hostages -- the people iran was keeping back? do you believe that was -- >> i can tell you that bringing americans home safely will be one of my highest priorities if i'm in israel and there are now americans being held hostage in gaza. and i don't know what it will take to do that, but i'll wake up every day asking what can i do to bring americans home safely. >> so you do believe it was appropriate to pay iran to get them back? mr. lew: i'm not deeply enough familiar with it, i wasn't in government when the decision was made, i don't know the tradeoffs. i do know the passion that goes behind bringing americans home safely. >> thank you, mr. chairman. appreciate your. >> senator murphy. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i for one am glad we have a president who cares about bringing those hostages home. one of those individuals was a contract resident with a lot of family in my home state, their life is changed knowing he's back home. >> we're going to leave the

hearing, you can watch it online at c-span.org, as we take you live to the house gaveling back in. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? mr. hill: mr. speaker, i do now move the house adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly the house stands adjourned until noon tomorrow. >> with that, the house has gone out of session for the day. back tomorrow at noon for potentially another speaker vote. two votes have been held with jim jordan as the republican nominee. 20 dissenters in the first vote. 22 in the second vote. according to paul kaine of "the washington post," jordan set a

modern record, lowest vote tally for majority's nominee to be speaker, just 199 republicans voted for him on the second ballot. no majority nominee has received less than 200 votes in a really long time. mccarthy's lowest tally was 200 a couple of times in january. so we're looking for potentially a another speaker vote tomorrow. in the meantime, we want to hear your voices. 202-748-8921 for republicans. 02-748-8920 for democrats. 202-48-8922 for all -- 202-748-8922 for all others. we want to get your reaction to the election process when it comes to getting the speaker. 22 republicans voted against jim jordan or did not vote for jim

jordan. steve scalise got five of those votes. a couple of those votes, vern buchanan and john james voted for jim jordan the first time. don bacon and ken buck, again consistent in votes not for jim jordan. after today's vote, chip roy, republican of texas, caught up with reporters on the capitol steps. here's what he had to say about the process. >> he's at 199, kevin was dunn to 200 at the low point of his voting in the 15 votes. i'm sticking with jordan through the process. the number is not dramatically

different. with the four lost, two gained, plus one who came back. >> jordan said earlier he asked leadership to go ahead and put the resolution on the floor to keep mchenry in power because he wants to see where people are. what do you think -- mr. roy: i think what jim is doing is calling a bluff of people saying they're going to deal with democrats. good luck explaining that back home, that you're cutting a deal with the democrats. never in the history of this institution, to the best of my knowledge, have we ever appointed a speaker pro tem with ethis full pows of the speakership without a duly elected speaker. we have not done that. to do that would be playing games with such an important position, third in line to the presidency. we should do our job and select a speaker. the constitution says that. so any move to do otherwise is

contrary to the constitution and would do enormous damage to not just the republican party but the house of representatives. and i violently oppose any effort to do that on the floor of the house. reporter: do you think there'd be a legal challenge to it? mr. roy: i believe it's constitutionally -- not just questionable but directly contrary to the constitution in se, we shall choose a speaker. and to appoint somebody without having chose and speaker makes no sense. we need to take a step back, do our job. reporter: how many rounds are you willing to go with jordan? mr. roy: however long it takes. reporter: do you think people not supporting him will be willing to budge? mr. roy: every one of us has a vet, you have to answer to your constituents for your vote. if my the clerk will designate the amendments are comfortable with their vote. >> you told us you want to hear people about why they're against him. mr. roy: i've had many conversations with my

colleagues. but again they got to explain what the motivations are here. i think, you know, motivations of, you know, whatever, past recriminations, issues looking backwards, i don't think that sells well. the question is how do we go forward? mr. jordan is receiving the vast majority of the republican votes. basically around the same that kevin was getting at the low point of his numbers. 198 -- 199 compared to 200. reporter: what do you do if holdouts are unwilling to change? mr. roy: we keep moving forward. reporter: what do you make of appropriators not voting for him? mr. roy: i can tell you there's a lot of support for jim jordan in texas, i wouldn't want to be on the other side of that knowing the votes for the texas. it is not lost on me knowing that appropriators and essentially house armed services committee folks are the most skeptical at the moment. we're trying to change the status quo, stop spending money we don't have, stop engaging in

