Clip: Why House Republican leaders are not calling for George Santos to resign

Laura Barron-Lopez: And this week, Kevin McCarthy finally realized his dream of wielding the speaker's gavel. His first week on the job was relatively easy as Republicans passed a number of party line bills. But the treasury secretary warned Friday that the country's debt limit will be reached sooner than expected. In less than a week, the fight to increase it will likely be one of the greatest challenges he will face as speaker.

And a new split among House Republicans was revealed this week, how to deal with freshman New York Congressman George Santos, who is facing increasing pressure from members of his own party to resign?

On the debt limit, because I really do think that it is one of the biggest stories that we're going to see this year. Marianna, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said today that starting next week she is going to have to use extraordinary measures to make sure that the country does not default on its debt. How difficult is it going to be for Kevin McCarthy to avoid a fiscal cliff here?

Marianna Sotomayor: It's going to be incredibly difficult. When the Republicans won the House and they knew how narrow of a majority they had, they knew that anything was going to be complicated. They really had to scale back even the messaging bills that they started to put on the floor this week because they knew that anything maybe that needed more compromise likely would not happen.

And I think a lot of them, though optimistic, they saw just how hard it was to elect speaker of the House. They now know the reality of the difficulties that are to come, and the debt ceiling is number one. And my colleagues at The Washington Post actually reported a couple of hours ago that part of the deal that McCarthy made with some of the holdouts was to actually propose what Janet Yellen should actually be prioritizing ahead of that debt ceiling, hitting that debt ceiling. So, that if they can't get anything done, Republicans can say, well, the government should still be paying things like social security and some other things.

However, that means that you might not be able to pay off things, like border security and like the aviation systems, and that is already creating a very big backlash. Of course, anything that the House proposes, the Senate needs to pass, so it is likely this proposal may not come to be. But it is already showing just how hard it's going to be for Republicans, especially in the House, to agree on what to do.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Yes, it is a very slim majority and we still don't know all of the concessions that Kevin McCarthy potentially gave to a lot of those holdouts.

Nancy, in terms of the White House, on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, what is their position here on the debt ceiling?

Nancy Cordes: Their position right now is that they are not going to negotiate, that you should not have to negotiate over raising the debt ceiling. This is simply to allow the U.S. pay the bills for money that has already been allocated by this Congress, by past Congresses, by Democrats and Republicans. They say no negotiating.

Now, on the other hand, you've got Kevin McCarthy saying this is our big chance, we are going to list us some concessions here. He has been floating the idea of a spending cap. This is something Congress has done before, basically saying, okay, we'll agree to raise the debt ceiling in exchange you don't raise spending for a couple of years. The question is, is that going to fly even with some of his own members? They want more than a spending cap. They want to roll back spending.

And the big challenge here is going to be even if he can craft some kind of deal with the White House -- and remember right now, the White House says it's not deal -- can he then sell that to enough of his members to get it across the finish line?

I think that's part of the reason you saw Janet Yellen come out today and say, okay, folks, here is exactly how much time you have come you have until early June. I can do various things to prioritize how we pay our bills, but June is the deadline and you need to figure it out by then.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Yes. Those five core anti-Kevin McCarthy Republicans that held the line all the way to the end, they don't seem at all like they want to vote to increase the debt limit. So, that's going to be a very risky move there that has real world consequences for a lot of Americans.

Nick, this week, the House, I want to expand out to the other things that they tackled this week, they also voted on two anti-abortion bills, one that would have subjected doctors who performed the procedure to prosecution. You said that that potentially reflects where the weight of the Republican caucus is. Why is that?

Nicholas Confessore: Well, look, I think it shows that in the wake of Roe being overturned, the Republican Party is very committed to further eroding abortion rights across the country. It's a central mission of their party, so we will see more of that.

I think politically, though, to some extent, it illustrates the bind that Kevin McCarthy is in with a small minority. The irony of it is that because he has a small minority, he has more hostage to the more extreme elements in his coalition at a moment when it could be smart to try and broaden the coalition.

