twenty years as editor of the american scholar in 30 years teaching in the english department at northwestern

university. earlier in this newest of books he writes i feel extremely lucky and all these realms in which i had no choice. parents, country, religion, city and social class. when congress is in session we like to take a look at the week ahead in washington and joining us is politico and i want is start with speaker mike johnson. when republicans left about nine days ago there were a lot of questions in the air about marjorie taylor grain and whether they would move on the motion to vacate where are we as the house returns today? >> we are still waiting.

she filed that weeks ago at this point and the house has twice been on reset since then. she really can pull the trigger at any moment to try to move that forward and she has a couple others which is very dangerous for speaker johnson ther idea of a growing coalition to remove him. of course that's how we got here in the first place with of the removal of kevin mccarthy. but i'm interested to see is if the anger over the spending bills that johnson pushed through with democratic aide earlier this spring, if that will continue to grow this coalition were if he can get

them to back off but he was defiant when passing the spending bills and then with the aid to ukraine and israel and he's kind of said if this cost me my job, i will have done the job and that is what we are watching now, that defiance. it was an interesting to see none of us at the beginning of this year thought we would see speaker mike johnson. >> remind us of what the margins are in terms of votes in-house and skeets in-house and what role democrats are likely to play if the motion to vacate comes up. >> the majority is tiny. less than a handful. we are talking two to three votes. what is interesting in the coming weeks and months the larger she waits to act on the motion to vacate there are special elections and a lot of

vacancies in the house and almost all of them have heavily favored republicans, so some of those vacancies that are creating this tight margin republicans are about to fall back a larger majority, not a significant with more than a handful if less than a handful ofa republicans are interestedn removing the speaker. >> [inaudible] >> that is a time pressure on her as we get towards june, johnson's republican roster will be growing unless we see major upsets and then that is a whole different calculation if democrats were to take a numerical majority. >> on the legislative side, we just came off of the foreign aid package that includes the ukraine funding that's the reason we are having the conversation right now. what are considered to be new

items or other legislative items that could further upset that a certain block of the republican conference that is already upset? >> one of the deadlines that is coming up which they just released an agreement overnight so we don't have response to that yet. but they will be talking about that as they head in. that will start over in the senate and what will be interesting to see is what get passed on to that. there won't be that many legislative vehicles for the end of the year. ijo know it is only the spring t it'sit election year and anythig that they are voting on could of course become liability so whatever they can on this bill

those attachments t whether it e online child safety, expanding the number of flights just outside of washington, those will be legislative fights on the sideline off this bill. speaker johnson goes to columbia university last week and we heard his words. are we going to see some sort of legislative action that gets congress involved? first the easiest thing is resolutions.

i do expect to see republicans leading the charge to condemn anti-semitic speech on college campuses and that is something that could come as soon as this week. i think that it's going to be hard toy come by in the weeks d months and on this topic especially where there's divisions within jewish communities and politically among democrats and i think that will be more challenging. >> with us until the bottom of the hour 8:30 a.m., for republicans, 202-748-8001,

independent, 202-748-8002. please call in with your questions. a change of pace for a second this came out from politico last week and it's a top ten list of members of congress. explain what we mean by thirsty asked members. >> it's kind of our lighthearted term we are talking people joke aboutuc chuck schumer the most dangerous place might be between schumer and a tv camera. that's what we are talking about, folksks even if they areo far on the periphery of an issue they would love to be front and center talking to me or a reporter, you on camera even more. they just want to have their hand in everything and on my side of things as a reporter on capitol hill, that means i'm

getting texts from their staff about every topic under the sun even if it's not their state or district they have something to say about it and it is an interesting dynamic when there's no reason for me to quote this person in my story they are so far removed. >> is at the top? >> the top thing about the thirsty members of congress is all press is good press so they take it with pride. part of the job in congress is reaching constituents however you can and sometimes that is a media strategy. >> so who are we talking about here? >> the list is pretty wide-ranging. one my team interacts with or some freshman jerry moskowitz, a junior member so he's a

freshman, democrat from florida. as a freshman you don't get a lot of big swings on maybe legislation, to lead with any kind of coalition but that means his strategy has been to have a thought on almost everything even as he is pretty brand-new to capitol hill it means we are not desperate to find out what anyone is thinking of someone. >> and give me another one. >> who are you looking at on the list? >> the next, senator mike lee. >> he has a reputation as a naysayer whenever the senate is close to maybe a unanimous consent, everyone's eyes are turning to mike lee because he's going to slow it down and object. he will make sure he's on the floor when it comes through.

he is less of a spotlight media seeker but definitely someone all heads turn to write when you think something might be coming across the finish line, he's there to say maybe not for a few days. >> a head scratcher for me, former congressman george santos is one of the thirsty asked members of congress? >> absolutely. this weekend he was a rating reporters and other outfits of the correspondence of dinner. he just hung up his hat to law t to continue his reelection bid. what do you callee it when you'e been removed? but he is someone who is committed to keeping his voice in the mix even when his colleagues say we are not actually interested. >> for the artistic representations, politico.com

the thirsty asked members of congress is representation of senator. about 15 minutes left. this is harry. good morning. >> what's yourt question? >> speaker johnson is right refusing to give support to ukraine. it's like wasting money. when it came to ukraine aid in thise legislation that money won't be wasted, abused, how are there more efforts to track

