Thats what u. S. Bank is for. Huge relief. Yeah. Good morning. 11 00 a. M. Eastern, 8 00 a. M. Pacific. Im jose diazbalart alongside my friend and colleague ana cabrera for a second hour of Special Coverage. Were following two major stories this morning. And right now the fate of the House Of Representatives is up for grabs with another vote to decide the next speaker of the house. Beginning any moment now, we have live pictures of the house floor we want to show you, where jim jordan is trying to convince a group of holdouts to cast their vote for him after his attempts to secure the speakership yesterday ended in failure. 20 republicans voted for someone else. This is all happening as President Biden is wrapping up his visit to israel to show the United States support among israels war with hamas. Were also keeping an eye on beirut, lebanon, where a scene of protests and some violence is playing out as propalestinian protesters gather outside the u. S. Embassy in the lebanese capital before being forcibly cleared from the area. And we begin this hour on capitol hill, with the fight over who will be the next House Speaker or if there will be a next House Speaker. Thats right. We expect a vote to begin in just moments. And joining us to discuss all of it is our capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, along with nbc news Political Correspondent steve kornacki, Michael Steele, former Republican National committee chair, who is now an msnbc Political Analyst, and former ohio governor, now msnbc Political Analyst john kasich and former maryland congresswoman donna edwards, also an msnbc Political Analyst. A great group of people to dissect every angle of this vote. Absolutely. Lets start with you, ali. What is it that is happening right now and is there any expectation that things are going to look any different today than they did yesterday . Reporter no. Quite frankly, jose, you as always ask the right question, which is not who the speaker will be, but if there will even be a speaker today. Our understanding going into this vote and were seeing members start going to the floor, going up the stairs behind me and all the other entrances into this building, i havent spoken to anyone who is saying ally or not of jim jordan that he has the votes to become speaker today. Instead, jordan is grappling with a few different cross currents. Members are so frustrated and fatigue that they arent making progress, some are considering empowering the speaker pro tempore, Patrick Mchenry, for a set period of time so they can get with the business of Doing Congress and running the government. For jordan, he thinks it is a question of do you want to do that or elect me as speaker. Listen to what he said in the last few minutes. The question today is are we going to elect a republican speaker or are we going to have with democrats involved in selecting the speaker . I just met with our leadership and said put both questions to the body today. Lets find out. We have been at this for two weeks now. Reporter we may get the opportunity to find out, jose, the way that this is going to go is that 11 00, were going to see them gavel in, members on the floor, theyll do the pledge, a prayer, theyre going to do a quorum call and well see them move on at around 11 30 or so to the actual vote on electing a speaker. Once that is over, our understanding is there could be some push to actually vote on empowering speaker pro tempore Patrick Mchenry and the words that jordan uses here are really important because what hes effectively saying to other republicans is, you can either exercise our Majority Power as republicans, however slim that majority may be, or you can ban together with democrats and we know bipartisanship is a dirty word here to the rank and file of the republican conference, dont forget how we got in this position in first place, because mccarthy, with the aid of democrats, kept the government open, not but three weeks ago, so jordan is signalling to the rest of his conference, you can either be a republican or you can do a coalition government. He thinks that might be enough to push people back into his camp. We might get to see both scenarios play out today. Lets look at who we are watching with steve kornacki. Steve, we know yesterday jordan lost the votes of 20 republicans. He can only afford to lose four if he is to become speaker. So, who are you watching . Yes, so this is the list of the 20 republicans yesterday who voted for somebody other than jim jordan On The House Floor. And as you say, if every republican is there today, if every democrat is there today, and voting, thats it. If there are five on this list of republicans who continue to vote against jordan, jordan wont win the speakership on the second ballot. Certainly there doesnt seem to be anybody who expects him to win on the second ballot. Instead i think the question is really this, i think this is a very significant Inflection Point in jim jordans quest to become speaker. The question has been the number of nos. You see there are 20 on this list yesterday. How much success in the last 24 hours, how much success with the kind of message that ali was talking about have the jordan forces had in flipping any of these 20 into jordans camp . So, you got an indication from doug lamalfa from california hes ready to switch to vote for jordan. How many from this no list can they flip over . A lot of others on this list have indicated they remain just as dug in. And i think what is really dangerous for jordan is this, we had ken buck on our air yesterday, we had Mario