Congress is effectively paralyzed tonight after a historic vote on Tuesday ousting Republican house Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his seat plunging the chamber into chaos eight hard-right with 208 Democrats to kick McCarthy out marking the first time in U.S history that the house removed its leader McCarthy has said he won't run again for speaker Representatives Jim Jordan and Steve scalise have officially entered the race with other GOP members like Kevin Hearn waiting in the wings the house is taking no further votes this weekend Republicans are expected to hold a speaker candidate Forum next Tuesday the tension within the GOP is now also being pointed at Democrats specifically in the problem solvers caucus a bipartisan group of lawmakers who work together on Solutions who voted to take the gavel from McCarthy joining me now is the co-chair congressman Josh gottheimer Congressman agreed to get a chance to talk to you Democrats obviously played a very big role in ousting Kevin McCarthy why didn't Centrist like yourself throw him the lifeline he needed well two things I'll say to that one is you know electing a speaker is very much a family discussion on on the majority party side and you know on the decision they made on their side was to uh house Kevin McCarthy the extremists uh and and their party and so you know what I've been focused on I'll continue to be focused on is how do we come together and actually get things done we've got 40 days before the government shuts down again uh the key now is to figure out how we move forward here but I'm eager to sit down and work with whoever uh they pick to to make sure we can stop another government shutdown and focus on the priorities of of Jersey and for our country okay but now you have what looks to be anyway talks of a potential collapse of your problem solvers caucus uh Republicans who are reportedly uh looking at leaving and mass because of this vote did that not cause even more chaos now I read some stories about that too and that's just not true you know so Republicans aren't threatening to leave to leave the caucus was it was a rough day yesterday and and these things are tough you know people uh uh obviously and and rightly so is a very emotional day for for everyone in the chamber yesterday and um I'm confident based on all the discussions today is now what we're very focused as a caucus on how we move forward now in terms of focusing on stopping government shutdown and you know looking at are there things we can change institutionally which I'm very supportive of what can we do to change some of the rules of the house to discourage extremists from being to be able to take over and to vacate the chair and those are the kind of things that we need to work on immediately um and and as you probably saw uh speaker McCarthy say yesterday that he wasn't interested in working with Democrats to get that done um and of course that that's his choice he uh was that the last straw Congressman was that where was that the last draw for you all listen to you either can get an agreement to gun together working together and figure out a way to encourage more bipartisanship which is what I'm all about but you have to actually have an institution that encourages it and allows for it um and then that Congressman so far as I'm sure you know uh Representative Steve scalise uh Jim Jordan have tossed their hat into the ring we know that there are others who will likely run would you vote for either of them again that's what I've said before like that's their family to work out if they want to nominate Hakeem Jeffries uh who I think is a phenomenal leader I'll I'll vote for Akeem with them if they want to do that otherwise it's going to be on them to work out in their family who they'd like to be there to be their leader There's real issues that we can do if we work together but you got to change the way the approach they're taking by stop kowtowing to to the extremists in their party yeah no no I'll do respect I I understand that but that's not where the house is at right now um you all have adjourned for the week I mean how do you answer to constituents who would likely and rightfully rather you all still be on the hill working this out they sent us home yesterday uh again not my decision um they adjourned so they're working out in their family their issues I'm focused on I woke up this morning and was on the phone with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle figuring out how we're going to make sure that we get a deal done so that the government doesn't shut down and hurt our veterans and our law enforcement and seniors and children that's what I'm focused on fighting for Jersey all right Congressman Josh Gottheimer Josh Gottheimer for us thank you so much for your time sir great to see you thanks