CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - TRANSCRIPT House Voting On Motion To Adjourn After 11th Speaker Vote; Interview With Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN); House Votes To Adjourn Until Noon Tomorrow After McCarthy Fails On 11th Speaker Vote; McCarthy On Speakership Vote: "I'm Not Putting A Timeline". Aired 8-9p ET

Interview

Joining us now is Iowa Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller- Meeks, who has voted for McCarthy all eleven times. Congresswoman, appreciate you joining us. Thanks for sticking around.

Are you happy with his adjournment? Do you think progress can be made overnight into tomorrow?

REP. MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS (R-IA): I think the fact that we got 219 votes to adjourn, I know that seems like a farcical thing, but that's a small victory. And yes, I think that we're going to continue this process. But people are seeing the process that typically occurs behind closed doors and what people used to laughingly refer to and derisively referred to as smoke filled back rooms. This is happening out transparently in the public's eye and they're seeing what goes on. This is part of that process. It's part of the process of the House and they're seeing it happen in live now. And we're going to continue to work through this process until we have a speaker.

COOPER: And yet there are deals being made with members, with holdouts. Are you -- do you feel like, all the deals that are being made, what has been given away? Or are you concerned about what more may need to be given away by Speaker -- Mr. McCarthy?

MILLER-MEEKS: By certainly each and every time that there has been agreed upon. So, things that, you know, one party wants, that this faction of individuals want, those have been conveyed to the rest of the House members. And we've discussed those. As, you know, we had two very long conferences back in November. Then we've also had conference by phone. And so, this has been relayed to us, this give and take. I think what most of us would prefer was that all of us have been done in writing and presented. So, we could have discussed it all, debated it all, and then gone through that orderly process that we did during the two conferences that we had, at which time we discussed numerous amendments, went through each and every one of them, every member had a chance to get up and speak, to debate them, to relay their concerns, relay what constitutionally had been done before in the past and whether something was in alignment with the Constitution.

So that deliberative process is taking place. It is ongoing, and members are being informed on what's transpiring through that. So, it has been a transparent process as we go forward.

COOPER: Are you concerned at all about what has been negotiated thus far? Even as somebody who supports Kevin McCarthy to become speaker, are you worried about the power of others to challenge him down the road?

MILLER-MEEKS: I'm not concerned about the power to challenge others. I mean, we did take a vote on that in the entire conference membership that we thought that the motion to vacate should not be at one, it should be at a larger number. And actually, that, you know, we should have consistency across because you have different rules that it's so many members for a certain type of rule or to do a certain type of motion. And so, that here should be consistency among the rules and how many members it takes to change something.

However, Kevin McCarthy met with members, the number was dropped to five. We were -- that was conveyed to us. We, as members agreed that would be OK. We don't see that it weakens the speakership or Kevin McCarthy. And the number was as, you know, last evening was dropped to one. That was also conveyed to us. So, we're all parts of different caucuses that have met with the leader, either the leadership of our caucus or members of the caucus itself that have met with, you know, Leader McCarthy and have discussed this.

And to this point, I mean there are budgetary things that have been put in place, or will be put in place into the House conference rules that the majority of us agree with, and we are not concerned with those. I think most importantly is to remember that Kevin McCarthy has considered the threats to our nation to be the debt, the border, China, and our educational system. Every single person in our conference agrees with that, even the people who are not supporting Kevin McCarthy.

[20:50:22]

And most importantly, were elected because the country felt that were on the wrong track. We feel we're on the wrong track. Those who are not voting for Kevin McCarthy feel the country is on the wrong track. We're put in place to put the country on the right track. So, we need to address the border. We need to address the untold numbers of fentanyl coming across the border. I'm a physician, a former director of Public Health. As you know, last year the CDC said there was 107,000 drug overdoses that led to the death of young people 18 to 45. Those young people weren't killed by COVID. They were killed by drug overdoses. So, we know we need to address the border.

COOPER: Right.

MILLER-MEEKS: We know --

COOPER: But (INAUDIBLE) -- but excuse me for interrupting. But none of that will get done until there is a speaker and there is no end in sight. At this point, what gives you confidence that at least five, or possibly more hard no votes can be moved so that the math goes in favor of Mr. McCarthy?

MILLER-MEEKS: Well, certainly the numbers of no's for McCarthy haven't increased. If you'll notice, the trend line has stayed the same. We have all stayed very stalwart in our positions, both for McCarthy and those not. But then, this evening, last evening, we had a challenge in getting to the numbers to adjourn. Tonight, we got to 219 to adjourn. We know that there's progress being made. So, I think what's most important is that we're patient. You know, no good thing comes without failure. I can tell you in my life, being the fourth of eight kids, no one in my family ever having gone to college, if I would have given up at the first no, I would never have become a doctor. First one in my family to go to college, first one to get a degree, first one to go to medical school. The only doctor in my family. I'm a member of Congress, one of 11,000 people in our history.

So we know throughout our history, we've had challenges, we've had obstacles. We rise to that occasion. We will get through this. We will use patience. We'll have understanding, and we'll try to meet the needs of all of those in the Republican Conference so that we can get to the job of helping the Americans with inflation, helping them with the border, helping with the opioid crisis.

COOPER: You've also had an incredible career in the U.S. Military, and I thank you for your service, and I appreciate you continuing that service. Thanks so much for speaking with us.

MILLER-MEEKS: Thank you.

Source