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Republicans nominate another candidate for Speaker, but does he have the votes? Welcome to the fastest show in politics. As the majority whip Tom Emmer comes out on top after several rounds of voting. We're going to have the latest from Capitol Hill for you straight ahead, and we'll go on the inside with someone who's been there. Denver Riggleman, the former Republican congressman from Virginia, will join with insights from our signature panel. Rick Davis and Genie Shanzano are
with us Bloomberg Politics contributors. We'll also touch on the campaign trail this hour with a new strategy emerging from the group No Labels. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington, where we have breaking news in the race for Speaker. Tom Emmer. Your a new nominee won the speaker nomination took five rounds this year. He got one hundred and seventeen votes. Remembering that last night we had nine candidates interested in this job, tom Emmer rising to the top as the
Majority Whip. He had the support of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and of course majority Whip. With a rolodex like that, you know how to get a couple of votes. Here's McCarthy earlier having.
Been the whip, getting the tough votes when passing HR one making America Energy Independent, parents Bill of Rights, getting the debt ceiling. So he knows the conference well.
But does the conference want him to be speaker? As I mentioned, one hundred and seventeen votes today, not bad, but he's got one hundred more to go. You have to have two seventeen to make this reel, and we may not really know until this actually hits the floor. We're also not sure exactly when that is going to happen. But we're getting used to this drill, right, We've done this a few times by now. This would be the
third time. Steve'scalise Jim Jordan Tom Emmer, former hockey player and coach, as I read on the terminal, with a network of connections with individual lawmakers built in his current job as chief vote counter, Yes, the Whip, and so the next couple of days is going to be pretty interesting.
You've heard a lot of smart people here, including a lot of Republicans, tell us on this program we would not have a speaker by the end of the week, and so on this Tuesday we project with the help of Denver Riggleman, the former Republican Congressman from Virginia's fifth District, is with us, and Congressman, it's good to see you. Thanks for coming on to talk to us today on Bloomberg.
Happy to speak as a former congressman. Absolutely, we're going to have some honest talk here, and what are your thoughts on number one, can Tom Emmer close this deal?
And two?
How long might it take? So I think, you know, even me being a former congressman, I think anybody who thinks they can predict Congress and what's going to happen, you know, might be smoking some wacky weed. But I will tell you this, I think out of everyone, Tom might have the best chance. It was promising to see somebody who voted to affirm the election and didn't vote to object to the electors. I think only two out of nine of those running. I think it was him
and Austin actually voted that way. I do think he can make it. He's going to have to make a lot of deals, and he's going to have to make sure that he's getting some phone call support from Tonald Trump in the background. So out of everyone, I think his chances are probably best. I'm still not that optimistic, to be honest with you. I give it a three out of ten that he can get through. That's the
best that I got. But again, if he can make the proper deals and he can actually convince Donald Trump to make some calls for him behind the door, he might have a chance to pull this out.
Three out of ten that's pretty tough. But Donald Trump, I wonder, may have already been helping him out right. We heard that there was reporting Matt Gates was making phone calls for Tom Emmer this morning. We know Emmer spoke with Trump over the weekend. Is it possible the form presidents turning over a new leaf, because all we were hearing was he was an never emmer because he voted to certify the election.
Yeah.
I think, you know, I think that people around Trump, I don't think they're the brightest sometimes. But the fact that it's been almost three weeks or I think we're close to three weeks. If I remember that there hasn't been a Speaker of the House. We have Israel, we have Ukraine, we still have the budget, or we have monies that we need to expend or we need to
appropriate for the continuing working functions of the government. It might be that they're reaching a reality that there has to be a speaker and right now, this buffoonery, this chaos is really hurting their chances for the upcoming election cycle. And if Trump doesn't look like that he has some kind of hold on what's happening and he's not seen the riding on the wall could hurt his presidential aspirations also.
So I think you get to the law of diminishing returns, and half the battle was showing up, So I think Tom showing up here at the end might actually serve to his benefit because there's desperation in the conference.
Fascinating.
I just wonder what impact Donald Trump has at all. I mean, he endorsed Jim Jordan, and boy, that didn't last very long, you know, and how much of the conference answers to him?
