Presented by Business Roundtable.

Hey, good morning. I'm Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels. It's Friday, October 20th, 18 days since the House of Representatives had an elected speaker. It's Groundhog Day, as our producer called it just a bit ago. Today, the House will try again to do something about that. A vote is scheduled for 10 a.m.

And what could be Congressman Jim Jordan's final shot at the gavel. Maybe, probably, possibly. The gist is that Jim Jordan doesn't seem any closer to 217 votes than he was yesterday.

And his vote total might actually be headed in the wrong direction.

So what happens now if he's short again?

One possibility is that Patrick McHenry, the Speaker Pro Tem, gets a temporary boost to his own authority.

But that, too, seems currently to lack 217 votes.

And McHenry has reportedly threatened to resign from the Post if there is an attempt to extend his temporary speakership without a formal vote to expand his powers.

Hoo!

Drama, y'all.

For lots of juicy detail and behind the scenes politicking, check out this morning's Playbook Deep Dive for my boy Ryan's interview with Representative Mike Lawler, one of the

Swing District of Republicans, who's not so on board with Jordan's bid.

Matt Gates is, you know, the dog that caught the car.

He didn't have a plan. He didn't have a plan for what would come next. I think he just assumed

the conference would just, you know, fall in line and it'd be fine. And yay, I removed Kevin McCarthy.

Also, in just about a couple of hours at 8 a.m., Jim Jordan's going to hold a press conference,

and apparently he's going to use this to use the bully pulpit to try and jump up some support

for his bid as speaker before the vote happens today.

And on Thursday night, President Biden gave his second ever Oval Office address to forcefully advocate for aiding both Israel and Ukraine.

Join me now to discuss the biggest takeaways from that is our national security reporter.

Alex Ward, Alex, good morning.

Hi, good morning. Happy to be here.

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