them. A source close to pelosi says the move was retaliation for democrats siding against mccarthy in the speakers vote. Rather than being petty and silly, you know, and throwing nancy pelosi out of her office, i mean, how does that contribute to civility up here . Reporter a House Of Representatives without a speaker paralyzed. We cant get anything done. Bills cant be brought to the house floor. We cant debate them On The House Floor. We cant pass anything into law. And lets just pray that theres not a National Emergency that we have to respond to because this place is inoperable. We should elect a speaker whos better. Reporter and the republican fury is turning inward to representative matt gaetz, who led the charge to unseat the speaker. Yesterday someone threw a grenade in the middle of the house floor. There was a meeting last night, as you may know, of republicans, and that room would have devolved into, i think, physical attacks on one another if people stayed in there for a long period of time. Some republicans calling for the rebels to be punished. I dont see how they can really be part of a conference when they stand on a they come on the inside, listen to whats going on, then go outside and lob bombs in the middle. Its a waste of time having conversations with these people. Mchenry will remain speaker until a new election can take place. With majority leader Steve Scalise and representative jim jordan already vying for the position. I think were a conservative center right party. I think im the guy that can get that. And a rule that allowed mccarthy to be removed in the first place may not be going anywhere according to another member considering the speakership. Im not afraid of that. Thats not something that would be part of my platform. If the members want it, thats fine. Reporter lauren fox, cnn, capitol hill. You heard some of the frustration and outright anger toward congressman matt gaetz from House Republicans in laurens piece. But republican congressman Markwayne Mullin took it to the next level this afternoon, going after matt gaetz for the allegations against him for Sex Trafficking, which launched a federal investigation. Listen. Youve got to think about this guy. This is a guy that the media didnt give the time of day to after he was accused of sleeping with an underaged girl. And theres a reason why no one in the congress came and defended him, because we had all seen the videos he was showing On The House Floor that all of us had walked away of the girls he had slept with. He bragged about how he would crush e. D. Medicine and trace it with Energy Drinks so he could go all night. This is obviously before he got married. When that accusation came out, no one defended him and no one in the media gave him the time of day. All of a sudden he found fame because he opposed the speaker of the house back in november. And hes always stayed there. And he was never going to leave until he got this last moment of fame, by saying by going after a motion to vacate. Its important to note Congressman Gaetz has never been charged with any Sex Trafficking crime. He gave a statement to cnn in response. I dont think Markwayne Mullin and i have said 20 words to each other On The House Floor. This is a lie from someone who doesnt know me and is coping with the death of his political friend, kevin. Thoughts and prayers. Im joined by dusty johnson, who voted for Congressman Mccarthy to retain the speakership. Congressman, good to have you on. Are you surprised by the personal nature of attacks between members of the gop conference in the last 24 hours . Im not surprised. Tensions and tempers have been running pretty high for the last nine months. You dont know it, but there is a small group of hardliners that are just making it impossible for us to run the house like it needs to be run. I would note just with a tiny bit of amusement that one of the allegations that matt gaetz levelled at Speaker Mccarthy was that he had not passed 12 Appropriations Bills off the house floor yet. Part of the reason for that is that these hard liners have been voting against bringing these Appropriations Bills to the floor. Despite that, Kevin Mccarthy managed to get 70 of Discretionary Spending through the house before the deadline. But for matt gaetz, you know, attention and chaos is what he seeks. Some of your colleagues, most recently congressman max miller, who spoke with manu raju, talked about expelling matt gaetz from the gop conference. Would you support that move . Im pretty frustrated still. Im angry. I try not to make decisions when im angry. I would counsel all of my colleagues to, listen, lets take a couple of deep breaths over the next couple of days. And before we make any decisions about accountability before we make any decisions about who should be speaker of the house, lets make sure that were clear headed and were actually focused on what can move the house in the right direction. Anderson, if we dont fix what the foundational problems of the House Republican conference, the new speaker is just going to be in the same old stupid clown car but a different driver. Thats not going to get it done. So, what are the foundational problems that you see . And obviously some of the things, many of the things, that mccarthy had to agree to in order to get the speaker job, as Mitch Mcconnell pointed out, made the job impossible. I thought that was a bit of an unfair allegation at the top of your show. Nancy pelosi also had narrow margins last congress. She agreed to a number of role changes. This is what happens. You know, nancy pelosi and Kevin Mccarthy both cut the deals they needed to get they needed to cut to get to 218. In some respects, those rules made the house better. In others, they made them a little harder to govern. Lets not blame rules, although i would say the motion to vacate, one, is insanity. Youre saying its insanity. If any member of congress can do a motion to vacate, doesnt that make to Mitch Mcconnells point, doesnt that make it impossible . It does. And we should change that rule. But it seems like the most d. C. Thing ever to blame an arcane rule when the problem is actually the makeup of the house. Yes, lets change the rule, but im not going to change the rule. At some point, its garbage in and garbage out if you have members that dont want to work, if you have members that crave chaos, if you have members that have never actually figured out how to work with any other human being to find Common Ground ever, its going to be, kind of, a mess, regardless of the rules. Would you be comfortable voting for either of the two most prominent candidates . I know you said, you know, you want to take a