The Note: After McCarthy
— -- NOTABLES
--WHY KEVIN MCCARTHY DROPPED OUT OF THE RACE FOR HOUSE SPEAKER: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy made up his mind to pull out of the race to be House speaker yesterday after hearing from chamber conservatives that they would directly challenge him on the House floor, sources say. ABC's JONATHAN KARL reports, McCarthy's team determined he only had 175 to 200 House republicans whom they could count on voting for him, well short of the 218 needed. McCarthy determined that even if he could get the 218 votes and be elected speaker, the conservatives would continue to challenge him, making it effectively impossible to lead the House. http://abcn.ws/1jezaCB
--THE SHORT LIST TO REPLACE HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's surprise decision to drop out of the race for House Speaker has a launched a new scramble to fill the job, ABC's JOHN PARKINSON, ARLETTE SAENZ and ALI WEINBERG report. House Speaker John Boehner, who announced his resignation from the speakership last month, says he will remain in the position until a new speaker is elected, but the leadership election is now postponed to a yet to be announced date. When McCarthy took himself out of the race, two other Republicans were also running for the speakership -- Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida -- but House Republicans could try to recruit some new candidates. http://abcn.ws/1MOEFUT
--ANALYSIS -- ABC's RICK KLEIN: When you move beyond the utter shock of what's just happened on Capitol Hill, pause long enough to realize that nobody should be celebrating this turn of events -- not the tea party, not Democrats, not even Hillary Clinton's campaign. Kevin McCarthy's exit sets up a truly scary period for leadership in Washington. An entire legislative body is too dysfunctional to even choose a leader, rendering the legislative branch paralyzed. In this environment, what are the prospects of keeping funding for the government alive? Avoiding a default on government debt? Dealing with any other unforeseen crisis -- one that's not self-inflicted? It's easy to talk about "chaos" reigning on Capitol Hill, but there really is no more apt term. Republicans don't have a plan. The man they are practically begging to lead them out of this -- Paul Ryan - doesn't want the job and knows it's a terrible job to have. If he takes it, as he might, he will face the same dynamics that have just ousted a speaker and a speaker-to-be. The forces powerful enough to propel the Republican Party to control of Congress now more seem too powerful to control. For this, there is no blueprint.
BY THE NUMBERS -- CRUZ CAMPAIGN RAISES $12.2 MILLION IN THIRD QUARTER: Despite a summer that's often seen him trailing in the polls and eclipsed by candidates like Donald Trump and Ben Carson, Ted Cruz's campaign amassed a financial haul of $12.2 million in the last three months, ABC's JESSICA HOPPER reports. Of the candidates who have revealed their latest fundraising numbers, Cruz is second only to Ben Carson. Carson raised $20 million in the last three months. Rand Paul raised $2.5 million. Cruz's third quarter fundraising numbers are an increase from last quarter where he raised over $10 million. The campaign has not disclosed how much cash they have on hand, but says they have "sustainers" or donors who have committed to giving a certain amount every month to the campaign. With those recurring payments, the campaign said in a release that they can cover the cost of their field operations. Since announcing his candidacy in March, Ted Cruz's campaign has raised $26.5 million. On the campaign trail, the Texas senator often encourages people to donate to his campaign by saying he will offer a "positive, hopeful optimistic conservative message." At a recent rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Sen. Cruz told supporters, "If you go and contribute, then you're invested, then you got skin in the game. Then it's not my campaign, then it's our campaign." It appears his supporters are listening. The Cruz campaign says they have had 362,300 donors over the course of the campaign. In the last three months, they've had donors from 58 percent of the zip codes in the United States with an average donation of $66.
TODAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Lindsey Graham are all in New Hampshire today. Ben Carson is also in Washington, DC today for a stop on his book tour. He was also on GMA this morning and defended his Hitler gun control statements this morning, calling the Anti-Defamation League statement yesterday saying he was incorrect was "total foolishness." Marco Rubio is stumping for another day in Las Vegas holding three events. New Hampshire may have the most candidates today, but Iowa still has two 2016ers: Bobby Jindal and Martin O'Malley. Jindal holds a meet and greet in Orange City this afternoon and O'Malley will hold a roundtable with workers in Newtown this afternoon. Bernie Sanders will be in Tucson, Arizona this evening, where he pulled a massive crowd earlier this year.
