Scalise withdraws from speaker race, sending GOP search for leader into further chaos

Vanessa Ruiz:

And just a day after House Republicans narrowly voted to nominate Steve Scalise to be the next speaker of the House, the Louisiana congressman is withdrawing his name from consideration after it was clear he did not have the votes to win on the House floor. This late-breaking development is throwing the GOP search for its next leader into further chaos. Our congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins joins me now from Capitol Hill with the very latest. Lisa, good evening. Thank you for joining us. Another wild night on Capitol Hill. Can you tell us why is Scalise dropping out?

Lisa Desjardins:

You know, you said it. The math was just not there for him. I think it was a surprise that he didn't at least try for another day to make people come and see his appeal. He is someone who is generally known as affable. He's tried not to make enemies while here, but he made enemies at the wrong time. Yesterday, when the conference got together to vote on their selection for speaker. Before they did that, they took a vote to try and change the rules. Some members said, Let's not go through that 15 round debacle that we saw on the House floor. Instead, let's select a speaker and let's vote inside behind closed doors. Only when someone reaches 217 votes in private will we take that nomination to the floor. Now, that probably would have failed regardless. But Scalise and his team moved very quickly to quash that, and that was something that offended many members who have gotten used to the idea that they will at least get a chance to make their case, to argue it takes a lot of time. But Steve Scalise and his team quashed that quickly. The other thing that happened, Vanessa, today was Steve Scalise had a chance to talk to the conference. All of them gathered this morning. And I'm told members who were in there who some of them were pulling for Scalise, came out and told me he just was not effective. He did not spell out a plan for how to deal with the situation or how to deal with the spending deadline coming up for almost anything. And really, leadership is the word you hear a lot tonight. Regardless, whatever the problem was, the House Republican Conference is moving on and so is Steve Scalise.

Vanessa Ruiz:

Well, he said, can you tell us a little bit more in detail? What has been the reaction overall from his Republican colleagues?

Lisa Desjardins:

You know, I just ran from the basement of the Capitol where all of this happened. It is still kind of being taken in, digested by House Republicans. Some of them walked out, frankly, dumbfounded that this happened. They did not expect this tonight. But others are already moving on very quickly. Some, like Kevin Hern himself, was previously under consideration for the speakership, have said let's give Jim Jordan a try. And that seems to be what's going to happen here, is that the conference will see if Jim Jordan, the Republican from Ohio, the House Judiciary chairman, if he can get 217 votes, then he has a shot at being speaker. However, it's not clear that he can do that. So moderates like Mike Garcia of California told us just a few minutes ago, no, he doesn't think Jordan has the votes, even though he himself is going to support him. So essentially right now so we're in a bit of no man's land. We're not sure where the conference is going to go from here. And it's not clear who which candidate, if any, can get to 217. There is some talk of perhaps from moderates of working with Democrats, but conservatives there couldn't they couldn't resist that more. That would be sort of a huge blow for them. It's just a deep chasm of divide and frankly, a bit of a political and now governmental mess.

Vanessa Ruiz:

Just really quickly, Lisa, given the chaos in the world we just saw what is happening in Israel, Gaza, especially those challenges abroad and some of those challenges also here at home internally, what pressure does all of this put on Republicans to select a speaker and get some of this chaos under control?

Lisa Desjardins:

For most Republicans, an immense amount of pressure. They are all talking about that. They have some of the many of them constituents in Israel, constituents trying to get home under threat right now. These are serious times. They know it's not the time for not just Republicans, but for our government to look unorganized. We know some, like Representative Mike McCaul, who's in touch with foreign leaders, is worried that this is a signal to adversaries that America is weak. So all of that very serious. But the situation right now, frankly, is that House Republicans have not made any decisions yet except for one. They will meet again tomorrow at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. From there, we truly don't know what will happen next.

Vanessa Ruiz:

Like you said, Lisa, we are in no man's land. Lisa Desjardins on Capitol Hill this evening. Thank you.