Yeah?
You know, though, here's the thing is, you know, Jordan's still got two hundred votes on that first. You know, Merry go round, even though you know a lot of those people were voting because of fear and really abject cowardice at times. I think because that's what happens, right, You're reacting to your district, you're reacting to polling, you're reacting to your local committees. But I do think he still has a lot of sway, and I believe I
read somewhere. I don't want to take credit for this, but it's true that Donald Trump might not be able to put you over the finish line, but he can certainly certainly bury your chances through rabble rousing. You know that that portion of Congress that's completely loyal to him, regardless of if it's right or wrong. So I think that's the issue that you have, is that you have to ride that tight rope of appealing to the election deniers,
which is absolutely grotesque. But I would even say that, but Tom has to So now he has to call Donald Trump, he has to do things that might go against some type of moral code in order to get to the point he needs to be where the Republicans can actually govern. I think that's the issue that you have is at what point, right, how far do you go in order to secure a position like that, especially when you're looking at what's happening in the global landscape right now.
You know, we understood that Tom Emmer had an uphill climb because there was some opposition within the Republican Conference to his support of a same sex marriage initiative. You were cast out in part of the Republican Conference for officiating a gay wedding. Is this actually an issue that Tom Emmer can maybe help to move the needle on inside the Republican Conference.
Yeah.
I think I saw Congressman Rick Allen come out against Tom ember because of his support of gay rights. I think that's absolutely shameful. And I know Rick Allen. I've also seen some of his text messages. You know, I was also the senior technical advisor for January sixth. So I don't know if he's the person you actually want to hang your hat on based on his belief systems,
which could be quite insane. But I do think that if Tom gets through this, it should signal that we're okay, right, we should have a party that's just small enough to fit in the bedroom. And I was cast out because of officiating a same sex wedding. I would hope that this actually furthers, you know, marriage equality and same sex rights, because I think the Republican Party should be about freedom of the individual and not this bizarre sort of Christian
nationalism tilt that they're having right now. So I think Tom being on that side is obviously the right side of history, and I would hope that that signals some kind of push forward for equality across the board. But I'm not trying to be pessimistic here, but looking at some of the individuals in the Republican Conference now and where they're slanted, I think that's still going to be
an uphill battle. But Tom being there based on his support for equal rights or for equality, I think is a very positive thing, and I don't think it really changes where the Republican Party has gone right now.
Sadly, well, where is the Republican Party going? Especially in the House. Uh, Congressman, you know more about this than most. We talk about the Five Families on the air on a regular basis. We certainly know the Crazy Eights, as I think Kevin McCarthy likes to refer to them. But even if Tom Emmer gets this done, he closes the deal while we're still talking. That's just the beginning of the hard part, right. I mean, my goodness, how do
you govern this conference? And will he suffer the same fate as Kevin McCarthy.
I feel like anybody who's speaker right now is is really the frog and the pot pulling water. Yeah, so it, you know, just slowly turns up the heat until they're done. They're just gone. And I think Tom making it a year would be a miracle if he were to even get through. You're you make such a valid point, really an intelligent point, is that what happens when you win, Uh, Tom is going to be the dog catching the car. So I think that's the issue that you have right now in the Republican conference.
Wow, we're looking at a gigantic pool of nose. In the words of Jake Sherman, who just posted on Twitter from punch Bowl, the roll call vote is over. Twenty six House Republicans said they would vote for someone else besides Tom Emmer when this goes to the floor. What does that tell you?
Yeah, it tells me. I think my three out of ten chances were correct. There we are, you know, I you know, again, these these individuals are going to vote. I've been there. They're looking for deals, but you also have true believers. And the issue that you have with the Republican Party and where they're going back to your original question there, and I apologize because I definitely want to answer it. Do you have individuals that aren't based
on any type of facts based policymaking. They really are relying on fantasy or they're really relying on the ignorance of their base the way that they're voting, and that the way that they're talking, even you know, with media and with press, you can't We're to a point in our history you can't have election deniers, people who actually rejected the electors based on a multitude of conspiracy theories that are so outlandish that a six year old wouldn't
believe them. But you have these individuals that are voting based on that mindset for things that really affect the United States of America on a global scene, but also domestically when it comes to actually moneies and expenditure of moneys and what happens to public services. So the Republican Party, I think needs to get back to facts base. But the fact that you just saw, or what Jake Sherman
put out there. I think you see people that are voting based on a base that's been radicalized and weaponized through disinformation. And I think it's going to be very difficult for the GOP to turn that around. And I think that's why you see the difficulty in getting a speaker, because the facts based and the truth based, anybody who has any real semblance of wanting to make policy based on data are being pushed aside by the fantasy based
individuals that are in the conference right now. And I think that's where the GOP is, and I think it's going to go that way for a while.
