And welcome to the lead. I'm Jake Tapper. It is day four of this protracted and dysfunctional

standoff over the house speakership. And for the first time this week, we are getting

signals that we may in fact be nearing the finish line right now. The house is adjourned

until 10 p.m. Eastern tonight. Just moments ago, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy confidently

told CNN. He will, will have the votes to be elected speaker tonight. That prediction

coming following a remarkable turnaround today for the Republican leader. McCarthy had

promised progress, promised it Tuesday, and he promised it Wednesday, promised it Thursday.

Today, we finally saw it, even as he failed on his 13th ballot, 15 rebel holdouts today,

switch their votes in favor of McCarthy, giving him for the first time this whole week more

votes than the Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries. But despite this break in the Republican

resistance, six hardliners remain. Congress people, Matt Gaetz, Bob Good, Andy Harris,

Ellie Crane, Matt Rosendale. Oh, Andy Harris is not actually one of them. They have the wrong.

Andy Harris is not one of them. It's a different individual. In any case, the six are keeping

McCarthy two votes short of the magic number needing needed to realize his dream of clinching

the speaker's gap. Let's go straight to CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju,

lie for us on Capitol Hill, Manu. McCarthy won over much of the Republican opposition today.

He's still short of enough votes to win. How does he get the final two votes he needs?

Yeah, right now the top leaders are huddling in Kevin McCarthy's office, the speaker's office

that he hopes to officially assume as soon as tonight. They're trying to figure out their final

push here. They're locked down those couple of votes. I talked to Steve Scolis, who's the number

two Republican on the way into that meeting, asking about two individuals who are central to

the effort. Ellie Crane, who is a, Eli Crane, who is an incoming Republican member from Arizona,

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