THE BUZZ
with ABC's VERONICA STRACQUALURSI and PAOLA CHAVEZ
DRAFT BIDEN WON'T AIR EMOTIONAL TV AD URGING VP TO RUN. Draft Biden, the super PAC seeking to recruit Vice President Joe Biden into the 2016 presidential race, no longer plans to air the new emotional ad encouraging him to run, a group official said Thursday. The decision comes after a Los Angeles Times report saying the vice president did not want the ad to run, citing a source close to the VP who said he felt the ad treads on "sacred ground," ABC's JORDYN PHELPS and ARLETTE SAENZ write. The vice president appreciates that they are trying to help," the person close to the vice president told the LA Times. "But he has seen the ad and thinks the ad treads on sacred ground and hopes they don't run it."
7 WAYS HILLARY CLINTON HAS DISTANCED HERSELF FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA. Hillary Clinton has said repeatedly over the course of her campaign that she's not running for President Obama's third term. And as outsider candidate Bernie Sanders surges in the polls, and a possible run by Vice President Biden looms, Clinton appears to be increasingly casting herself as different from the Obama administration. ABC's LIZ KREUTZ has more. http://abcn.ws/1ZheutP
BEN CARSON SUGGESTS HOLOCAUST WOULD HAVE BEEN LESS LIKELY IF JEWS WERE ARMED. Republican candidate Ben Carson continued his controversial remarks about guns Thursday -- suggesting in a new interview that the Jews may have been able to diminish the likelihood of the Holocaust if they were armed. According to ABC's KATHERINE FAULDERS, Carson made the remarks, which drew swift condemnation, on CNN. He said that passengers on Flight 93, which crashed on 9/11, helped avoid further tragedy by rushing the gunman. http://abcn.ws/1LCpA8I
RAND PAUL WANTS TO CUT NATION'S CREDIT CARD. Sen. Rand Paul is putting his own mark on the debate over raising the nation's debt limit, starting a new campaign geared towards getting the federal government to cut what he considers wasteful spending. Called "Cut Their Card," the new push coincides with the approaching deadline for Congress to raise the debt ceiling, which limits the amount of money the federal government can borrow. ABC's ALI WEINBERG has more. http://abcn.ws/1VHFNJs
DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE'S GETTING 'A LOT OF CREDIT' FOR ENDING MCCARTHY HOUSE SPEAKER BID. Donald Trump took "a lot of credit" for driving Rep. Kevin McCarthy out of the race for House Speaker, he told a crowd of 1,600 in Las Vegas yesterday, ABC's JOHN SANTUCCI notes. "I wanna just start by saying, you know Kevin McCarthy is out, you know that? Right?" Trump said to a loud applause. "They are giving me a lot of credit for that because I said you really need somebody very, very, tough, and very smart, you know smart goes with tough, not just tough." http://abcn.ws/1VHUtIn
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TALK SMACK AFTER RECEIVING HILLARY CLINTON'S BOOK. Hillary Clinton said this week she sent a copy of her book "Hard Choices" to 15 of the GOP presidential candidates -- some of whom have shot back at the Democratic candidate with some sarcasm and snark of their own. Clinton suggested on Monday that her GOP opponents should form a book club and could read about what she accomplished as secretary of state, ABC's BEN GITTLESON, JESSICA HOPPER and SHUSHANNAH WALSHE report. It doesn't look like there will be a presidential-contender book club anytime soon. Here's how some of the candidates responded. http://abcn.ws/1MhrEBX
WHO'S TWEETING?
@AliABCNews: I asked Maj Leader McCarthy if he was resigning today, "Huh? No," he said and shook his head and made a sort of "pffft" sound
@mollyesque: Apparently what the House GOP really learned from the shutdown is you can pull whatever shit you feel like in an odd-numbered year.
@nationaljournal: What we're following: Darrell Issa is weighing a run for speaker http://njour.nl/bu/511 via @Ben_Geman
@Peggynoonannyc: Shows of Strength From Trump and Putin by @peggynoonannyc http://on.wsj.com/1Op1VaM via @WSJ
@DavidMDrucker: House GOP divisions oversimplified as Freedom Caucus (conservatives) v. Leadership. Better understood, it's FC cons. v. (almost) every1 else