Diazbalart say this morning that they think there is a group of republicans who voted for jordan on the first ballot, who are not going to be with him on the second ballot who will vote for somebody else, gave him one chance to get majority and he didnt get it. Thats why i think were going to fill these in, as the vote is called later this hour, youll see how the members vote. I think this is the most important category to keep an eye on. It is the new no votes. The folks who voted for jordan yesterday, how many of them end up not voting for jordan this time . Because if he gets in a situation where he picks off a couple of the folks who voted against him yesterday, but then loses a whole bunch of new votes here, and finds himself a lot farther back than 20 votes, then he finds himself i think in a very perilous situation in terms of justifying continuing his candidacy. If you think back to Kevin Mccarthy in january, it took him 15 ballots, you know. He didnt make much he started by losing 19 votes. The worst it got was 21 votes. He worked his way forward for them. If jordan ends up losing, five, ten, any more votes on this second ballot today, that is going to put him in a different and more perilous place. And as ali says, with all of that chatter out there now, about hey maybe there are republicans saying hey maybe there is a way to get Patrick Mchenry in there for a longer period with expanded powers, you know, somebody who is floating that idea is a jordan backer. Dave joyce from ohio, he voted for jordan yesterday, now hes reportedly pushing the idea of mchenry. That could be somebody who voted for jordan who goes into this new no votes category here, millermeeks, listen for that name called from ohio. She signed a letter yesterday, frustrated that jordan was taking all this time yesterday, waiting to call the second vote. She said call the vote right away. Seems to be an indication she might be siding after siding with jordan on the first ballot, that she may be siding with his opponents on the second ballot. There could be a whole bunch of new votes on this. If there are new no votes than there are new yes votes, and jordan could be in serious trouble in terms of facing his conference and justifying Going Forward with this. You do mention congressman Mario Diazbalart, just for clarity, he is my brother. Michael, former House Speakers boehner and gingrich have come out in support of temporarily expanding the power of speaker pro tempore mchenry, something he opposes. Here is what Hakeem Jeffries had to say about that. I have respect for Patrick Mchenry. I think hes respected on our side of the aisle. There are a whole host of other republicans who are respected on our side of the aisle. Jim jordan is not one of them. So, michael, how do you see this . One thing is for sure, Mchenry Slams Down A mean gavel. We saw that. He does indeed. He can hit it hard. Yeah, i stand with the former speakers on this. I think i think that that makes the most sense. I said it yesterday, ill repeat it again, nobody in the conference wants jim jordan as the speaker. No one. Even those backing him. Steve kornacki has just shown and proven that point, you already have people starting to slide off. So the reality right now is how do you get to next level . And what is the next level . The next level is what the speaker pro tem and it is with mchenry and i think there is a growing Energy Around that idea to create some space, allow the body to go on with the nations business, while republicans continue to sort of cluck around and figure out who they want to lead them that would have enough credibility to pull the factions together, at least temporarily, at least temporarily, in order to put a speaker forward. So, i think youre going to see a lot more Energy Around that effort, after this vote, because i agree with steve, i think that new no vote is going to surprise a lot of folks. It will not be surprising, however, to jim jordan because he already knows i think where he stands with this caucus. Everybody, were watching live pictures there in the house chamber. This is, i believe, the prayer that is happening prior to a quorum vote, which also happens before nominating speeches and then the speaker vote. So this is going to be a long Drawnout Process and well dip in and out as we go throughout the morning. But i just wanted to follow up on a couple of things we have been discussing and that this there is this idea and real possibility that jim jordan could actually end up with fewer votes than he had yesterday in this second round of voting. Ali, can you explain why somebody who voted for jim jordan yesterday would go the other direction . Reporter well, there is a good amount of fatigue in this building. The idea that he came shy of the speakership by 20 votes yesterday was certainly something that caught peoples attention. But it wasnt just the fact, ana, that he fell short. It was the way in which he fell short. Specifically there were some no votes yesterday that we assumed would be coming. But there were others, including the head of the Appropriations Committee, congressman granger, who as far as i understand jordan allies didnt see as a no vote. Some people on the democratic side wondered if maybe she voted against jordan by mistake. Thats something that is so crucial and could ultimately have scared some people off about the jordan whip operation. Thats one of the key things i think people are thinking about. The other thing as were watching members come in and out here is that there is this new push to potentially coalesce around a mchenry