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Capital. Steve scalise, the man elected by the Republican Caucus to be the next speaker but was short of the votes to do so as just announced, apparently, inside the republican conference, that he is withdrawing his name from the speakership. We dont know why, other than the whip count a vote against him within the Republican Caucus today and ballooned to 16 or 17 votes. People were saying he could not get to 217 either to be elected Speaker Of The House. This comes a week and a half after mccarthy was deposed, successful with eight members voting i along with all the democrats. Theres been a speaker pro tem, Patrick Mchenry since then, serving in a custodial fashion. This is all totally unprecedented in american history. We havent had this before. Its 100 years since we had a motion to vacate the chair. Amidst an unfolding global crisis, the second in line to the president and Constitutional Office of Speaker Of The House remains vacant, with no clear path for this house Republican Caucus to rally behind anyone for an election. I believe we have ali but hallie joining us. Hallie, i just learned about this before i went to air. What is going on . I literally just learned about it before you went to air. This is all happening in real time here. We were confused when republicans said theyre gonna notice a 7 30 meeting. There was no real reason why they would do that. It wasnt clear that scalise had moved any of the members. They said they would never vote for him. It turns out that on his way into the meetings that he was going to have more conversations. We will hear what those conversations were. But it turns out that in the room he said he was dropping his bid for speaker, aware of the fact that he was going to be shy of the 217 votes that he needed. What is important here, on the one hand, its back to the Drawing Board board for the rest of the Republican Congress now because they have to go back, likely Behind Closed Doors, do another secret speaker election, see if they can get consensus at that point, and then try to bring it back to a more public for vote. We never even hit that phase with scalise. But there are still going to be people who are jockeying for this, including the man who was scalises official challenger in this round of the speakers race, congressman jim jordan. He is someone who had thrown his support behind scalise, but he never lost support from some die hards within this conference. I do have to say, though, i dont think it matters who the person is. They are all going to have an immensely difficult road getting into the magic number that they need to actually become speaker. And my conversations with members earlier today, when they did about three hours of basically an airing of grievances Behind Closed Doors, some of them apparently in that meeting even joked they dont even think jesus could get 217 votes in this conference. As much as that is hyperbole in a punchline, im not sure theyre wrong. It is an immensely difficult conference to herd these cats within every single vote, counts every individuals concern or question counts and thats what makes it so difficult and its why Kevin Mccarthy had such a hard time back in january. We should note, again, when you have four votes to spare in the caucus, and youre expecting a Party Line Vote because youre elected by the entire house, you may get six or seven people who are knows, who have mutually exclusive asks. Its one thing if theres a block that says we are a hard no and we want these three things. If theyre all over the map, its not even like theres a negotiation you can do. Exactly. Its not like youre going conference by conference, caucus by caucus and saying okay moderates want x, the Freedom Caucus want why. How do we put those two things together . No, scalise and whatever comes after have gone literally individual member by individual member. Its not only inefficient but it also means that some of these asks are going to come in conflict with each other you cant please everyone. Then you have to figure out, are you appeasing enough people to lose the people that cant get on board . Its a balancing act. Its one that most members that ive been in touch with for the last two weeks or so, up through the motion to vacate and even now as they try to pick who comes next, there is not a clear consensus within this conference. Even when matt gaetz was threatening, im gonna do a motion to vacate, the open question we had was, okay, if not mccarthy, then who . There was no clean answer then and theres no clean answer now. For some americans this might seem inside baseball are not important to their life, but when you look at the larger geopolitical landscape right now, this is at the core of the way the house functions. Yes, its in the line of succession for the presidency. You mentioned that. But its also the way they can do as little as condemn hamas for what happened in israel and that most of sending military and humanitarian aid israel. Those are key priorities here. But they are effectively unable to do any governing whatsoever because they cannot decide who the Speaker Of The House is going to be. Important point there. I will note that Speaker Elections happen in the entire house. In other state houses there have been deals cut to get to some consensus, trying to party lines. I dont think anyone wants to do that now. One imagines of might