GEOFF BENNETT: On Capitol Hill today, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan's second try for speaker of the House went more poorly than his first.

In today's vote, he received two fewer Republican votes than yesterday.

Our Lisa Desjardins joins us now from a part of the Capitol still frozen in legislative limbo.

Lisa, it's good to see you.

So, Jim Jordan lost support today.

Why is he still in the race?

LISA DESJARDINS: It is the question everyone's asking tonight.

The House is not going to vote again tonight.

The Republican Conference is not meeting.

But Jim Jordan, his office tells me, is still staying in the race.

You have to think about the top layers here as we get through this.

It's clear Jim Jordan is a fighter.

He is someone who has never given up.

That's part of his sort of political DNA.

But behind him, I think, are also some very powerful voices in the conservative world, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, conservative talk show hosts, who have been drumming up support for him, who've been calling the Capitol.

Those are some reasons why he's here.

But let's look at the numbers facing him.

We keep talking about the math here, Geoff.

Got worse for Jim Jordan today.

The numbers voting for him today went down by one overall to 199.

We know he needs 217.

Now, the number voting for someone else went up; 22 Republicans today voted for someone else.

That is two more than we have seen in the past.

And then, Jim -- Geoff, we saw, of course, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat, receiving the most votes again, 212, as Democrats were united.

Why is it that moderates were able to stay so united today, in fact, grow their ranks against Jim Jordan?

Well, they still are just seething about the way they say Steve Scalise was treated.

They think that he should have had this shot on the floor.

And they basically say they don't trust the way Jim Jordan and those around him are handling this.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, in the meantime, Lisa, Democrats seem to have warmed to this idea of making Patrick McHenry a temporary speaker, so that the chamber can get back to work.

What are some of the other viable options?

LISA DESJARDINS: That is a very real effort that is sort of growing by the hour, something that many people are considering.

There is, in fact, at least two different members of the House Republican Conference ready to put forth a resolution to elevate the powers of Mr. McHenry.

But what I found interesting today is that some of those folks backing Jordan are themselves now looking for other candidates.

Here's someone I spoke to earlier.

This is Beth Van Duyne of Texas.

REP. BETH VAN DUYNE (R-TX): I think there are a number of people in our conference that have got leadership abilities, that have been able to show them to their peers.

You know they they're -- they have their back and that they can -- they will be there.

They have got strong conservative values and they have got a strong voice.

I think there's a number of those people in our conference.

I just want them to step up and run for leadership.

We have seen three of them step up, but, right now, it's all about getting to 217.

LISA DESJARDINS: Who are we talking about, potentially?

Just in the last bit of time, a new name has in fact emerged.

I want to talk about Representative Jack Bergman of Michigan.

He's a retired Marine general who has put out a statement now saying that he did not intend to run for speaker, but, if they cannot decide upon one, that he is willing to be considered as one, that people have approached him for the job, and to serve only until the end of this Congress.

So that's one name out there, many others that I think we will be talking about in the next couple of days.

GEOFF BENNETT: And it raises the question, Lisa, as to why the traditional Republicans, the more establishment-aligned Republicans haven't yet nominated their own candidate.

They are the majority of the House Republican majority.

Why aren't they fighting harder for their faction and for the institution?

LISA DESJARDINS: You and I will have to talk.

The majority of the majority is very tricky with the House Republicans, but I will say the answer is probably this.

They would say they backed Steve Scalise, that they did put out a candidate, and they would also say they are right now looking for another and some of them talking to Democrats.

So that is a group that, you are right, to very closely watch.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa, thanks, as always, for your great reporting.

For more on where the Republican Conference stands and what comes next, I spoke earlier today with Congressman Carlos Gimenez, Republican of Florida.

He voted against Jim Jordan for speaker in both rounds of voting so far.

Congressman, thank you for being with us.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): My pleasure.

GEOFF BENNETT: Jim Jordan had more Republican defections in today's round of voting than he had yesterday.

What is the path forward?

What comes next?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: I believe they are going to try to do another round of voting.

And I just don't think it's going to get any better for our speaker designee.

I think we're going to have more people vote the other way.

So I'm pretty sure that they canceled any more today.

I'm sure they're going to be scrambling to try to get to those folks that voted for some other candidate other than Jim Jordan to be the speaker of the House.

I'm not sure he's going to have any success.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, as we mentioned, you voted twice against Jim Jordan.

And I imagine it's not based entirely on ideological grounds.

You both were among the 147 Republicans who voted against certifying Joe Biden's election win.

Why are you opposed to him as speaker?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: I'm in favor of Kevin McCarthy.

That's where I have been the whole time.