dollars going to ukraine in israel and taiwan? >> there has been a huge motivation especially many of the trump alliant republicans didn't want this aid to ukraine. they are ready to let ukraine stand on itst own 2 feet with russia but the folks interested in continuing to send aid especially republicans are looking for more guardrails on that aid. there is not huge evidence right now in the midst of the war but of course it is possible. somethingg that was emphasized long republicans when they were considering the legislation was

going to the u.s. to rebuild our stockpile because we have been sending so much to ukraine already. >> i'm not sure where that stands but programs like this are looking at being tacked onto other things so if you are the

someone following that closely look for that to be added to other legislation. millions could use internet aid going into the program that helps some 22 million pay their bills. this is eric in north palm beach florida. good morning. let me try to stick to the topic the best i can about what congress is going to do this week. in regards to age is that the united states is supporting and let's say in the protest you

talk about also just because your questioning the jewish or the israeli positions, i don't necessarily think that you couldn't label those kind of protests as anti-somatic. i think that is a careful kind of thing and then you were talking about endorsing israel. i don't understand, and maybe you could elaborate how this comes into the context of congress how itnt can be 100% supportive when in fact they are supporting land designated to the palestinians and are opposed to ongoing solutions and resolutions by the two state solution and if there's background on the references and programming about the context of how the united nations has dealt with recommendations, that would

be refreshing. >> asking about the debate when it comes to israel and also how the human factors into this. >> i think that discussion of whether criticism of the government of israel and netanyahu has governed policies is anti-semitism is one of these hot button emotional debates that is happening both in those campus encampments and up on capitol hill. this division definitely especially within the democratic party between members who are in support of israel kind of no matter what and members who are seeking new ones and to maybe tread a different line in

support of american jews into and thejewish people and against anti-semitism, but bringing a deepcriticism for the way that netanyahu has conducted these assaults on hamas and in the palestinian territories. >> another hot button issue to ask about back to the ukraine funding. there were headlines today we don't know if you have much more on it but it prohibits the waving of foreign flags on the house floor when the funding was passed some members waving ukrainian flags on the floor of the house. >> that may do some members uncomfortable and if they didn't like the object of american lawmakers on the floor of the house of representatives waving a different country's flag. i think something, there've been

calls of disloyalty and things like that. i think maybe that is a little over blown but i think those critical members are conscious of how tides can turn. >> we are showing some of the viewers of members waving flags. >> i think the tides can turn and who knows who may lead in the coming decades and to have that kind of show of support legislatively is different than those images have waving that flag in the seat of the united states legislature it's made members uncomfortable. folks called for censure and for ethics inquiries into those folks, but i do have to say it wass dozens of democrats so i don't expect who brought a punishment but there are

colleagues on the other side of the aisle that had condemnation of the behavior. they were handed out by members themselves, so this wasn't any kind of a seating by any outside organization. this was members that handed them out. >> the push for congresswoman from florida who bought the legislation. >> i think that would require i believe change the house rules similar to a third the koran regulations. you can't have if you are not the person speaking, you can't have a poster. you can't have and i disagree with him poster while someone is talking about his legislative similar to the dress code and things like that. i think those would be along those lines that would require changing thein house rules which we obviously have seen in the past many times.

i'm interested to see if this is something that speaker mike johnson rates. >> we see that video of the congressman we talked about from kentucky, the republican, he took that video. members of congress are not supposed to take video of your cell phones. massey later says the house surgeon arms directed to plane him $500 unless he took the video down and it was speaker johnson who stepped in to say we don't agree with of that assessment. it's kind of an inside baseball thing. >> sometimes the sergeant arms is working at the behest of the leadership. we saw that with enforcement of the metal detectors andnd stuff like that. a sometimes they are making a call on their own and may be an odd

involving political leadership at all. they are those hop security officials. i talked with multiple staff last week about this and their assessment was that is not a staid shop selfies and things that also were not allowed but maybe it was a sweeping video that appends the entire chamber. they said we understand why the sergeant arms is why you've gotten a little more anxious about showing all those exits and things like that. i don't like to talk about capital security very much just because i am working there also and would like to say a safe but it's interesting to seeas them y to levy the $500 fine against massey and then to have the speaker say hold up the no

especially when both of those. he was named in those tweets so that was a colleague attacking him and he saidd you've got to let this one go. democrats are celebrating johnson. less than five minutes left. a caller from michigan, tim republican. what is your question. >> i would like to make a statement instead of asking a question. how come we do not get better information from the news reporters because it seems everything slanted against one

side. it makes. we are trying to do the real thing paying bills and stuff. it doesn't make sense to me what has happened. i'm a leader of one of the correspondence on capitol hill. we credential a wide range of outlets. a somewhat ideological. we do not exclude those with different viewpoints and i would say we are trying to get to the truth into trying to get the

facts. we are in direct communication with them every day and to the best we can convey not just what is happening on capitol hill but also why the. what happens can be opaque and confusing if you are not a full-time government expert and trying to break down those complicated whether it's procedural dynamics, why are the republicans fighting with each other all the time was what we are trying to break down and provided the american. we appreciate you and your colleagues coming on because allowing people to.

part of. >> i'm looking at the dynamics within each of the caucus as they head into it sounds crazy. the veil of the elections i think we have not been in session during these encampments cropping up across the country. that is so much more than one left town. with multiple perspectives is criticism of the save israel anti-semitism and of those conversations will be hot.

and on twitter follow her. thank you. >> thank you