be some conversations along those lines are longer this goes. There does have to be a speaker soon, because the business of governing has to happen. Thank you very much for doing that. Yes, of course. Were gonna have more on that a little bit, but i speak with senator cory booker, but first of all Antony Blinken was in tel aviv. He spoke in a joint Press Conference with israeli Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu. In his speech, blinken, who stepfather survived the holocaust, evoked his jewish heritage and a message of solidarity with the jewish people. I come before you not only is the United States secretary of state but also as a jew. I understand, on a personal level, the harrowing echoes of hamass massacres carry for israeli jews. Indeed, for jews everywhere. Hamas has only one agenda. To destroy israel and to murder jews. Secretary blinken also toured a Donation Center for victims of this weekends hamas attack. He had an emotional meeting with one of the survivors of the Music Festival in Southern Israel that was the target. First priority, our friends and family that are now in gaza. We were strong here. We are powerful here, in this place, in tel aviv, and everywhere. What [applause]. Think you very much. Were thinking of villain doing everything we can. They believe hamas has taken over more than 100 hostages and the white house confirmed there are americans among them. Today the state Department Said that at least 14 americans are unaccounted for after saturdays attack. That is in addition to at least 27 who were murdered. United nations also says that 12 of Asylum Workers in gaza have been killed off since saturday, under the intense israeli bombardment. Steve galen, a Top State Department hostage negotiator, traveled to israel with Secretary Blinken. He will stay behind when the rest of the u. S. Envoy returns home so that it can keep working to free the hostages in what is certain to be incredibly fraught and dangerous difficult process. All that is happening, the Israeli Military called up 360,000 reservists for duty in anticipation of a potential ground defensive. The countries ll will bring additional reservists on saturday in spite of being the sabbath. Told reuters, quote, everyone is coming. You know what to say no. This is different. This is unprecedented. Also in preparation for a Ground Invasion of gaza, the u. S. Has been attempting to broker talks between egypt and israel to establish a corridor to provide safe passage for Palestinian Civilians fleeing gaza. Egypt has rejected those proposals, according to senior egyptian official speaking to the associated press. Talks are still ongoing to establish Crossing Point to bring aid and fuel into gaza. Today leadership at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced intentions to introduce a bipartisan resolution affirming u. S. Support for israel when the Senate Reconvenes next week. That he is in addition to plans for a supplemental funding bill to send additional military aid to the country. Any such bill would likely originate in the house of representatives. As ally noted in the top of the show, thats not possible right now. The house cannot pass an israeli aid package. It cant pass any bill for that matter because right now there is no Speaker Of The House, nor are there any serious prospects for one. As republicans fire the last cry more than a week ago, and have since descended into total nonfunctional chaos. Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee speaking even before scalise withdrew, just moments ago. This is starting to get impatient what we need to fill the chair with a speaker. Every day that goes by a gets more dangerous. I was on the phone for with our friends from israel. Theyre going to get supplemental in aid to replenish the iron dome. They cant do that if we dont have a speaker. I see a lot of threats out there, but the biggest one i see in the room. Its very dangerous what were doing. And i just wanted them to know that. Were playing with fire. House republican dysfunction almost pales in dysfunction in comparison to an ultimate crisis and leadership put forward in the next president of United States last night. If the election wasnt rigged, there would be nobody even thinking about going into israel. Then there was the inevitable attack, four days later, which i predicted. And then two nights ago i read all of bidens security people. Can you imagine National Defense people, and they said gee, i hope hezbollah doesnt attack from the north, because thats the most vulnerable spot. I said wait a minute. Hezbollah is very smart. Theyre all very smart. Ill never forget that [applause] Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a terrible thing. I will say that. So when i see sometimes the intelligence, you talk about the intelligence or you talk about some of the things that went wrong over the last week, they have got to straighten it out because they are fighting potentially a very big force. Theyre fighting potentially iran. Worth keeping in mind how close we came to that man who praised hezbollah militant on Live Television Live Television, want to credit for the attack. Its worth keeping in mind he will likely be the republican nominee for president , and we may come to that possibility again. Cory booker is a democrat of new jersey, serves on the Foreign Relations committee. Last saturday he was in israel when the hamas attacks