CNN "The Situation Room" - TRANSCRIPT Now, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) Appears To Suffer Defeat On Tenth Speaker Ballot; Source Says, Negotiators Pushing For Deal Tonight To Show Progress; House About To Vote For Speaker For 11th Speaker Vote; Now: McCarthy Appears To Suffer Defeat On 11th Speaker Ballot. Aired 6-7p ET

Interview

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BURNETT: Welcome back to our breaking coverage of the vote for speaker of the House.

One of the key holdouts refusing to support Kevin McCarthy just telling CNN there's an offer on paper to try to break this Republican stalemate being reviewed by members in the whip's office right now. Right now is the 11th round of voting. It is the fifth round today.

This is not something that McCarthy had wanted. They wanted to adjourn, didn't have the votes for that, but here they are in this 11th round.

Joining me now, Republican Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio. He is among the Republicans who have nominated McCarthy in one of these now 11 rounds.

Congressman, I really appreciate your time. I just want to start with what happened on the floor, something we had not seen, and that is, you saw Bob Good stand up and nominate Kevin Hern. Byron Donalds was not nominated, right? This is the person who had been carrying 20, those 20 votes.

What does that mean? Is Byron Donalds in on this deal?

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): Yeah, he is. I think he agreed to draw support for a bigger number than 20. Obviously they were not able to do that. And Kevin Hern continued to build some momentum. They said, right, we could lean on Kevin Hern as a consensus builder. But meanwhile, as you alluded to, there's a sign of hope that there is consensus emerging, some framework that we can get across the finish line. We've been fighting the good fight. We've been keeping the faith. Now we got to finish the race and get this done.

BURNETT: So, just to be clear, your understanding is that Representative Byron Donalds is in. He's now on board with McCarthy. He's on board with this deal that we understand has been circulating?

DAVIDSON: Well, I don't know if he'll vote for Kevin McCarthy at this point, but I doubt that he'll vote for Byron Donalds this round. So we'll see how the votes go.

BURNETT: And what is your understanding of how many people if -- you know, of this deal we understand is circulating? Congressman Norman said it was an offer on paper and he was taking a look at it. How many people are in on any deal, as you understand it, to switch their support because of the deal and back McCarthy?

DAVIDSON: Well, I can tell you, as of last night, I think there were probably somewhere greater than five members who have no plans to ever get to yes with Kevin McCarthy.

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And that's the challenges. Can we find a way to overcome the fact that he's at least five votes short of a true majority of the 435 full number of the House? There are a couple ways we can accomplish that. And then there's maybe a sign that, yeah, well, I never thought this would be on the table. And, okay, maybe I can get behind this deal.

BURNETT: So you are still hoping -- or do you believe that there will be some psychological impact on that group of five or as Congressman Sessions was just saying, he was describing it to me as up to seven on eight, that they will -- because there is some sort of a deal and a few of the 20 start to back McCarthy, that that psychologically is going to make a difference? I mean, is that -- is that what you're hoping on right now?

DAVIDSON: I don't know if it is psychology. I think just cool reason looking at it. And, you know, I think you're going to get at least ten. And, you know, maybe 15 of those votes. But, you know, there are a couple people at least that are very anchored in not supporting Kevin. So I don't think there will be unanimity.

But I do think that you're going to be able to win over a lot of votes. Hopefully, we'll get there. And we'll see soon, I think.

BURNETT: So I just mentioned Congressman Norman, and he just walked out of that meeting. What he had to say, Congressman Davidson, to CNN is this is changes we want. He then continued to say this is round one.

Does that make you feel good or bad?

DAVIDSON: I don't think we got a lot of rounds left. I think there is one more round left in this fight. We'll see where people's patience goes.

I think what you'll see after this vote is probably support for a motion to adjourn. People will have dialogue about what's in the deal, not just the people that have been at the negotiating table but the whole conference has to come up to speed on this deal. And then at some point, whether it's later tonight or sometime tomorrow, we'll probably have another vote. And then we'll see, where does everyone stand?

But on this vote, I wouldn't expect anything to change on this outcome but when it's just been called now as they're working through the roll.

BURNETT: All right, Congressman, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

DAVIDSON: Thank you.

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Source