And I think that what happened to Kevin McCarthy a little bit over two weeks ago were eight Republicans, I guess, ignited it, but 208 Democrats provided the gunpowder, to remove Kevin McCarthy from the speakership of the House.

I thought that was a travesty.

It was like a drive-by shooting.

And so 96 percent of our conference wanted for and voted for Kevin McCarthy.

Kevin McCarthy, if everybody votes again for Kevin McCarthy that he had, is only five votes away from being the speaker, whereas Jim Jordan has a much, much longer way to go.

GEOFF BENNETT: In your conversations with Kevin McCarthy, is he open to running again?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: I haven't spoken to Kevin McCarthy, but what Kevin McCarthy has said over and over again that he is willing and he will abide by the will of the conference.

And so, hopefully, we get down to this that we need another, a new candidate, hopefully, He will be nominated and then, hopefully, we can do this by acclimation or have a very, very large majority that he will become our candidate and he will agree to that.

And then, hopefully, we can get three, four, five of those folks that voted him out, along with the 208 Democrats, to change their mind and come our way.

And I think we would only need about five of them to get to 217.

They have seen what this has caused.

And this is not good for America.

The Democrats have seen what they did is also not good for America.

And so we need to move forward.

I just don't see that Jim Jordan has got a path forward to being the speaker.

And if Kevin McCarthy can't do it, then we need to look for a consensus candidate that the Republicans can rally around and be our speaker for the rest of the 118th Congress.

GEOFF BENNETT: There is this other option.

There's bipartisan support that's growing in Congress to empower House Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry, to basically give him more powers to function as speaker until a permanent speaker can be chosen.

Is that something that you and enough Republicans would support?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: I think that the only way that that can pass or that I would support it is if the speaker designee right now, Jim Jordan, would support it.

And I'm calling him to support it.

So if he puts forward some legislation that gives more power to Patrick McHenry, I think it would be a Republican -- it would be the Republicans who'd rally around it and vote that in.

If we don't get a speaker in the next day or two, I would hope that our speaker designee would do that for the good of the country.

We need to move on with our Republican agenda.

It's been stopped.

It was stopped by eight Republicans and 208 Democrats.

And the speaker designee needs to get behind it.

I think there may be some resistance if the speaker designee does not get behind it.

But I think the interests of America come before the interests of the self.

And I think that he should get behind it.

And let's get to work again on our agenda.

The people of America are expecting us to do that.

GEOFF BENNETT: House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries was on this program last week, and he extended this offer of a coalition government to allow bills to come to the floor that have significant Democratic and Republican support that he says would be allowed to move forward without the extremists -- that's the word that he used - - being able to dictate the agenda on the floor.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: Well, look, again, I would look forward to some kind of resolution, some kind of a bill that opens the House again up for business.

But, again, that needs to come from our speaker designee.

And I would hope that he would step forward, knowing that the business of America is so important, and put the interests of America before any self-interest that he may have.

That's something that we need to do.

And he needs to get behind it, because, actually, we need to have full Republican support for that.

And I would look forward to that.

And I hope that he would do that.

He's always stated and kind of proven that he's a patriot and he loves America.

So I would hope that he would put America first and get us back to work.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the meantime, what message does this send to the American public about the capacity of House Republicans to govern when they're in the majority?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: Well, look, it was -- remember, it took -- it was eight Republicans that actually lit the fire, but it was 208 Democrats that actually provided the gunpowder.

So let's not say this is a Republican issue.

Yes, we have had 96 percent of our Republicans were behind one person; 4 percent were behind -- wanted somebody else; 100 percent of the Democrats want somebody else.

So there's plenty of blame to go around here.

So this chaos wasn't caused by Republicans or even the majority.

The vast minority of Republicans may have lit the fire, like I said, but it took 208 Democrats to provide the gunpowder.

GEOFF BENNETT: But it is a question of leadership, is it not?

Republicans are (CROSSTALK) in the majority.

And for the last two weeks, there's been no House speaker.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: That's right, because 208 Democrats allowed it to happen.

So you just can't take the blame away from Democrats on this.

Like I said, there was eight Republicans.

(CROSSTALK) GEOFF BENNETT: Well, you could argue that Kevin McCarthy allowed it to happen when he agreed with Matt Gaetz that it would only take one member to invoke a motion to vacate.

And now here we are.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: Here we are.

That's right.

And I don't believe that should have happened, but hindsight's 20/20.

And there were promises made that, hey, we would never invoke it.

I had my doubts when that rule passed.

I held my nose and voted for it.

And now we know better.

And so, again, but even so, eight Republicans, 208 Democrats, that's why we're in this chaos right now.

GEOFF BENNETT: Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida, thanks for your time.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ: Thank you.