GEOFF BENNETT: House Republicans have lost another speaker nominee, their third this month.

Pushback from former President Trump and his allies doomed Congressman Tom Emmer's bid, and he withdrew just hours after getting the nomination.

Republicans are now left with a question: Can anyone get the votes needed to be speaker of the House?

Lisa Desjardins has been following the chaos and infighting on Capitol Hill and joins us now.

So, Lisa, Tom Emmer around noon Eastern was elected speaker-designate among House Republicans, and, by 4:30 Eastern, he had dropped out.

What happened?

LISA DESJARDINS: I will tell you, even if you were wearing a seat belt today, you probably would have gotten a political concussion.

This was a wild, extraordinary, another time in the House of Representatives.

Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota, former hockey coach, attorney and also the one who's in charge of counting votes for the Republican Conference, thought he had a good chance.

He's popular.

He's someone who is generally well-liked and is trusted.

And he came out with the most number of votes today, the majority.

He was the nominee.

However, there were holdouts against him, enough of them that prevented him from getting that 217 that's needed to become speaker.

After we knew there were holdouts, then something else happened that actually doomed him further.

It was this statement from former President Donald Trump, who had sort of been back and forth on Mr. Emmer.

He wrote: "Voting for a globalist RINO" - - Republican in name only -- "like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake."

There was the idea that Trump didn't like Emmer, but here it was, the former president going out of his way to kneecap his party's own nominee for speaker of the House.

Emmer did not have a chance after that, and withdrew his nomination altogether.

And it was kind of a surprise turn.

Now we are looking for a fourth Republican nominee for speaker.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we should say that Congressman Emmer, unlike 147 other House Republicans, he voted to certify Joe Biden's win.

To what degree did that contribute to his failure to consolidate support among House Republicans, Lisa?

LISA DESJARDINS: It was absolutely a factor.

It's a litmus test for the former president and for some of the Republicans here.

Another vote that was a problem for Tom Emmer is, he voted to codify the idea that same-sex marriage is legal in this country.

That is something that was raised today.

Now, talking to Republicans about what's all underneath this, we know there are a lot of layers.

There's a power vacuum here.

There's Trump exercising influence.

There are resentments.

But one Republican, Mike Gallagher, who's the chairman of the China Select Committee, said there are even more deeper issues as well.

REP. MIKE GALLAGHER (R-WI): This is the product of decades of institutional neglect.

So if you have people that feel no loyalty to an institution like Congress, because it's weak, it's gone from being the most powerful branch of government to the weakest, and they're not going to abide by the rules of conference or the norms of congressional behavior.

And it just seems like, if you disagree with someone on one policy position, like a lot of people disagree with Emmer's position on gay marriage, I guess, that's enough to say you won't support him for speaker.

We can't operate that way.

LISA DESJARDINS: Seem to be drifting into the outer room, sort of an area where it's not clear what rules and laws are in effect.

It does feel like we're there right now.

But one sign this is also capturing even more of the public imagination, just anecdotally, I'm getting more from my neighbors, even my mom, about this situation.

The concern about the chaos in the House really is expanding, clearly.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, look, the House has been rudderless for more than three weeks now.

What happens next, Lisa, to the degree that anyone knows?

LISA DESJARDINS: As you and I are talking right now, Geoff, the House conference is again meeting behind closed doors.

They have decided to just reopen their candidate list, and they again have now a slate of six candidates.

I want to talk about two of them at the top, two who were in the running this morning that we're watching especially.

Kevin Hern, he's in charge of the Republican Study Committee, an important group of Republicans.

And then also Mike Johnson of Louisiana, also known as a conservative.

Behind the scenes, their two camps have already been talking about who's more conservative than the other, but they now have to fend with sort of a quasi new field with four other candidates tonight.

We don't know exactly how this is going to go.

We expect the conference will take some votes tonight.

And if they are able to get someone with a very large amount of votes, we could even have a vote on the floor of the House tonight for speaker.

There are some who are saying they want to go all night until they figure that out.

But, you know, Geoff, we have heard that before.

Meanwhile, as you and I talk, it is three weeks until our government runs out of funding.

And that is the exact same amount of time as we have been without a speaker.

So that time can move very quickly.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, Lisa Desjardins, thanks so much.

We appreciate your reporting, as always.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.