Speaking of where the GEOP is, you tweeted this morning ahead of all the rounds of voting, seven Republican candidates for speaker at that point we had seven for those who weren't following too closely, seven Republican candidates for speaker supported efforts to overturn the twenty twenty election. You write, many of those were my former colleagues in the House. My message to them, I saw the data from the January sixth Committee. The election was not stolen, denounced Trump
put people over party. Will Tom Emmer do that.
I think, you know, Tom was you know, one of those few yes in the conference that voted to a ferment. I hope that he can. But even with Tom, somebody who have known for a while and had real frank conversations with, I think it's going to be a very difficult battle for him. I think trying to actually rally a conference that doesn't want to be rallied, or that delights in this type of political you know, political crazy making and really is loyal to Trump over constituents and
what happens in this country. I don't know if Tom. I think Tom's going to have amazingly hard, uphill battle trying to, I would say, trying to join those factions together. I don't think, as you know, William Wallace, you know, in the movie Braveheart, you know, said to Robert the Bruce unite the clans. I don't think he's going to be able to do that. I think it's going to be very difficult. I think he is. If he wins, he is going to be the proverbial frog in the
water that's slowly being boiled. I think it's going to be very difficult for him to get through and it's going to take a master's class in politicking, But sadly that means making deals with people that frankly don't want to know the truth and would rather base their decision making on some kind of bizarre directling to the supernatural that they think they have. And I think that's the issue Tom's going to have.
Well you know that. I guess there's another frog in a whole different pot of water right now, Congressman, and that would be Patrick McHenry, who I know you've also worked with and boys the reluctant speaker in this case. I guess the question that everyone keeps asking this, you know where I'm going If Tom Emmer can't close the deal, if nobody gets to two seventeen in a couple of weeks here and we're looking at a shutdown, will Patrick
McHenry be empowered partially with the help of Democrats? I suspect to actually put a bill out fo.
Yeah, I mean Patrick, you know, when people came out very angry that they were even concerning about some kind of what they call the power sharing deal with the Democrats. You know, even Patrick, I think you know, laughed pretty ruefully when they talked about you know what's going to happen to you next? Are you going to be speaker when this is all over? You know, I've said that the two top people and people have heard me was mckenry and Emmer. I still hold it that. I think
they're the two best choices for the conference. I do believe there could be some kind of power broker in there are somebody who's been in Congress for a long time, like a Morgan Griffith and things like that, that might be able to have a chance as sort of a caretaker role until twenty twenty four. Which is sad to say, but I do believe that mckenry is still the dark horse in all of this. I really do. He's an effective legislator. He's a chairman of the Financial Services Committee.
I work with him behind the door. He's incredibly right, incredibly intelligent. You know, sometimes I wonder what he's thinking with some of the things that he's saying, you know, based on trying to ride that lightning with Trump also, which is a shame, because I think if you could get them off the leash and get them in private and get them away from Trump, I think they'd be very effective but again, we're in't a party that is really beholding the Trump at the end of the day.
And I still think that I think mckenry is maybe the best choice if Emmer doesn't get through. But again, you know there's the internal conflicts and battles in the conference where mckenry is going to have a tough time. I would say with a dozen to fifteen people that might be never Patrick also, And I think that's again, that's the issue you have, right You're seeing it today with Jake Sherman's reporting, and it's not like we haven't seen this performance for the last three weeks.