endless conflicts we this money we don't have. reporter: when you talk about -- host: that was from earlier today. one of the issues that chip roy brought up was whether or not patrick mchenry as speaker pro tem should be given additional powers. he said no. representative scott perry, a republican of pennsylvania, agreed with him. a vote to further empower a temporary speaker is a vote to keep you broke and washington broken. i told you no matter what, i won't vote for the status quo and i'm keeping my word. as it says on the bottom of your screen, no speaker was elected today, the next vote is expected tomorrow at noon. we presume that jim jordan will be nominated again. hakeem jeffries who has consistently gotten 212 votes, during the kevin mccarthy drama in january and now during the jim jordan two votes, he's gotten all of his caucus.

salvador, bristol, connecticut, democrat, what do you think about the speaker election? caller: i think it stinks. i really do. i'm disappointed. and i do not want this temporary speaker to get more power and being in line with the democrats. we've got these 20 republican, probably more than 20, that only care about enriching themselves and they done give a damn about the public. they don't listen to their citizens. we are in a tremendous amount of debt. they're spending money like it's, you know, we're talking trillions now, not billion, but trillions. host: do you think these 20, 22 republicans should vote for jim jordan? caller: i think they should. i think they should unite. just like the democrats unite all the time. you know, you see the democrat they never break they always unite. host: thank you, sir if calling in.

deerfield beach, florida, on the republican line. caller: in the spirit of partisanship, i think it would be wonderful if a number of republicans, i think we're talking seven or eight, could vote for jeffries. and then you'd have a real bipartisan house of representatives with the republicans in control because of their numbers. but the problem solved with a democrat as leader. host: kelly, fox news, speaker pro tem mchenry says he hasn't spoken to leader jeffries at all. asked if he's talked to democrats at all about expanding his powers as speaker pro tem, he said, look, i've got a lot of friends around here.

and you know the last two weeks have been quite busy and complicated. next call, john in wood stock, georgia. hi. caller: hi. i think this speaker contention needs to be put into a historical basis. in, i believe it was the late 18 50's, there was -- it took five months to get a speaker. and that spoke to the division in the country at the time. we come forward in history and in 19 -- i believe it was 199, the dems lost control of the house for the first time in 40 years. they were very bitter aboutthat and the process has gotten worse

since. the division between the democrats and the republicans, as we all have witnessed, has just continued to go on and on and on. and get -- gotten worse by the personal things they say. and as we come forward to the present time, this contention over the speaker is a result of all these divisions. in the country. and i don't think -- i don't think it is well for the country that we are so deeply divided. host: on, let's play devil's advocate here. all the democrats are united. 212 of them. the republicans, there are 221 in the house. 20 to 22, 10%, are not voting for their candidate for speaker. is this a republican issue? or a national issue? caller: i believe it's a

national issue. it's easy for the democrats to be together. because the republicans are trying to pick a speaker. now, if the role was reversed and you had the republicans in the situation that the democrats are in, they'd do the same thing. they would vote solidly behind whoever they had put up. what you've got is a real, real solid division between roughly 50% of the population and -- voting population and 50% of the other population. and the only situation we've ever had that was that divided in our history goes back to the late 18 50's, preceding the civil war. host: thank you, sir, for calling in. do lohrs rein yorktown, virginia, republican line, did i get your name right?

caller: um, hi, i'm not opposed to a little bit of a speaker fight on the floor. i don't really like how they keep going off the floor and -- i would rather see it all out in the open. but my frustration with the holdouts on this is that they'ry articulating what their opposition points are. what we saw in january were well-articulated rules changes and some other sort of logical and understandable points to restore, you know, regular order to the floor. so what i'm frustrated with watching is, i'm not seeing any real argument being put forward against jordan versus just voting him down so those are my points. host: do you think jim jordan could be an effective speak her

caller: i think he could. obviously there are a lot of people who are supporting him. you see mchenry and mccarthy, you see the leadership of the house armed services committee, rogers and wittman supporting him. so i think that there are powerful people within the caucus who should be persuasive to some of the people holding out. you know, i see kiggans locally objecting because of military fund bug that doesn't make sense when you have the leadership of the armed services committee supporting him. i don't find the reasonings to be logically -- you know, something he could modify to garner support. host: final question to you, is there a trump factor in your view in this election? caller: in what election? host: in the speaker's election

