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Melissa Harris-Perry: It's The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry, and I'm glad to have you with us.

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The 118th Congress convenes for the first time today, and in the House of Representatives, it's a fascinating time of contradiction. Republicans have won a majority flipping control to the GOP, but it may prove to be a majority more in name than an action if the current battle over the speakership is an indication. Despite making significant concessions over house rules, Kevin McCarthy is still short of the votes needed to make him speaker. That said, he remains optimistic, at least publicly.

Kevin McCarthy: I think everyone will get there at the end of the day but we have to. If we want to save the American public, we're the only ones in the forefront to stop these Democrat liberal policies. Think about it.

Melissa Harris-Perry: That's McCarthy on Fox News this past weekend. Now, meanwhile, Democrats have their leadership firmly secured with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York.

Hakeem Jeffries: It's an honor to stand before you today as the incoming House Democratic leader for the 118th Congress that will convene on January 3rd and to be joined by my two good friends amazing colleagues and partners, the incoming House Democratic Whip, Katherine Clark and the incoming Caucus Chair, Pete Aguilar. We look forward to finding opportunities to partner with the other side of the aisle, but we will also push back against extremism whenever necessary.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now Jeffries is making history as the first black member to serve as a party leader. It's indicative of the fact that 118th is the most diverse house in the last seven sessions. Despite representative Jeffries's hopes of forging some bipartisan legislative efforts, this house of 222 Republicans and 213 Democrats is sharply divided.

With the national parties jockeying for the 2024 presidential election already underway, members may have a little incentive to work across the aisle. Still, one thing is clear, the work of Congress matters to the lives of the American people, so will the 118 Congress find a way to get that work done? I talked with Eugene Scott early Tuesday morning. He's National political reporter for the Washington Post. Eugene, welcome to The Takeaway.

Eugene Scott: Thanks for having me.

Melissa Harris-Perry: All right, can we expect representative Kevin McCarthy to become the House majority leader?

Eugene Scott: In theory, you can expect that. I don't know if these expectations will be met today. As of still early this morning, he doesn't have the votes. That, obviously, could change today, but there's no sign right now that he and the five lawmakers that have been very vocal about their lack of support for him are going to end up somewhere differently than they began.

Melissa Harris-Perry: As the little Black girl growing up in the South, we had these little hand games that we'd play on the playground. One of them ended with a like if not that person then who, and so let me ask that if not Kevin then who?

Eugene Scott: Well, that is one of the main questions everywhere. Some of the names that have up are Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, even at least Stefanik of New York. None of these individuals seem to have the support that McCarthy currently has despite not having enough to declare him as Speaker later today.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Look, in so many ways, I got to say it feels like the parties jumped up and went to the opposite sides of the aisle, not ideologically but just in terms of what our common wisdom has been. Republicans fall in line, Democrats fall in love, a conversation that was typically had the presidential level. Even at this level, the idea that Democrats have their leadership together and Republicans don't, does this tell us something about what may go on in the 118th?

Eugene Scott: Absolutely. The GOP is actually a bigger tent party than people seem to realize. They are having a very difficult time getting everyone on the same page with something as important and arguably simple as speaker of the House and so that raises real questions about what legislation and the process of lawmaking can look like in this session.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Okay, let's go over to the Democratic side for a moment. What might we expect from leader Jeffries and his priorities, what kind of leader are we expecting from him?

Eugene Scott: Well, Jeffries has been very vocal about his belief about the role of systemic racism throughout so many systems and institutions in America. You're going to see proposals put forward to address this in everything from education to housing to the workplace to health care. I think he's going to have the support of much of his part considering that this is a party that really has prided itself on being the popular or preferential should I say party off of many people of color.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I was asked recently by Christina Greer on her podcast about whether or not Jeffries can bring together the progressive and the center of the Democratic Party. Is there a sense that progressives will give him the same kind of challenges that McCarthy is getting from the right wing of his party?

Eugene Scott: Well, I don't think anyone's going to give Jeffries the challenges that the Freedom Caucus and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gates and the like are giving him currently, but progressives have been pretty critical of Jeffries in the past. There's a debate happening within the far left about the role of racism versus economic insecurity and which one plays a bigger role in injustice and inequality. I think that is something that Jeffries has found himself battling in the past and could very well be something, a topic, should I say, of debate moving forward.