It's not a surprise, right, Denver Riggelman, What a great conversation. I'd like to stay in touch with you here on Bloomberg Radio as we figure out the path forward, and we'd love to get you back on as soon as we can. I'll meet you at the Silver Back Distill maybe next time. Maybe that's a deal, Congressman, think about it. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington. We assemble the panel next, Rick and Jenior on the way in. We have a nominee. This is Bloomberg.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound On podcast. Catch the program live weekdays at one Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, the tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
So think about all the dysfunction right now in the House of Representatives, the fact that we do not have a speaker and there still is no real path to get one, though we can't tell you if you're just showing up today. Republicans have a new nominee. Is Tom Emmer,
the majority whip. He did get the votes required to be called nominee, but he's one hundred short still of the two seventeen needed on the floor, and reportedly a poll inside the room in that conference meeting today show at least twenty six members are prepared to vote against him. So this really may not be the answer. So let me ask you, with that said a question, how would you like this Republican led House to choose the next president of the United States. That's what the group Third
Way is suggesting. We talked to Matt Bennett and Jim Castler from Third Way, a Democratic consultancy here in Washington, d C. That's been working overtime recently to keep a No Labels candidate out of the race for president. Let's reassemble our panel to talk more about this. Rick Davis
and Jeanie Shanzano, Bloomberg Politics contributors. There's new information out there that I'm sure you both read about earlier today that there is in fact a poll and a strategy inside the group No Labels that is far more precise than anything that we've heard of yet. Number One, they want to field a Republican at the top of the ticket. That's not terribly new, although there was a time we were talking about Joe Manchin and focus efforts on what
they call eight likely swing states. I'm not sure about all of them, but they will sound familiar. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. They're polling, says the only clear shot for a win for Joe Biden in those states would be Pennsylvania, and we could be in a world in which the election is tossed to the House. Gdi Shanzena. This is the stuff that keeps Democrats up at night.
How about you?
This is stunning on so many levels. You know, the idea that anybody looking at the House today thinks it's a good idea to add to that chaos the vote for the president of the United States. I mean, you talk about people losing trust in our government, losing trust and faith in the system. You add to that the idea that the twenty twenty four election is resolved not at the ballot box directly or indirectly with the Elletoral College, but in the House of Representatives. Wow. I mean, gosh,
George Santos is still in the House of Representatives. Arguably he wouldn't have you know that as much sway in a New York situation, but you know, this is who we're going to have choose the president. I don't think so. It's stunning. Democrats are very, very frustrated by this, given the chaos going going on. They should get behind the leading candidate, the incumbent, Joe Biden, and move forward. And
that's how Democrats feel. But the reality is the poll show he has a lot of weaknesses, and this is where this is coming from.
Do you agree with Third Ways view? On this rick that a third party no labels candidate would in fact not only make this difficult for Joe Biden to win the presidency, but might even kick it to the House of Representatives. Or is that an extreme view.
That's a pretty extreme view. I mean, but I think it's about the point they're trying to make, which is how disruptive to the sort of political system, the normal two party system that a that are no labels would make if they spent eighty million dollars on a campaign for somebody who didn't have to go through any kind of nomination process. You know, let's say it's Larry Hogan. I mean they I think no label thinks, oh, we're gonna put a Republican and that will calm everybody down,
like we're trying to get Donald Trump elected. The reality is Larry Hogan is going to attract independent voters. The president of the United States, Joe Biden has to have independent voters vote for him if he's going to beat
Donald Trump. We've seen in the Bloomberg polling in these same eighth you know, seven states that that without these independent voters who are moving around and are kind of grumpy voters, right now that that Donald Trump will win because grumpy goes grumpy, right, and if they if Joe Biden can make them less grumpy, they'll vote for him. But that's how he'll win. He cannot win on his
base alone. And so if you try to actually appeal to independent voters, you will one now I get any electoral votes and to throw the election to Donald Trump. I think the polling screams that out. And the reality is that that Ross pro got nineteen percent of the vote in twenty nineteen, nineteen ninety two and did not
get one single electoral vote. So how are they going to do that with thinking that they could get less votes than he did and somehow win up electoral votes to throw it to the House of Representatives.
Yeah, you know, it's two weeks ago today. Jeanie Larry Hogan himself was here at Bloomberg in Washington. It was asked about this but whether he would still consider a run for president, just maybe not in the Republican primary. Here's what he said.