There are two reasons why the Republicans underperformed in 2022, Trump and abortion. So, it is fascinating to see in the first week of business, they passed these two bills on abortion and they kind of float the idea of erasing Trump's first impeachment from the public record and expunging it, I should say. It's not the way back to a larger minority in 2024, but, again, it is where the party is going to some extent, and it is what he owes the base of the party.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Eugene, on abortion, as Nick was saying, it was one of the big reasons that Republicans didn't do as well as they thought in the midterms. It was a big motivating factor for Democrats, for Democratic voters. How does the White House view these House bills that are passing?

Eugene Daniels: Yes. I mean, what they would say is this is more proof that they want to toss red meat, as Nick was saying, to a base that, one, isn't growing, it doesn't seem -- it hasn't seem to be growing, and that they got it right, that they spent a lot of time talking about abortion, talking about abortion access, and telling American voters before the midterms that this is something you are going to see Republicans do and that this is just more of that.

And I think what is really fascinating, Vice President Kamala Harris focused on this a lot, and what you heard as we got it closer to the midterms, was like Democrats telling the White House, stop focusing on abortion, stop focusing on small D democracy and only talk about the economy. They feel like they got that right.

So, what they're also going to see them do is continue to beat this drum, talk about what that fight against abortion restrictions looks like, what the White House can do with their bully pulpit, and how they are going to team up with states and local officials to actually protect and possibly expand in the states where that is actually possible. And it is a tough battle because this is an issue that so many Americans agree with, agree on the side with the White House, but you have Republicans who are so staunchly against it, it's not going to be easy for anybody to move forward on this one.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Nancy, how are your sources telling you the White House is preparing for this split Congress now?

Nancy Cordes: Well, they are also going really hard this week in addition to what Eugene was talking about when it comes to abortion. They also went hard on the Republicans for taking this very early vote to try to rollback new funding for the IRS.

It is not going to go anywhere because Republicans don't control the Senate, but they took this vote in the House and they made a big statement by doing it in the first week, even though the Congressional Budget Office had determined that actually it would add to the deficit over the next ten years because the IRS would be in a more difficult position when it comes to cracking down on tax cheats and basically collecting taxes from wealthy Americans.

So, the White House and the president himself went after Republicans hard for that one, arguing that they don't want to shrink the deficit after all and that that's not what the American people want, to be fighting for the wealthy, to stop paying their taxes.

Republicans are undeterred. They have two years until their next election. So, they don't really have to worry right now about winning the middle and winning independents right now. It's all about showing their base we are going to do what we told you we would do.

Laura Barron-Lopez: And as they are facing a split Congress, I mean, House Republicans themselves have a lot of drama going on internally.

And, Nick, on George Santos, because we've got to get to him, he is facing a lot of calls from New York Republicans, including some members of the House GOP themselves, to resign. But Leader McCarthy -- excuse me, Speaker McCarthy is not calling on him to resign and fellow GOP leaders are not calling on him as well. Why do you think that is?

Nicholas Confessore: Well, because they have to have his vote in the House. They have a five-seat majority. They can't afford to alienate a single one. And he can afford to say let's have the process play out, let's have whatever investigations happen. It's not up to McCarthy to decide really, and he can say, look, it's not up to me.

But I do think, look, like if you had to ask why is he saying, I am not going to resign, I don't think there is any lesson from the past five years that would tell George Santos -- the past ten years -- that would tell George Santos yes to resign, because Donald Trump went through an entire presidency full of revelations about inventing and falsifying huge aspects of his personal life, his business history, his business acumen. It did not matter to his voters. It did not matter. The myth was stronger than the reality.

And George Santos is probably counting on people not caring that much. I think in his case, it is obviously -- it's more stunning and more egregious, it's almost everything he has ever said at sometimes it seems like. But I think that there's no question that for Santos, what is the upside in resigning?

Laura Barron-Lopez: Right. The upside would potential not be a very good one because his house leans Democratic. And so it would potentially just go to Democrats if a special election were called, right, Marianna? Any final thoughts there?

Marianna Sotomayor: Yes, no, absolutely. The big difference here is just what Nick said. The leadership wants to make sure that they can keep a four-vote majority and that is it. You would have three. Let's remember what he saw in the last couple of weeks. It is tough.

Laura Barron-Lopez: It's tough. It's close. It's all about keeping the majority.