began. This is his first interview since returning to the United States. Good to have you here. Good to be with you in person again. Let me just start because you just learned, as i, did that Stephen Steve scalise has withdrawn. Its not your house, but its the United States house of representatives. To the point that michael mccaul, the statement made this is a problem. We are in crisis right now in the country. If important issues we should be dealing with, resolutely, supporting the effort of ukraine, resolutely standing with israel. Helping to aid in their defense protection citizens and evacuation of americans from gaza israel. There are many important issues, not to mention funding the government. So to have this level of dysfunction amongst House Republicans and especially a number of small group of rightwing folks who are undermining the functioning of government, this is very problematic at a terrible time going on in our world right now. You were in israel on that saturday when the hamas massacre happened in the south. You are also in the region, i believe, after that, if im not mistaken. What is your take away back here, having been in the region at a moment of such an awful crisis. I was going there on a mission, because there is a Pathway To Peace and it opened up to the abraham accords. I went there to be with palestine palestinian, leaders israeli leaders, and to continue in the region with people who believe. As mbs said in a interview on fox, there is a Pathway To Peace with the palestinian pillar being a key. Palestinian leaders for the first time were having, and came in 1967 for the first time to the west bank to begin with palestinian leaders on the Pathway To Peace. So here you have this Terrorist Organization who is whose very charter doesnt say the destruction of israel. The charter of hamas. They want to destroy jews. Launching missiles. Before this i got here early. Its a very important holiday for me personally. Its been about 30 years since the christian ive been studying torah and really engaging in a faith that me so much to me. I danced with the torah the night before these attacks, sat and had shabbat dinner with friends, two of them who have lost family members. Family members are slaughtered in the kibbutz. The other, i had a nephew who is called up to defend folks. And he was killed in defending lives, innocent lives. This is an isis like Terrorist Organization. Whats worse for the palestinians to hamas has murdered and kidnapped palestinians, has brutalized its own people, and what is interesting about their pattern right now, known throughout everybody i talked about, talked with in The Middle East, from journalists to Business People to members of government, they all know hamass mission is to stop peace. And at the very moment that a Pathway To Peace open up that you heard from the saudis, from the emeratis, from folks in bahrain who understood that we had an opportunity here for a two state solution. Hamas, terrorists, isis like, hitler like folks who hate jews and want to kill them, opened once one of the worst Terrorist Attacks over the last 50 years. In terms of the peace process, there was lots of weird being sent that there was a move towards saudi and israeli normalization, which of course would be an enormous change. One of the criticisms ive heard, and this is independent of hamass motives, which i cant really divine, is that it was an attempt to bypass the peace with palestinians. This idea that you would lock in normalization without resolving the enormous problem of 2 Million People living in a penal colony and the occupation of the west bank. Thats completely wrong. Im one of the founding members of the abraham accords. Ive been very involved in a lot of these diplomatic work. I should be on a plane and about a week with republicans, a small group of us, going to saudi arabia to continue these talks because we cannot let these terrorists, this isis like, not to like people when, and were going to i stayed in the region. I just came back today because i didnt want to derail it. From americans to arabs in the region, everybody wants to continue this pathway. And centered in it, as the leader of saudi arabia said on fox news, centered in this has to be a pathway back to the two state solution. An irrevocable pathway back to the two state solution. My conversations with Senate Democrats and senate republicans, before this, the State Department agreed this had to be about peace. At the very moment when you hear arab leaders openly discussing an opportunity for peace, an organization founded to kill jews, who, after the also accords, 2014, when arafat and robbyn get the nobel peace prize, and theres a Pathway To Peace, what does hamas do . They go after israelis. They bomb buses. They target civilians. And then they use their own people as Human Shields, as israel exercises its right to self defense, hoping that the sympathy that they could maybe bring about by the people they are endangering could somehow undermine support for a peace process. What we are seeing is this again. And thats why the debate in america should not be a debate. We should have Crystal Clarity to support israel and to call out these nazi, isis like folks who are Targeting Civilians with an attempt not just here and murdered jews, not just to kill and hes palestinians as Human Shields, not just to target, remember, there are also nepalese, argentinians, ame