The race to replace Kevin Mccarthy hits a speed bump amid backlash over a planned Speakers Forum on fox news, the potential successors all pulling out of that event, but congressman jim jordan did seal a big endorsement from former President Donald Trump, and the opposite of an endorsement from former congresswoman liz cheney. Meantime, the former president reportedly discussed sensitive nuclear sub secrets with an australian billionaire who then shared that information with dozens of foreign officials, journalists and employees. And we are weeks into the uaw strike against the big three auto makers. At any moment we will find out if the union is going to expand the strike again. We are following all of these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to Cnn News Central. Uncertainty and intrigue on capitol hill, surrounding who will be the next speaker of the house. Both the leading candidates jim jordan and Steve Scalise are working their divided conference, trying to shore up support for next weeks critical vote. Right now neither congressman has the votes they need to win the gavel, but former President Donald Trump is putting his thumb on the scale by backing jim jordans run. Lets get more on todays Back Door Maneuvering from cnn capitol Hill Reporter melanie zanona. Melanie, this contest obviously far from settled. What have you been hearing about who might have the edge . Reporter boris, youre exactly right, this race is far from settled. In fact, there is concern that no candidate at this point is going to be able to get the 218 votes needed to become the speaker On The House Floor. Both Steve Scalise and jim jordan have been furiously working the phones over the past few days, meeting with members, trying to make their pitch. I am told that scalise has centered his argument on the idea that he has the Leadership Experience and the Institutional Knowledge to be able to govern with this unruly House Republican conference, and hes also pointed out in his conversations with members im told that he has campaigned for nearly every single vulnerable House Republican which could go a long way in winning their support. Then with jim jordan his argument has centered on the idea that he is best positioned to unite the fractured conference right now and in part thats because he has the ear of the House Freedom caucus, a group that he once founded and a group that has been behind a lot of the chaos we have seen On The House Floor this year. Our manu raju caught up with jim jordan earlier today. Here is what he had to say. What is different between you and Steve Scalise . I think its just that this race comes down to two questions, i said this yesterday, hope to unite the conference, who can also unite maybe three questions. Who can unite the conference, who can unite conservative republicans in our party around the country. I appreciate the president s endorsement, i think hes going to be our next president. Reporter of course a donald trump endorsement could go a long way with the far right and conservatives, but jordan is still going to have to win over the moderates in his party who will be a key constituency and many of them are still skeptical of jordans flamethrowing brand of politics. Also to give you a sense of how chaotic and messy things are right now, we were told this morning that the speaker candidates were going to be on a fox news joint televised appearance on monday, but i started hearing a lot of concern from other mens in the party about that idea. They said it was going to be a circus and this was a horrible idea and they shouldnt be airing out their speaker drama on tv before they addressed members behind closed doors. It wasnt long after that both candidates decided to back out of that event. Im told they had a conversation together and decided it wasnt a wise idea so that forum is no longer on. But House Republicans will hold their own Speaker Forum for all the candidates next tuesday and then they will hope to hold an internal leadership election on wednesday. It remains to be seen, though, if and when they will be able to go to the floor with a vote. All eyes on capitol hill this week and into early next week. Melanie zanona, thank you so much for the update. Pam . Thanks so much, boris. Incidentally the congressman who lost the gavel, former speaker Kevin Mccarthy isnt saying who he supports in this race. Lets discuss whats happening with doug heye republican strategic former rnc Communications Director and Maria Cardona host of the podcast hot mics from left to right. Doug, how much will this fight hinge on the more moderate members of the republican conference . Thats a part of it but what youre seeing in what we just saw is youre making two different cases. Jim jordan is talking a lot about what hes going to do, Steve Scalise is talking about what he has done. Meaning ive gone into your congressional districts, conservative, moderate, wherever you are in the caucus. These are different approaches theyre going to take. I think if youre scalise the moderates are more likely to go to you, but Steve Scalise is not going to position himself as a moderate. When he came into congress he quickly joined the republican Study Community which is a much larger group of house conservatives, eventually ran that which is what put him in leadership. What do