If the country is in that bad of shape next spring, and those are the two nominees and it looks like there's a path, I would have no interest in being a spoiler. I don't want to run a race to nibble around the edges. If I thought there was a path to success to win the race and I just said, I wouldn't shut the door. However, I can say or I'm still trying to figure that out. But I'm not walking away and I'm not willing to give up.
I'm getting a little bit confused, though, Genie. If this is not an actual national candidacy that they have in mind, and we've been told that no labels would run a candidate after Super Tuesday, If in fact Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the two nominees, and it's sure looking like it, how do you not be a spoiler if you're only going after these eight states?
Yeah, I mean, you know, they would be labeled they would be a spoiler. You know. I think it's important to say why this is happening, and the reason it's happening is because the Democrats and Republicans are putting up candidates that seven out of ten Americans say clearly they do not want to be on the top of their tickets.
People are very disenchanted by both of these candidates. Now for Democrats, you know, it's the lesser of two evils is Joe Biden, and I'm sure vice versa for some Republicans, although not moderates, would be Donald Trump. But these are two very unpopular candidates and it is a real shame because it is sort of a race to the bottom at this point, and any of these third party candidates
are going to be spoilers. To Rick's point, it is really difficult to imagine them getting less of a percentage of the vote and more electoral votes than ros Piro got, which was a big, fat zero. So the reality is you'd be better off working within the system, within the party structure to get better candidates on the top of
the ballot. And if that can't happen, and it is getting late early now, we are stuck with these candidates, and so it is going to be a real issue in which Joe Biden is going to be making the case that I am old, but I'm still up to the job. And this guy is crazy. And now the fourth attorney today who represented him is pleading guilty in Georgia, and this is your choice, America. No, by the way, he was you know, he has been found guilty of
rape New York. This is going to be the race we're looking at.
I want to go back to bed Rick Davis, Genie Shanzano. This is Bloomberg.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound On podcast. Catch us live weekdays at one Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app and the Bloomberg Business App, or listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts.
House Republicans choose another nominee, Tom Emmer, the majority whip, gets his turn. The question is can he get the votes on the floor and when will that floor vote happen.
Welcome to our two of Sound On. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington, joined by Kayley Lines and a conversation ahead with Congressman Sean Caston, the Democrat from Illinois, will bring us his view from the other side of the isle and a House that is not functioning and we're not sure exactly when it's going to get back to business.
We'll talk shut down politics and some other matters with Nathan Dean Washington and senior analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence will be with us, and we've got news on the strike, the UA Doubed strike. David Welch will join Bloomberg's Detroit bureau chief, Kaylee, It's great to see you. As we get into hour two here, we had breaking news in
the first hour. Tom Emmer is the man of the hour, but as we learned last hour twenty six House Republicans will not vote for him, So this is over as soon as it begins.
Well, he's going to do the work right trying to get some of those votes to flip, just as Jim Jordan did and Steve Scalice did before that they were unsuccessful in trying to get to that magic number to get the gavel. And it just becomes a question now of if all of this effort is going to be behind closed doors, if this will be sorted out or Tom Emmer will try to sort it out before actually bringing it to the House floor.
And apparently this could go on for a long time over inside that ways and means committee room. Although now I'm seeing punch bowl reporting. Jake Sherman says, House GOP on break until four pm. So I guess we get a little launch, a little bit of air.
Take a breather, collect your thoughts.
Yeah, I mean this is really something. Kevin McCarthy back to Tom Emmer. To your point, though Kevin McCarthy couldn't get or keep the job, Steve Scalice couldn't get the votes, we know Jim Jordan couldn't. McCarthy says, this is different. Here's what he said earlier as Republicans prepared to go into the vote.
Having been the whip getting the tough votes when passing HR one, making America Energy Independent, parents Bill of Rights, getting the debt ceiling. So he knows the conference well.
Knows the conference well, does the conference know him well? We're hearing oppo research now floating around about DUI's people are talking about his support for same sex marriage, and there are questions about whether that's coming from, as Rick Davis put it, Trump inc.