on the republican side? caller: i mean, i don't think so. you're sitting here trying to gather support of a caucus. trump is not on the ballot. host: thank you for calling. in appreciate it. chad pegrim of fox news. don bacon said i support giving patrick mchenry, the speaker pro tem, more responsible. so that might be an issue that you hear about in the next 24 hours before the next house session at noon tomorrow. mike in texas, republican line, you're on c-span. caller: how are you doing? i've got a few things to say. one thing is, republican party need to get their act together. they should all stick together like the dems. as far as jim jordan is concerned, he's a very strong person and he commits and he does what he says he's going to do. that's been seen already.

as far as these vote that are going on, those 20 republicans, they want their special interest taken care of and to me it's like a pity party they don't get their way, they don't vote. they're not like the democrats that stick together and i believe any republican votes democrat they should be ousted. simple as that. host: reporter jake sherman reporting that house republicans do not expect a conference meeting tonight. joe, down in jackson, mississippi, democrats line. joe, what do you think about what's happening up here in washington? host: well, you know, i think it's -- it's just bipartisanship gridlock. they need to handle the people's business. the gentleman there was talking about the democrats are sticking together. i don't understand why the republicans are not. you know, since they have the majority. they should come together.

because we need a speaker of the house and the american people voted the republicans in the majority and they're not coming together. seems to me like the democrats are doing a better job of sticking together and sticking to the subject. host: thank you, sir. got your point. let's hear from jennifer in connecticut on our independent line. jennifer, good afternoon. caller: how are you doing? my name is paulette, i got my girl here, we voted for trump. >> trump 2024. host: we got the point. thank you. we're talking about the speaker's election. mike in ohio, democrat. i know i mispronounced your city, i apologize. i drive through that city twice a year. sorry about that.

caller: that's all right, it's boo-siris. weir in ohio and so i'm real familiar with jim jordan. host: he's your representative isn't he? caller: yeah at one time. i think it's changed here this last cycle but i'm not sure. he was at one time. he hasn't introduced any legislation he hasn't sponsored any legislation. all he does is -- he started that freedom independent caucus or whatever it is. and you know, their whole purpose is to just attack democrats and get -- and joe biden. so he really doesn't do anything. i if there are moderate republicans who want to get unity together with the democrat they got to electody other than, you know, jim jordan or boebert or greene or any of those, you know, for a-right individuals. they've got to come over to the

center and i think work with the democrats or nothing is going to go. it's just going to be gridlock. host: 90% of the g.o.p. caucus supports jim jordan he gets elected overwhelmingly every two years in his district are. you saying something larger about the republican party in this sense? caller: well, what i'm saying -- the reason jordan gets elected overwhelmingly is because of the redistricting. i can't remember the word for it. yeah, thank you. you know, it's because his district is so gerrymandered. totally republican area that's why he gets re-elected all the time. but he doesn't do anything. i mean name me one bill that he's sponsored or wrote. host: let's go back to the 90% of the caucus supporting him. caller: supporting jordan?

host: supporting jim jordan for speaker. caller: well, i mean, i think -- that part of the caucus is made up more of more right-wing individuals than it is moderates. i mean i'm not sure of that. but the only thing i can think of is why hay get the majority would support him is because he is a dog. i mean he's like a pit bull. when things are happening in congress that the republicans wan passed, he goes right on about it. i think that's one reason. host: all right, mike. thank you very calling in. jim in somerset, p-a. nonaffiliated voter, he says. i'm quite sure there are 10 or 15 republicans willing to vote for hakeem jeffries on doing t work for the american voters

from ukrai, israel, border legiation, to an honest spending bget and full funding for defense infrastructure, inflation brought back to full amounts. that's jim in somerset, p-a's view. pete for the conway, new hampshire. the vitriol on both sides of the aisle, in both houses of congress is mirrored by your callers. it represents their constituents. we have seen the enemy and he is us. two more text messages we want to show you. steve in tucson, for anyone especially a republican to tray to blame the democrats for the chaos in the house is beyond absurd. and finally, jamie in maine. the media is responsible for this divided country. they've been telling us we're divided for over four years at a time when we were not divided. but tell a lie long enough and it becomes true. i support jordan, jamie says, because he's for lower taxes, smaller government and less

spending. let's hear from martha in hattiesburg, mississippi. republican line. you with us? please go ahead. caller: yes. i think mccarthy broke his promises and when he did he got called on it and got removed from the speaker's job and i think the main ones that are blocking jordan are the so-called cardinals of the house and the majority of them serve on the appropriations and armed services committee. and they want things to stay the way that they are and basically have an omnibus bill. and as far as the joyce resolution goes, that's basically where mchenry is going to be a puppet for mccarthy to stay in power, making back room deals with the democrats. all the american people are concerned about is the economy, and the open border, and that's not their priority.