you think, marie . The problem with that is that neither one is really talking about what they have to do and what they have to do is to bring together two very separate and hugely far apart factions within the republican party, the extremist magas that we know what theyre capable of and what they will do if the speaker and leadership does not do what they want and then the more moderates. Lets remember there are 18 republicans that are that have their are in districts that biden won and they are very concerned about what it is that theyre going to have to do in order to elect the next speaker. I dont see how they thread that needle and the way that they also have to, i assume, be talk about this, though its a danger zone, is that in order to get anything done for the American People they are at some point going to have to sit down with democrats, negotiate with democrats and in a bipartisan way move forward. Most notably in the few very few weeks in order to avoid another government shutdown. I dont know how that needle is threaded and from the looks of it with just what happened and everybody kind of putting together their Coalition Toss Run for speaker, it looks like a Banana Republic after a coup trying to get together and if they dont do that theyre going to continue to be similar to a failed state within the House Of Representatives. Let me say real quick about House Moderates in the republican conference we often hear House Moderates are going to flex their muscles. The reality is we hear it all the time and nothing usually happens. They dont know where the gym is to build the muscles to flex them. This is a flash point for not just the conference but the republican conference. This can be their moment to make a real impact. Im wondering how donald trump factors into all of this. Of course he does. Now hes endorsing jim jordan, he does not like to sit on the sidelines although he did with the ouster of Kevin Mccarthy now he clearly wants to be front and center in this. Im wondering how you think this plays into everything. Does it actually help . Does it matter . Does his Support Matter or are there republicans who dont want a future speaker who is beholden to former President Trump. All of the above. Anybody who wants to be speaker would like to have Donald Trumps support but lets remember two things, one, as we saw in the last campaign, donald trump would endorse somebody, they would get a burst of momentum, they might win, they might lose, they might win with a third of the vote, 32 here, 35 there. Its not determinative. No matter where you go on the capitol you see signs members only, you could be a leadership staffer, you could work on the capitol hill if you are not a member you dont get to vote. Thats why when its talk about it might not be a member, the speaker is going to be a member. Its interesting because scalise and jim jordan theyre catering to republicans, theyre trying to build a coalition of republican support to win the speakership theyre not really catering to democrats, maria. On that note Hakeem Jeffries penned an oped in the Washington Post saying a biep coalition is the way forward for the house and he is calling with republicans to break with the, quote, maga extremism and join the democrats in a coalition leadership. Is that at all realistic . Well, i dont think so and that goes to exactly to what i was just saying because no one is talking about doing that and that is exactly what needs to be done in order to do what the American People frankly hired them to do, right . And to dougs point, if only the republicans in congress and the House Of Representatives felt that way, felt that they werent completely beholden to donald trump, because i think that has been the problem all along. None of them or very few of them have shown the backbone to stand up to somebody like donald trump because they are afraid of his supporters. Theyre afraid that they will be primaried back at home, except for maybe the 18 who won in biden districts. And so when you have that its very difficult to find a way forward, to find a way specifically through the center because bipartisanship, compromise, negotiating with the democrats has become a very bad word within the republican conference. How do you get work done if thats the case . And actually in some of those republicans in the districts where biden won like rep walleder of new york theyre not so happy with democrats not getting on board with saving mccarthy. The question is would democrats, would they be willing to get on board with some of those more moderate republicans in terms of, you know, voting on the next speaker . Would they be willing to do that do you think . I think they would if they would go to the democrats and talk about what is the work plan . The problem with mccarthy is that he could not be trusted. Democrats tried to work with him, did work with him in may with the white house, with democrats, Kevin Mccarthy came to an agreement in order to raise the debt ceiling to focus on Spending Levels in order to avoid exactly what just happened and why did what just happened happen . Because he went back on his word. When he started getting pressure from the matt gaetz and maga extremists he was like, youre right, im not going to do that anymore. Thats why he boxed himself in with the corrupt bargain