Well, this is the real question. Is the perceived leader of the Republican Party is Donald Trump? And if he and Emmer don't have a good relationship, or if he would not like to see Emmer have the gavel, does he still have the sway within the Republican Party to keep it from him. I think that's a question we're all asking at this summer.
And the role that Republicans might play with Democrats. I know that this is not always the most popular. But you saw Dean Phillips tweet I did earlier on the dysfunction on the House, a national and global security issue. He writes, I would sit out the speaker vote if Tom Emmer will fund our government at negotiated levels, bring Ukraine and Israel aid bills to the floor, commit to rules changes that make Congress work for the people. I'm not sure what the rules changes would be, if that's
a motion to vacate or something different. But this is important, and I wonder how Sean Caston feels about him.
I do as well.
Should we ask him?
Yeah, Congressman Shawn cast and the Democrat from Illinois sixth District with us from the marble rotunda at the Cannon House Office Building. Congressman, thanks for being here. Would you follow along with this idea of maybe helping Tom Emmer become speaker if those points were met?
Well, look, the first point, Dean Phillips is a good friend. The people send us here to vote. They didn't send us here to walk off the floor. So I think we have to show with our vote, not we have to show what we stand for and what we stand against. I think the issue that Dean Rays is a good issue that if you look at the people want us here to be working, which means that the House has
to have a speaker. The people want us here to fund the government, which means that we have to not only pass a continuing resolution, but pass a full government funding package, as we did in June when we in the debt ceiling bill. The people want us here, you know. And frankly, whether they want us or not, we have to give aid to Ukraine to protect ourself from Russian aggression. We have to make sure that Israel gets said, we have to make sure that the communitarian assistance gets to Gaza.
Everything that I just described has We've had tests. This session has passed on the floor with three hundred and ten to three hundred and fifteen votes, overwhelming almost all the Democrats, I think, every Democrat and all those bills and a minority of Republicans. And so I think the channel we have now is will the Republican Party decide to do what the people want and work with Democrats or will the Republican Party continue just to fight with themselves.
And that's really hard. I know, if they're willing to do that, Yes, we are here to do the people's work, but they have to be willing to actually to commit some to some things that have become, you know, anathema within their own caucus.
Well, Congressman, when you say work with Democrats, I wonder what that looks like to you if that's a handful of Republicans deciding to vote for Hawking Jeffreys, or if that's a handful of Democrats deciding, given everything you just said, that you're here to vote and there's important work to do that some Democrats decide to vote for Tom Ever, so that someone has a speaker in the House can operate.
I think if we make this a personal issue, we're misunderstanding what it We're here ten years from now. Ten years ago, no one knew who Tom Emmer was, No one knew who Shan Catherton was, No onek who Dean Phillips was. We are going to be remembered ten years from now by did we do what we were sent here today? Did we respect this place that we were And for us to do that, it's about not not who, but will we have a commitment to someone who will
do all those things I just mentioned. Hakim Jeffries has been very clear that he'll do all that there is it's hard to find someone in the Republican caucus who has been clear that they will do that, because they're they're either they either oppose it, you know, opposed aid to Ukraine. They have they voted for a thirty percent cut in funding to Israel just a few weeks ago, or maybe they support it, but they're afraid to say
that to their caucus. And that's and that's really hard. Again, it's not about the individual, it's will you support someone who represents your values on the floor and the values that the American people haven't sent us here to carry out.
So how's this going to work? Then, Congressman, are you waiting for word from your leader, from Hakim Jeffreys on the way Democrats will handle this to either vote to support someone like Tom Emmer or stay away to lower the threshold. Well, there'll be a big Democratic family meeting around this on how to move forward.
Well, look, we all we all honor our own values as in our own impulses. I've been very clear, I'm not going to support anybody who voted to overturn the last election. And I have a real problem with Tom Emmer for asking the Supreme Court to overturn the last election. He did vote correctly on the floor, But to me, you know, giving democratic power to someone who voted to overthrow our democracy as a bridge too far, that's me personally.
And so that means none of these candidates, well, none of these guys at the moment would make the.
Great No there are, but there are people in the Republican caucus who would, you know. I think that one of the comments that really struck with me was Garrett Graves, a friend of mine across the Aisle, said a week or two ago that he thinks the Republicans are going to have to hit rock bottom before they are willing to reach across the isle and work with Democrats. And you know, someone asked me recently what does that mean? And I said, you know, I thought we were already there.