host: thank you, ma'am, for calling in. mike gallagher is a republican from wisconsin, a supporter of jim jordan and he is chair of the select committee on china. he spoke about what he perceived on the dangers of not having a speaker. mr. gallagher: aye always said, i said it when i nominated mccarthy a year ago or whenever it was, that the messiness of this institution is a feature, not a bug. i do think in a big tent party like the republican party it's healthy to have disagreements. but there's a point at which like the disagreements becomes dysfunction and paralysis. we're going to reach that point if we continue this much longer. i intend to follow the rule, which is whoever gets the majority in caucus, we should support him on the floor. i don't know who that person is reporter: do you think after losing this second round, jordan will drop out? mr. gallagher: i have no idea. that's jim's call. i think jim needs to make -- i

think it would be wise for jim to figure out thousand make progress toward reducing the number of no votes. jim cares about the institution. if it looks like it's going toe wrong way, i don't think he should prolong it for no reason. i haven't talked to him. i don't know. >> do you think there's anything behind the idea of a bipartisan speaker? jim jordan has been warning against a coalition sort of government situation here. do you think -- mr. gallagher: my sense is the democrats view the power the speaker pro tem has as that but would be more reluctant to actually vote for a republican even one they viewed as reasonable and inoffensive. or even, they'd be more likely to vote for the pro tem empowerment than vote present to allow us to solve our math problem. again that's just my sense. it's not like hakeem jeffries

calls me and reveals his thinking. but -- so i think a coalition government, i don't know how many democratic votes there would be for that or what the price of that would be. i think everyone agrees on what needs to happen. on the compromises that need to happen on funding, israel, broader munitions industrial base. i think there's an obvious bipartisan compromise going forward on ukraine and border security. it's going to be messy. it's going to be hard. but i think there's a center of gravity in congress that can figure it out. but i don't know. i think it's premature right now. reporter: would you support a mccarthy comeback? mr. gallagher: sure if mccarthy wants to do it. as of now he's proven he has the most votes in caucus. i don't know if he'd want to do that. reporter: did he already evacuate his office?

>> the gym is shut dunn. >> why? mr. gallagher: there was a leak or something. reporter: jim jordan loves the gym here. mr. gallagher: i'm sure that'll be his top priority when he comes across 217. you got that prediction? you think it's increasingly likely. reporter: i don't like to take bets. >> there's a lot of unprecedented things happen, not a good sign.

host: that was republican mike gallagher of wisconsin talking after the vote today. where jim jordan received 199 votes. hakeem jeffries received 212. and others including steve scalise and kevin mccarthy and a few others, john boehner, got a smattering of the 22 republicans who did not vote for jim jordan. well, three of those 22 votes were new yorkers. so-called moderate new york congressmen. they were congressmen december po see toe, lawler and la low tasm none of the three voted for jim jordan. bloomberg vernment is reporting that speaker candidate jim joan told moderate new york holdouts that he would support doubling the state and local tax deduction cap to $20,000. that's according to representative mike garcia,

republican of texas, a jim jordan supporter. back to your calls. nathan in columbus, ohio. good afternoon, nathan. caller: good afternoon. i wanted to call to make a point about jim jordan that i think is underappreciated. and that is that jim jordan is known -- best known at ohio state university for his role in covering up a sex scandal in the 1980's. i think that alone wholly disqualifies him from congress. in addition to his actual conduct in office. and i just think that is underappreciated. i also wanted to comment on your point about those new york moderates, i think it's going to be a big problem for the republicans, for any republican candidate, trying to get enough votes to become speaker, because they're going to have people who are in districts that voted for joe biden, like mike lawler who can't vote for someone like jim jordan because he's too toxic to