candidacy. Some people might find that more palatable. I think Michael Steele brings up a good point here, about the political perils of voting for jim jordan. I think for moderate republicans, they already have taken that plunge. Were already watching the Democratic House campaign arm mobilize on the airwaves and in ads and everything about what theyre going to be pushing against those moderates because they voted for jim jordan, a man who is close to former president donald trump, who still regularly speaks to him, who voted to decertify the election, who was subpoenaed by the January 6th Committee and defied that subpoena, but who was largely concluded to be someone who was innately involved in the former president s plans to overturn the 2020 election results. For all of those reasons, he is someone who carries political baggage for people who are moderate and in biden won districts, they have already made that vote, though. And i think thats important. Theyre moving on not Quorum Call Vote now. It is calling for who is here and who is not, right . So, donna, just, ali was saying something earlier in our conversation about how bipartisanship has become a dirty word for the republicans at the House Of Representatives. Is there no possibility ever, you think, of republicans and democrats getting together and agreeing to have a speaker and even the revolutionary idea of actually getting legislation done . Well, such a good question. Look, i think there is it is a very remote possibility, but the fact is that this really is in the republican house. It is in their in their Playing Field to get this done. What i do see, and i think some of the names that surprised me on the list yesterday were people like kate granger and mike stenson because they have historically worked across the aisle, having policy agreements, but working with their counterparts on the other side. Theyre kind of institutionalists. And to see those names on the list, i think is really troubling for jordan, but it is a sign that there are people who want to get the Appropriations Process done, they want to get defense spending done, they want to make sure that the institution functions. And so whether well get to a point that there is a, you know, sort of Cross Partisanship agreement to move forward on a speaker, i think it is remote, but i dont think that jim jordan survives today. We are looking right now at the split screen as were monitoring these two Breaking News Events happening. There you see on the right side, President Biden now getting ready to leave israel, following a Whirlwind Trip to this country at war where he was greeted by the Prime Minister this morning. Literally just hours ago when he touched down in tel aviv. He was greeted with a hug by Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu, he met with not only netanyahu, but a brief meeting with the president of israel herzog, he also met with the war cabinet there in israel, that was established after that horrific attack on october 7th. He met with First Responders, Family Members of victims and then we heard his remarks live here last hour. Interesting to see that Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken was also right behind the president as they were going to air force one. Probably heading back to the out of america. The Secretary Of State has been on this Shuttle Diplomacy Mission for days now. Hes been going from one area to the other, meeting with leaders of all countries that are involved or could be involved or have some influence one way or another. Seems as though the Secretary Of State is also returning back to washington with the president. If we could go back now to this the quorum, right, the quorum call, essentially finding out who is there and who is not there, so as they get ready, i guess, for this next phase. John kasich, nebraska Congressman Bacon who did not vote for jordan shared with nbc news what heescribed as threatening Text Messages he says were actually sen to his wifenymoly pressuring him to s jordans candidacy for speaker. One text begins, whys your husband causing chaos by not en bacons wife asked the sender to identify theelves, the sender wrote, you husband will never hold Political Office again. Another text, tell your husband to step up and be a leader. What is your reaction to this, john . It is ridiculous. You can only threaten people so long to where they say, you know what, im not putting up with that. Dont threaten me. I think thats part of it. There are a variety of reasons why these members didnt vote for jordan. The reason why someone might have voted for him, but not vote for him again as they may have been part of the ohio delegation. So keep an eye on the fact that somebody who voted for him yesterday may not vote for him again. I also dont agree necessarily with this panel that it is, quote, remote that there could be some cooperation between republicans and democrats. I dont agree with that. I think to get mchenry in there, it is going to require, in my opinion, some cooperation with the democrats. And, look, you had mccarthy in a position of trying to work the budget deal out, he worked with democrats, they took him out, so now the democrats have to say, okay, well maybe we should have somebody reasonable that we could work with, because there is things they want to do, there are things they want to accomplish as well. They got a president , they got the senate, and there is some things they would like to see happen in the house. So, you know, i think the idea that youre going to marginalize some of the extremists is somet