But maybe that means they have to, you know, nominate Speaker Santos. I don't know, but we're left speculating what is their definition of the bottom before we're actually going to agree to work together.
You may have just put your finger on it.
What do you think? Killy?
Well, and I just wonder if rock bottom means November seventeenth, then there's no funding of the government and it's shutting down because that would literally just seek government.
Which is a disaster time, you know. And also keep in mind, the only reason why we got to this point is because back in June we were going to default on our debt. We should have just passed a clean debt sealing bill that massive disruption to financial markets, you know, shouldn't have to happen. But the Republicans insisted on tying that debt limit bill to a spending bill, and we then passed a spending bill that locked in current levels back in June again with three eleven votes.
So we know there are the votes on the floor to do that. But the question is, is there any Republican running for speaker who would commit to honoring the agreement that McCarthy made with the President, with Schumer, with Mitch McConnell, and then to bringing that bill to the floor. We didn't have to get to this ways.
Yeah, in congressman, I feel like this comes full circle to what Representative Phillips was alluding to, agreeing to abide by what was negotiated along with bringing Israel and Ukraine A to the floor and a number of other measures.
So as we think about the path forward here while we wait to see if Tom Emmery even feels confident in going to the floor, how long are you and the rest of your caucus prepared to wait this out before it's actually time for perhaps Democrats to say, all right, let's empower Patrick McHenry.
Ultimately, the majority decides what comes to the floor. We've you know, we've had lots of conversations with friends across the aisle, quiet constructive conversations. There are a block of Republicans who are talking seriously about bringing that proposal forward to empower McHenry, And you know, I think a temporary empowering of mister McHenry, you know, in some fashion that made sure that we at least did those bare minimum things.
I think there's probably a path for that, you know, subject to seeing what the details are to go and get it through. But ultimately we need a real speaker. We need the Party of Lincoln to be as committed to governance and decency and equality under the law and democracy and the peaceful transfer of power as the Democratic
Party is. Those things shouldn't be partisan, and we need to see how they get through that to do not just the temporary empowering of mister mcenry, if indeed they choose to do that, but committee to making government work. And you know, we'll stay here. They know how to reach us. Our doors are open. We'll continue to have those conversations, but we can't fix their caucus. They have to figure out how to do that on their own.
Well, you sound open minded a congressman to a couple of different possible scenarios. I wonder, though, if you think that this conversation we're having here, the lack of direction in the House, makes a government shut down more likely on November seventeenth.
I think we all are afraid of that possibility. You know, we knew when you know, when we passed the temporary cr just back on September thirtieth, that November seventeenth was not that far away. And you know that the House Republicans are still to this date not even brought the full slate of funding bills together. The ones that they
have passed have no chance in the Senate. I would remind you that in the last term, when the Democrats had the same majority, we brought all of our spending bills to the floor by the end of July so that we could work with the Senate and get it done. Many of those spending bills were passed on a bipartisan basis, and none of this happened. And so there's there's really no excuse for saying we have a small majority, we
didn't have time. It's really a question of do you have do you have a governing majority and the Republican Caucus who's willing to bring this forward? And the fear I have an answer to your question of will we have a shut done by November seventeenth, is that not only do I not know if we have a governing majority in the Republican Caucus, but I don't know even though who was in the leadership with the Republican Caucus right now, who could drive that drive that sled forwards.
Yeah, well that's a question we're all looking for the answer to, Congressman, as there is a very real vacuum for the time being. And of course it isn't just a question of passing those appropriations bills, trying to keep the government funded, but also dealing with a more than one hundred billion dollars supplemental funding request from the White House,
you've talked about Ukraine and Israel aid. Do you think there is risk though, in trying to bundle all of those together, given there are members of the House, and a decent number of them who wouldn't like to see any more funding going to Ukraine. Should these be addressed separately?