their brand and their district. i think jim jordan -- i think he's wholly disqualified himself and i think he's in a tough jam even if he hadn't done that. host: are you a student at o.s.u.? caller: i am. i also wanted to say about the sex abuse scandal regarding those wrestlers, i do not know any of those presle -- wrestlers from the 1980's personally but i know people who know them. i think in all this political stuff we often forget that, i mean, these are real people. who still have not forgiven what, you know, still have not forgiven jim jordan for what he did. host: is it fair to say what he did or what he may have known? caller: yeah, i should spebs if i, he was never directly accused of physically abusing he covered up. host: wasn't there an investigation that cleared him?

caller: yes, i do not believe th -it is my understanding that while the investigati cleared him officially, i e that morally i think he's still culpabl host: what are you studying at o.s.u.? caller: political science. host: thanks for calling in. we appreciate it. susan in south dakota. democrats line. susan, you're on c-span. caller: thank you so much. i am just flabbergasted that we're not focused more on the big picture here instead of talking about bipartisanship and part of my thing of course was jordan's background at ohio. the coverup. nathan covered that pretty thoroughly. but i think sex abuse, the coverup of it, what's acceptable, goes back to trump

and jordan is with trump. we can't allow him to be the speaker. it's just not possible. we was in contact and fully supportive of the insurrection which occurred at our capitol which is disgracele. we must not forget what happened there our world is in crisis. this is not just about the united states. that representative, whoever he was that was just on, is an example of how they have no idea. it's just -- i don't want to us. should mccarthy be speaker again? sure. should jordan be speaker? yes. it's ridiculous we cannot support any of these people that support and are in regular communication with trump. this country is torn apart because ofthis. you know, trump obviously didn't

create everybody to be like this. but he allowed the prejudice, the violence, the division, and now, like i said, the whole world. god bless ukraine. let's not forget ukraine. host: susan, tell you what susan in south dakota, we appreciate your views. denise in polk, pennsylvania. republicans. caller: yesm i don't mind, we need a speaker. it doesn't matter if it's republican or democrat. but we need a speaker. now. we have nobody that -- we have nobody defending us at the border. we have israel that needs us. we have ukraine that needs us. we need -- the american people that needs us if these conflicts --

congressmen can't do their jobs then next year when we vote we get all new representatives in congress. stop playing with these old folks that have been in congress all these years and let's get new people in there. who care about america. and don't play the games that the democrats are playing. that the republicans are playing. and let's work together and become america and let's make america great. host: thank you, denise. reporter michael shnell tweets out that mchenry says it's his expectation the g.o.p. conference will meet tomorrow he didn't commit to having a noon vote but says, quote, we wanted to have the option to go to the floor. asked why they wouldn't go to the floor, he said, lot of reasons. this is in the

speaker-designate's hands. vicky in highway. give us your views. caller: i think it's an atrostism i think it's smaw. and abslutly it's all when donald trump got elected. he's ruined, absolutely ruined the world and people, you better wake up. do you not believe in god? host: that's vicky in ohio. a couple of texts. jim in illinois. comment on the results of second speaker's vote. i am extremely pleased that a small number of republicans continue to reject jim jordan. jordan's hard line antics disqualify him without a doubt. jordan is a thug without integrity. that's jim in illinois. this is candy in michigan. democrats are united, republicans will never be.

and finally, tom in california if jim jordan is elected speaker that would be putting putin in congress and the white house. those are just some of the tweets. this conversation will continue tomorrow morning on "the "washington journal"." and around any speaker election votes. we will have lie coverage as well. we'll see you then. if you can't be in front of your tv but still want to be part of the conversation, check out the c-span now app where you can watch c-span, c-span2, an c-span3. thanks for being with us. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> a healthy democracy doesn't just look like this it looks like this where americans can see democracy at work. when citizens are truly informed, our republic thrives. get informed, straight from the source. on c-span. unfiltered. unbiased.

word-for-word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are. because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. >> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage, find it any time online at c-span.org. videos of key hear, debates and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and news worthy highlights. these points of interest markers appear on the right hand side of your screen. when you hit timeline tool makes it easy to get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. >> president biden met with israeli prime minister netanyahu to discuss the war with hamas. here are his remarks in the visit.