that he went into in order to get speakers gavel. You cant do that if you are going to actually lead with values and with trust and be able to go to the opposite party which we know in divided government you have to do in order to get things done. If the next person who is up for speaker has the backbone to say i am going to lead no matter what it takes, im going to work with my coalition to figure out how do we move forward and then im going to work with the democrats to get things done for the American People, then i think, yes, democrats would be able to work with that person. All right. Maria cardona, doug heye, great to see you both on this friday. Thanks for offering your perspective. Boris . Thanks, pam. Look, no matter who becomes the next speaker, a top issue they will likely have to address right away is immigration. As officials report a surge in migrants crossing the southern border, the Biden Administration has taken some controversial steps in the last 24 hours that seemingly contradict their own policies and promises. The Biden Administration yesterday announced that they are laying the legal groundwork to expand former President Trumps border wall by roughly 20 miles. To do that the department of Homeland Security is going to waive some 26 laws mostly about the environment to build Additional Border barriers in the rio grande valley, something that dhs secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a filing was an immediate need. In fact, lets get into that specific portion of the filing. It says there is presently an acute and immediate need, acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of United States in order to protect or rather prevent unlawful entries. After intense blow back over the move the secretary appeared to contradict that yesterday in mexico city. Listen to this. There is no new Administration Policy with respect to the border wall. From day one this administration has made clear that a border wall is not the answer. That remains our position and our position has never wavered. The language in the federal register notice is being taken out of context and it does not signify any change in policy whatsoever. You saw the context of the filing. Meantime, President Biden is answering to claims that he broke this campaign promise. There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration. So how does the white house explain this move . Cnns kevin liptak tried to get answers from the press secretary yesterday. Here is his exchange with ra recent jeanpierre. He said in 2020 as a candidate so after this law was passed in 2019 that there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration. How can you say that hes not breaking that promise . What i can say is that there is a law that the dhs is complying with. We believe in the rule of law and thats what were moving forward with. There is truth there, in 2019 under President Trump congress appropriated funds specifically for Border Construction in the rio grande valley, nearly 200 million had to be used for the project by the end of the fiscal year that just ended on september 30th. So essentially it was use it or lose it. Thats the argument we heard yesterday from President Biden in the oval office. The Border Wall Money was appropriated for the border wall. I trying to get them to reappropriate to redirect that money. They didnt. They wouldnt. And in the meantime theres nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated for. I cant stop that. Do you believe the Border Wall Works . No. Well, in theory if you dont believe a Border Wall Works you could have let that money go unspent, right . President biden reiterated that stance again today from the oval office. We should note the president is right about his administration trying to get congress to use those funds for something else, which they did and congress essentially ignored in 2021, but lets remember some important context. Democrats held both chambers of congress for the first two years of bidens presidency. So he argues that his hands are now tied, but for two years democrats had the key, notably on an issue that both sides have been Hounding Biden To Act On for months and that no doubt will be central in the race for president in 2024. Speaking of that president ial race, we have some new about former President Donald Trump. He reportedly shared sensitive Nuclear Secrets with an australian billionaire at maralago. Were going to speak to one of his former Press Secretaries about that in just moments. And were nearly a month into the auto workers strike against the big three. We will speak to a uaw leader about where negotiations stand going into the weekend. Plus, we are down to the final 24 hours of the Largest Health care strike in the countrys history, but negotiations are not over and another bigger strike could soon be on the way. Youre watching Cnn News Central. Stay tuned. The auto workers strike centering its fourth week and many are expecting the strikes to expand to even more facilities owned by the big three auto makers. The President Union auto workers giving an update right now on the strikes as we speak. And in the meantime General Motors claims the strikes have cost the company 200 million in its first two weeks but its still selling plenty of pickup trucks, suvs and cars reporting that s