I don't know that we have. I don't know that we have any other alternatives. You know, if we had infinite calendar time, maybe we debate all these bills separately. But we have spent ninety four percent of the money that has already been authorized for Ukraine has been spent. If anyone in this Chamber thinks that they would like to see Russia get a free pass to take over country, is that they don't like that, they are comfortable with
the message that that sends to China. I'd like them to stand up and say that I cannot believe that it is partisan to actually stand up to Russia. That the Party of Ronald Reagan, my goodness, is more willing to do the bidding of Ladimir Putin. But we have to get that done. We have to provide aid to Israel. There's no question. Given the horrific attacks on October seventh,
that we have to provide that. And we also, and I say this as someone who represents the largest Palestinian community in Illinois, we have got to make sure that we provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza because the vast majority of the people who live in Gaza are not members of Hamas, are not terrorists, are caught up in this
horrible tragedy. And if we look at those things, the tragedy in Israel, the tragedy and gods of the tragedy in Ukraine, and say, you know what we should prioritize here is whether a couple Republicans prefer the interests of Putin or terrorist financing over the interests of those folks like we don't deserve to call ourselves Americans, much less members of Congress. If that's actually what we want.
To lie for.
Well, Congressman, let's address that terror's financing point a bit more, because you were one of the signatories on a letter that was signed by more than one hundred members of both the House and the Senate to Treasury and Jake Sullivan talking about HAMAS and the financing of terrorist organizations through crypto. What exactly is it that you would like to see done here, knowing that a lot of terrorism and other illicted activity is financed with US dollars.
Well, first off, and I know you guys probably can't say this, but I want to give a huge shout out to Bloomberg reporter zek Fox, who's I think written one of the best books out there on understanding the crypto ecosystem. So I would give a book recommendation here for his book. Number go up.
He's we passed that alone, please do.
The issue that we have is that based on State Department reporting, and this was the State Department in the last administration under Mike Pompeo, they reported that Iran had provided HAMAS with roughly one hundred million dollars in funding. Now, I think we can zoom given Mike Pompeo's sort of maximum pressure campaign on Iran, that he was unlikely to understate that number. Maybe he overstated it, but let's give him the bend of the doubt and say one hundred
million dollars. Multiple sources Wall Street General Reuters have reported that HAMASA has received potentially as much as one hundred and thirty five million in addition to that through cryptographic networks and taken advantage of the fact that these cryptosystems are basically designed to prevent you from seeing where the money comes from, and that is a huge problem. We've been in touch with the White House, We've been in
touch with Treasury. We're going to get a classified briefing on this later this week, but we are If we are calling out, as we should, Iran's role in financing terrorism around the world, we should be calling out the crypto industry even louder because they appear to be a larger source of this funding. And I do want to point out that letter that we sent, which as he pointed out, had over one hundred members, was bipartisan in the Senate. Lindsey Graham, Roger Marshall We're both on it,
and Gus Kane as an independent, was on it. In the House, it was strictly Democratic support on that in spite of us reaching out. And a big part of that reason is because Tom Emmer, who we were mentioning before, actually introduced and passed a bill through the Financial Services Committee to prevent our financial regulators from going after money
transfers if they are done in cryptographic networks. Warren Davidson has passed a similar bill to make it easier to traffic money through cryptographic networks, and Patrick McHenry, Speaker pro tem chair of the Financial Services Committee, has also supported that.
And so.
We've had a real problem getting Republican support in the House for something that seems really easy. Let's not use financial networks to send money to terrorists, and I'm proud that we got one hundred members on that. I think the White House has a lot of tools at their disposal. I am eager to hear from them later this week on what tools they are using, not just at the Treasury, but also in our international partners as well, who all have a role to play.
It's good to see you, Congressman. Thanks for spending some time with us today. Congressman Sean Caston, Democrat from Illinois with US Live from Capitol Hill and Kaylie, We've got a good sense now of what's happening in Donald Trump's mind today with this Tom Emmer Yeah nomination.
To vote for it new post on true Social I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House. Some of them are truly great warriors, Rhino Tom Emmer, who I do not know well is not one of them. Voting for a globalist rhino like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake.
Globalist rhino. So who is Matt Gates calling today? I'm getting confused. Thanks for listening to the Sound On podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. And you can find us live every weekday from Washington, DC at one pm Eastern Time at bloombird dot com