Melissa Harris-Perry: We talked with one of the 118th congress's freshman member. We know that the 118th freshman class is the youngest of the last seven congresses. and it sees the arrival of the first member from Gen Z. We had a conversation with Representative Frost. I want you to take a quick listen.

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Maxwell Frost: People should not give up on Florida. I'm not going to give up on Florida because Florida just sent a 25-year-old organizer to the United States Congress, and I don't think that's a state that you should give up on.

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Melissa Harris-Perry: Two things there I want to ask you about in terms of Jeffries and that strategy. You've got a lot of northeasterners in leadership in the Democratic Party right now. Will they have the vision for the southern wing of the Democratic Party?

Eugene Scott: If Jim Clyburn has anything to say about it, they will. That's one of the reasons he wanted to remain around while other lawmakers with his experience and age decided to pass things over to another generation of leaders. He thought it was very important given that he represents South Carolina that Democrats did not forsake the South. I'm going to keep my eye open for some interesting partnerships between Maxwell Frost and Jim Clyburn and other liberals in the South and progressives even who really believe that Florida and South Carolina are places that could have some of the same outcomes that Georgia has recently given us.

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Melissa Harris-Perry: All right, y'all, we have to take a break, more of this conversation in just a moment.

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We're still with Washington Post national political reporter Eugene Scott, and we're talking about the 118th Congress who's taking their seats in the nation's capital today. All right, I want to also dig in on this notion of Youth. We've talked about kind of a left-right north-south. Will the young people in the congress come with a different set of expectations about what it should mean for this body to make policy for the American people?

Eugene Scott: Absolutely. One of the main areas of discussion when it comes to policy right now is just how unaffordable cottage is and just life, in general. I think Maxwell Frost has been very vocal about not being able to secure housing. He's actually going to reportedly spend the first few weeks in Washington couch surfing because prices are so high and inconsistent with his debt and that is not a unique problem to Maxwell. I think you are going to see some of these younger lawmakers try to bring to the table some of the issues that young Americans are having that make it difficult for them to maybe check so many of the boxes that we have historically expected 25 and 30-year-olds to be able to check.

Melissa Harris-Perry: All right. Speaking of checking boxes George Santos of New York is currently understood to be the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican elected to congress. Every day it feels like whatever it is we understood towards Santos to be may not be who George Santos actually is. Can you talk to me about what this moment may mean for the Republicans more broadly?

Eugene Scott: It has to be a deep thorn in their side in ways that they just weren't expecting. It almost does seem like almost every other day there is a new lie made public. I recently was reading that he claims to have graduated from Horace Mann, this elite private school in New York. The school has no record of him even going there and so Republicans are finding themselves having to answer questions that they really were hoping not to have to ask or answers, should I say, given what was believed to be the historic election of Santos, and it's actually just turned into a big mess.

Melissa Harris-Perry: It is undoubtedly a mess. I want to go through each party and talk about what matters perhaps most to the American people, which is maybe less this power jockeying on the inside and more what will actually get produced. Do you have a sense of what is on the agenda for the 118th Congress that is likely to actually become law in this country?

Eugene Scott: That is a hard prediction to make, in part, because Republicans haven't been very vocal about their policy agenda. They've actually been very vocal about their desire to do quite a bit of investigating of liberals, and departments, and the White House, but it's not quite clear what ideas they have that they believe will better serve the American people, and that's been a frequent criticism of the GOP in recent years. I think lots of people are watching wondering and maybe even hoping that it can become clear very soon what the GOP's vision could look like under current leadership whoever it might be as we all head into the next presidential election.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Let's pop over to the Senate for just one quick moment as well. Clearly, the Senate in its closely divided identity has been operating as a kill switch even when things were coming through a Democrat-controlled house and knowing that it was likely to get that signature on the Democratic White House desk. Any sense now that we've seen some shifting in the Senate as well with cinema becoming now an unaffiliated independent member? Will the Senate continue to operate as that kill switch that we've seen or might it hop on board and actually become more helpful to Democrats?

Eugene Scott: Well, that's certainly the hope and expectation of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, but as you know the majority is still a pretty tight one and as much as Sinema has voted alongside Democrats, more than 90% of the time, she's been aligned with Joe Biden, it's still very possible that she may not be counted on for some of the more landmark pieces of legislation Biden hopes will define his term and so I think people will be walking on eggshells and be quite careful in terms of how they go about determining what will become law moving forward.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Eugene Scott is national political reporter for the Washington Post. Eugene, thanks so much for taking the time with us today.

Eugene Scott: Good to be here.

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