Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melbert, and we are tracking several stories for you tonight,

including potentially some remarks from President Biden. But we begin right now with a mystery.

Consider that nobody really publicly has said they know exactly what secret deals were cut to make

Kevin McCarthy speaker. And McCarthy isn't making it public, even though there's been dribs and drabs

and reports. House Republicans actually say they are in the dark about what's now been reported

as a so-called shadow document, that there's a secret three-page addendum that includes McCarthy's

most controversial concessions to those so-called rebels.

Now, controversial is one of those words that could mean different things to different people in politics,

but that's reporting that a lot of people in D.C. or around McCarthy even think it's controversial.

The rules are not officially voted on. You may remember we, if you watched the beat last night, went through some of this.

There's the rules package. That passed, that's codified into law, but this other stuff is kind of off the books. Indeed,

we're told they were approved in a closed door set of negotiations with a, quote, handshake agreement,

according to the Times. And some of that, apparently, was partially revealed, including

concessions to Freedom Caucus to other Republicans.

So there are questions about what McCarthy promised Matt Gates and others to get the big job.

Can you confirm, like, is there an addendum? Is this an official piece of paper, or is this just a word of mouth agreement?

There's no addendum. I wouldn't call it an addendum.

Isn't it essential for the American public to understand exactly what deals were cut in order for him to get the speaker?

Well, the speaker talked about that today and some of the things involved making sure that our committees are represented by a full swath of our membership.

What you can hear there is more than a non-denial. It sounds like members of Congress basically

saying this is happening. They may expect to have reason to believe it will come out sooner or

later, and they're kind of just euphemizing it, kind of keeping it general, but people

...