Brooklyn and Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis with the quote of the day so far, when asked how things are going.

"It’s a bad episode of ‘VEEP’ that’s turning into ‘House of Cards,'" she says upon exiting the meeting.

"Steve Scalise is a good man,” she adds. “I have a lot of other things that I could be doing for constituents right now other than sitting in that room, listening to people being petty.”

Former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Jordan for speaker, told Fox News Radio's "Brian Kilmeade Show" Thursday that Scalise must focus his energy on beating his multiple myeloma diagnosis.

"Well, I like Steve. I like both of them very much. But the problem, you know, Steve is a man that is in serious trouble from the standpoint of his cancer. I mean, he's got to get better for himself. I'm not talking about even country now. I'm saying got to get better. And this is tremendous stress ... I want Steve to get well, I just don't know how you can do the job when you have -- That's a serious problem."

Later in the interview, Trump added: "I'm going to be with anybody they pick .. Frankly, I get along with all of them. But, I mean, the one thing with Steve, he's got to get well, he's got to get well, he's got to get strong."

From Josh Christenson:

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), when asked how GOP conference meeting is going: "We’re celebrating our diversity in there.”

Earlier Thursday morning, Kevin McCarthy told reporters that "time is of the essence" and "there's not that much time left" for Scalise to shore up the support he needs to become speaker.

"It's possible, it's a big hill, though," said the former Speaker. "He told a lot of people he was going to be at 150 [conference votes], and he wasn't there."

Scalise got 113 votes in Wednesday's closed-door conference meeting.

Another fluid dynamic in this race: There are a growing number of Republicans who say they will support Scalise on the first ballot, but after that, everything is up for grabs.

Among those who have made such a commitment are Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Victoria Spartz of Indiana.

Meanwhile, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is another Scalise opponent sticking with his "no" vote.

We believe there are between 12 and 15 Republican holdouts who would oppose Scalise, at least on the first ballot. From our Josh Christenson at the Capitol:

Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) has said he still backs the deposed McCarthy and knows of seven others who would vote for him on the floor.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) on Scalise: "He's been in a long time, and we see what's happened to the debt."

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) says "yes" when asked if he still supports Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

It has been nine days since Kevin McCarthy was ousted as House speaker and the situation remains in flux.

Speaker pro tem Patrick McHenry (R-NC) had hoped to elect a replacement Wednesday. Instead, the House gaveled in at noon Thursday and immediately recessed as negotiations continue behind closed doors to try and secure enough support for Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) to win the gavel.

Scalise won yesterday's closed-door balloting 113-99 to be the conference's official nominee. However, recent events have shown what the Republican conference's leadership wants doesn't matter much.

The short answer is, it depends.

The House currently has 221 Republican members and 212 Democratic members with two vacancies, for a total of 433.

Scalise must receive a majority of all members who vote for someone by name to win the gavel. That means that if every House member is in the chamber and voting, Scalise must get 217 votes.

However, "present" votes and absences don't count toward the total. So if 10 lawmakers vote "present," Scalise's magic number is reduced to 212, since 423 votes will actually be counted.

If, on the second ballot, the same number vote "present" and four members are absent, the threshold will be reduced again, to 210.

House Republicans chose Majority Leader Steve Scalise as their pick to be speaker of the House ahead of an expected floor vote this afternoon.

Scalise (R-La.) edged out House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) 113-99 in the closed-door balloting, a vote that exposed still-raw feelings in the GOP conference following last week’s ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

“There was a vote,” said a visibly annoyed Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a supporter of Jordan, “and there was someone who won.”

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