House GOP nominates Steve Scalise for speaker

And Major, some breaking news I want to ask you about before you leave. CBS News can confirm that Steve Scalise has won the GOP's nomination for Speaker during a secret ballot vote. I believe the vote, and I'll let the producers correct me in my ear, I think it was 113 to 99, 199 for Steve Scalise, 99 for Jim Jordan. Your reaction to that? This does not surprise me. Steve Scalise has been the quietest of the two contenders in leadership races, and I've covered these since the early 90s, and it is almost always true that the quietest of the competitors is the one who has a stronger, more known count of votes. The person who's running, who's always talking to the media and have their aides talk about how good their operation to count votes is, is typically trying to play catch-up. Steve Scalise was in elected leadership, he's a prolific fundraiser, he is well-known, well-liked. Interestingly, Jim Jordan, his rival, had the endorsement of former President Trump. We now know exactly how valuable that was, not nearly enough. And Steve Scalise is now moving toward the House floor, but this does not mean necessarily that he will be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, because that needs a vote of 217, and the number you just gave falls well short of that. Can Republicans coalesce at this moment? If they can, he'll be the next Speaker. If they can't, we're in for another protracted battle. Well, you know we will stay tuned, and so will you, of course. Major Garrett, thank you, as always. You can watch America Decides at 5 p.m. Eastern, right here on CBS News. Well, CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nicole Killian joins us now by phone. She is also getting this news, just reporting that we were able to confirm Steve Scalise has won the House GOP's nomination for Speaker during a secret ballot. That's right, Jorica. In fact, I'm standing outside of the room where that vote took place, and a few members have come out. We were told by Congressman Max Miller of Ohio there was about a 14-vote differential, so that stacks up with that final tally of 113 to 99. But this is significant because both Miller and another member of Congress, Lauren Boebert, did tell us that they still intend to vote for Jim Jordan, even though he was not victorious in this Speaker's secret ballot. So, you know, to, I guess, put an exclamation point on Major's reporting, it's very possible we could see a protracted battle on the floor, particularly because all of these members of Congress may not be in support of Steve Scalise as the next leader. I am taking a bit of a pause because I believe he may have emerged out of the room, so just give me a second to check. While you're doing that, I'm going to run through the numbers for our viewers. So, 217 is the magic number for anybody to become Speaker of the House, given that they need to have a majority. There are two vacant seats right now, so the majority would be 217 if every member shows up for that vote, the first vote expected later tonight. But we're looking then at only four members of the Republican Party being able to not vote for Steve Scalise and have him cinch that leadership position. Right now, he's looking at 99 members of his conference who are not in support of him, who have picked Jim Jordan over Steve Scalise. And the question is, where do the eight fall that were responsible for ousting Kevin McCarthy in that 113? And many of them, you'll remember, Drieke, had nominated Jim Jordan during McCarthy's brutal attempts to become Speaker initially. So, if those eight still hold opposition to Steve Scalise, who is seen as a little bit more of a party man as opposed to more of that right-wing Jim Jordan member, then he's not going to have the nomination. And I think regardless of how you feel about either one, I think there's a number of people who know the name Steve Scalise because he was shot. You know, he was an innocent bystander at a baseball game, and we've grown to know him through that as well as his policies. We know that he's also dealing with a form of, I believe, blood cancer right now. So there's a bit of, I think, empathy in some ways in terms of just him as a human. And that doesn't always play into people's decisions when it comes to politics and policy. But I'm thinking in terms of even going back to what Major said, you didn't see him out talking a lot. You saw him many times walking through the House with his mask on. That's an interesting point. And having very little to say. And Jim Jordan was probably the more outspoken one in the last few days when it came to trying to advocate as to why he should be the next Speaker of the House. Definitely. And interesting that you made that point about Steve Scalise being quieter, being less on the scene. We understand also from some of our reporting that he has been making his appeal, in part, that he was cut out of McCarthy's leadership. So trying to appeal to members. Nicole, do we have you back? I'm wondering what you've been able to suss out there on Capitol Hill. I am. Steve Scalise, I was mistaken, he did not step out, but more members are starting to emerge. I did briefly talk to Tom Emmer, who is the Republican whip and a possible contender for majority leader. He told me that he does believe that members will rally behind Steve Scalise, even though, again, we know that there was a very close vote count by secret ballot, where basically the Republican conference is divided between Scalise and Jordan, even though Scalise garnered more votes. It's unclear exactly when this House vote will take place on the floor, but many members who have emerged, as I mentioned earlier, say, especially those who supported Jim Jordan, say they still plan to support him regardless, including Congressman Lauren Boebert, as well as Congressman Max Miller, who is part of the Ohio delegation, obviously supporting Jordan, who was part of the Ohio delegation as well. So this could be a protracted fight. We could, once again, see multiple rounds on the floor. This really kind of is up and incumbent on Scalise in particular. If he is the nominee to try to unite the party here, that certainly is one of his goals, something that he has expressed, you know, that he wants the party to come together. But, clearly, there are some very deep divisions that remain. You know, one thing that may have given Scalise the edge, many people acknowledge that he is a prolific fundraiser. Obviously, with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, that was his strong suit. He was a very strong fundraiser for the party, so there was a lot of concern there. But also keep in mind that Steve Scalise was also a former whip. His job was to round up votes. So in terms of his operation, you know, they have been working around the clock to try to shore up support. So that could explain some of why we are seeing Scalise emerge victorious. But we do have some members coming out telling us they will back Scalise, but, again, others who say they will continue to support Jordan even on the House floor. Nicole, really quickly, we know that this is all breaking news, but have we heard from Jim Jordan? Has he given any guidance as to whether he wants the people who supported him, those 99, to now switch their votes to Steve Scalise? I believe he is still inside the room. We have not seen him emerge. But there has been some talk of whoever the number two was, in this case, if it is Jordan, that perhaps maybe he could be incorporated into leadership, perhaps as majority leader. That is something that is being floated, although has not been fully confirmed. So whether or not he would be willing to take that number two job remains to be seen. But keep in mind there are other people vying for that position. As I mentioned, current Republican whip Tom Emmer. There has been talk of Republican conference chair Elise Stefanik being interested in the majority leader position. So it does raise a lot of questions about who the leadership could be if Scalise ultimately is elected speaker. We'll let you do the job that you do and gather those sound bites and all that information, which I know you'll be reporting on later on this program as well as for evening news. Nicole Killian, thank you again. Steve Scalise is the nominee as of right now for the Republican Party from the 1st District of Louisiana. We're going to continue covering all of that, the latest developments on that, as well as the latest in Israel coming up. We're going to take a short break. You're streaming CBS News.