Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) speaks about the ongoing effort to find a new House Speaker.
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00:00 Awesome, thank you so much. So looking ahead to today, how optimistic are you that you guys can get something done?
00:07 I'm just wondering if we get to see Pax Atani fill or we're going to have seven more weeks of winter.
00:11 Fair, absolutely.
00:12 No, listen, this is, I mean, we've got seven guys up there, eight guys up there. They all did a great job last night, but let's be clear, this just gets us into the minefield.
00:20 We need to get a speaker elected because we've still got to deal with government funding, we've got to deal with Israel, we've got to deal with Ukraine, we've got to deal with FISA, we've got to deal with the Farm Bill extension.
00:29 So, I mean, we get here, we get there, then it's really time to go to work. So I'm hopeful we can get this handled today or tomorrow because we've got a lot to do.
00:38 Do you think at this point that all of those candidates will stay in? Do you think anything will jump out throughout the day?
00:43 Well, I mean, this is almost going to be a little more, I actually think it's somewhat cathartic regardless of where it's at.
00:49 If nobody gets to a majority of the majority in the first round, it's going to have more of a convention feel.
00:54 Lois goes out and then you keep going and that might be helpful. What we've tried before hasn't been working really well, so we're going to get there.
01:02 And then I think all of them have learned from what's happened in the last couple of weeks.
01:06 I mean, if you win with a bare majority, you're probably going to stay in the room and figure out if you can go to the floor and get 217 votes so we don't all go up there and step on a rake again.
01:15 Do you have any concerns with the public endorsement aspect of this? Do you have any concerns with the public endorsement aspect of this?
01:22 Do you think she's going to stop members from supporting Bill?
01:24 No, I mean, I haven't followed them all closely, but I think it's really clear when you read those types of things.
01:30 If you're supporting somebody and not against somebody else, there's a big distinction between those two things.
01:35 And right now, I think everybody in there has done a great job and we'll see how it goes.
01:40 Is there anyone in there you're advocating towards?
01:42 I'm a lot of friends with those guys, but yeah, I mean, there's one I'm gravitating for, but that's why I like secret conference. We get to keep it that way.
01:50 I was pretty out front in support of my friend Jim Jordan, and I'm going to let these guys use their guys to run this stuff.
01:56 Can you touch on it a little bit? Do you think that you should stay in that room until 217 is?
02:01 You should stay in that room until you, I mean, 217 is really, you should stay in that room until you're pretty confident you can go to the floor and get the votes.
02:10 Do you think this thing perfect has gotten better?
02:14 Nothing about this has gotten better, and anybody who says it's getting better, I mean, that's just not true.
02:19 The American people need a Republican voice in Congress, and they haven't had one in two weeks.
02:24 This isn't a messaging problem. We have to figure this out, and we have to get out there and get it worked out.
02:29 Thank you all.
02:31 (audience chattering)