MTP NOW Jan. 4 — House Speaker vote; Rep. James Comer; Rep. Stephanie Bice

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3.6 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The battle for speaker of the House continues as Congressman Kevin McCarthy fails to secure the votes needed to win the gavel after six floor votes. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) discusses why this speakership battle is going to be “good” for the GOP “long term.” Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) explains why House Republicans, who support Kevin McCarthy's speakership bid, remain committed to his victory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Meet the Press Now.
0:12.2	I'm Chuck Todd here in Washington.
0:13.9	It's deja vu all over again.
0:15.7	So for the second straight day, the U.S. House of Representatives has failed to elect a speaker,
0:20.5	and the rupture inside the Republican conference appears to be worsening for House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.
0:25.2	Right now, the House is voting in a sixth ballot, likely the last vote we will have today.
0:30.7	McCarthy is already on track to lose this one as well.
0:34.1	After also failing to reach 218 votes on the fourth and fifth ballots, both of those
0:39.2	votes took place today after the first three yesterday.
0:42.4	21 of his colleagues have defected in those ballots.
0:44.9	It's up from 19 from yesterday's first ballot.
0:47.4	Of those 21, 20 voted for Florida Republican Byron Donalds.
0:50.7	One has voted present, which actually has lowered the winning number to 2017. Democrat Democrat R. McKeem-Jeffrey says, remain the top vote-getter on every ballot so far with all 212 Democrats voting for him. He is, if we have this one present vote, five short of the speakership, if you're keeping track of that side of the aisle. Bottom line right now, McCarthy appears to be in a more precarious position than he was in yesterday, and he was in a pretty tough spot yesterday.
1:13.2	Patience among some of his supporters is beginning to wane.
1:16.5	Colorado Republican Ken Buck this afternoon said that McCarthy needs to step aside if he can't strike some kind of deal with the holdouts by today.
1:23.1	Another McCarthy ally, Don Bacon, has gotten so frustrated and he compared the group of roughly 20 McCarthy critics to terrorists, calling them the chaos caucus and the Taliban 19.
1:33.0	McCarthy's critics remain unmoved. Ralph Norman told reporters, quote, I'll sit here for six more
1:37.1	months. It doesn't matter. None of McCarthy's critics have budged even after former President
1:43.0	Trump urged them earlier today to give in,
1:45.5	which shows you just how far Trump's power has diminished inside even the Trumpiest parts of the party.
1:51.0	Take a listen to Colorado Republican and Trump loyalist Lauren Bober on the House floor earlier today in a Byron Donald's nominating speech.
1:59.7	Let's stop with the campaign smears and tactics to get people to turn against us,
	...

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