Jim Jordan wins GOP House Speaker nomination after Scalise failed to secure the vote - latest

Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) has secured a majority of the GOP votes for speaker to grasp the nomination but he was unable to reach the 217 votes he needs from his caucus to win a vote of the full House.

Mr Jordan beat challenger Rep Austin Scott (R-GA) by 124 votes to 81 on Friday afternoon. Mr Scott is reported to not actually want to be speaker and observers say the vote for him indicates the significant part of the party which would be uncomfortable with him as speaker.

This comes after Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) gave up his attempt to become speaker after he beat Mr Jordan in the first internal ballot on nominating a candidate for speaker earlier this week by a vote of 113 to 99.

Mr Jordan is a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and has a reputation in Congress as a rightwing hardliner and brawler. He may yet end up failing to get the votes he needs for a floor vote as the GOP divisions appear far from softening.

Key Points

• Jordan could be charged in connection to 2020 election scheme, legal observer says

• VIDEO: Kevin McCarthy says he will support Jim Jordan for House speaker

• ‘The adults in the room on Capitol Hill ... ought to sit some people down’

• Trump-backed Jim Jordan secures GOP nomination for speaker amid party chaos

• Jim Jordan is a conservative hellraiser in the House. Now he’s Trump’s top choice for speaker

‘The adults in the room on Capitol Hill ... ought to sit some people down’

08:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Mike Pence said on Friday that it was a “breach of trust” for some Republicans not to back Steve Scalise after he was nominated to be speaker.

“It’s time for them to step up … Get it done this week because the days are only becoming more dangerous and more perilous,” he said.

“The adults in the room on Capitol Hill ... ought to sit some people down. Just ask them if they want to be on the team ... I give no quarter to those that are sowing chaos in the Congress today,” he added.

Republicans revolted when Mr McCarthy passed continuing resolution

05:00 , Eric Garcia

Reps Chip Roy and Troy Nehls of Texas both said that the House included aid to Israel in the defence spending bill it passed before the coup against Mr McCarthy and that the Senate should take it up. But that bill was always a non-starter given the conservative riders.

Speaking of which, the House still needs to pass spending bills. Remember, the whole reason the House is in this mess is because a handful of Republicans revolted when Mr McCarthy passed a continuing resolution to keep the government open for 48 days.

Instead of passing bills, the House is fighting about a speaker, and given that Republicans prefer to pass individual spending bills instead of one major omnibus spending bill, that makes appropriations take much longer.

And this is to say nothing of the fact that they would eventually need to negotiate with the Democrat-controlled Senate in conference to create compromise bills, which would inevitably infuriate conservatives and likely lead to another mutiny not unlike what just happened – or the government might just shut down right before the holidays.

The holdouts don’t seem that flustered

02:00 , Eric Garcia

If Republicans had a speaker right now, they likely would be attempting to pressure President Joe Biden to give greater support to Israel, despite the fact the president has thrown his support robustly behind the country. Indeed, when your reporter tried asking the former speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday about what message this sends given that the Middle East is on fire, he tried to blame Mr Biden.

“We have continuity of government here, I think it says more that it takes the president too long to come out and talk,” Mr McCarthy said. During his speakership, Mr McCarthy traveled to Israel and invited President Isaac Herzog to give a joint address to Congress. Republicans would ideally like to criticise those Democrats who boycotted the speech earlier this year in protest of Israel’s record on human rights. But the speaker’s crisis makes it hard to do so.

But the holdouts don’t seem that flustered. Rep Andy Ogles (R-TN), who opposed Mr Scalise said Israel could handle its own issues.

“Israel does not need our resources,” he told The Independent on Thursday. “They’re well equipped to take care of their own business. I think what quite frankly, we need to stop meddling in their foreign policy and let them do what they have to do which is wipe out Hamas.”

Many Republicans seem to know that the speaker’s crisis makes it hard to support Israel

Sunday 15 October 2023 23:00 , Eric Garcia

While the temptation for schadenfreude may be strong, the GOP’s inability to find a speaker has real-life consequences. It comes as Congress is unable to address multiple crises on the domestic and international front and seriously risks jeopardizing the United States’ standing.

Perhaps the biggest challenge the United States faces is how to respond to the recent attack by Hamas in Israel, both in how to support Israel after the attacks that led to the deaths of hundreds, the taking of hostages and the killing of children, as well as how to ensure that Israel follows international law.

Many Republicans seem to know that the speaker’s crisis makes it hard to support Israel, which is a core tenet of conservative ideology given how many conservative Christians support Israel as part of end-times theology and their general belief in a hawkish foreign policy.

“The world is looking at us right now in this basement room of how we’re going to move forward,” Rep Mark Alford of Missouri said.

‘Maybe the right person for the job of speaker of the House isn’t someone who wants it so bad'

Sunday 15 October 2023 20:00 , Eric Garcia

When Mr Ryan left the speakership in 2019, Mr Jordan became a trusted ally of then-minority leader Kevin McCarthy. He also became a welcome fixture at the White House and led efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. On 5 November 2020, he participated in a rally to “Stop the Steal” at Pennsylvania’s state capitol in Harrisburg.

The House select committee that investigated the January 6 riot found that on 21 December 2020, Mr Jordan and a handful of House Republicans met with Mr Trump to discuss efforts to object to the election results and Mr Trump held the event to “disseminate his false claims and to encourage members of the public to fight the outcome on January 6”. He also admitted that he spoke with Mr Trump on the day of the January 6 riot.

In 2021, when the House organised the select committee to investigate January 6, Mr McCarthy selected Mr Jordan and Rep Jim Banks (R-IN), two allies of Mr Trump, as two of his five selections for the committee. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected Mr Banks and Mr Jordan, which led to Mr McCarthy pulling the rest of his members.

Over time, Mr McCarthy continued to elevate him, having him lead a subcommittee on the “weaponisation” of the federal government. Earlier this year, when many critics of Mr McCarthy opted to support him, he encouraged them to support Mr McCarthy, saying “I think Kevin McCarthy’s the right guy to lead us. I really do, or I wouldn’t be standing up here giving up this speech”.

In turn, Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who nominated Mr Jordan, said the speech made him just the right candidate to lead the House, adding, “Maybe the right person for the job of speaker of the House isn’t someone who wants it so bad”.

When Mr Gaetz filed a motion to vacate this week, Mr Jordan voted against it.

Climbing the ranks in the Trump era

Sunday 15 October 2023 17:00 , Eric Garcia

Mr Boehner’s ouster gave Mr Jordan increased political clout. During Paul Ryan’s speakership, Mr Jordan continued to criticise the House GOP leadership. When Donald Trump became president, Mr Jordan quickly became a fixture in conservative media criticising attempts of the “deep state” to undermine Mr Trump.

On the House Judiciary Committee, Mr Jordan served as one of the chief apologists during Mr Trump’s first impeachment trial, aggressively questioning witnesses who alleged that Mr Trump sought to have Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter in exchange for aid to Ukraine as a means to help him win re-election.

When Mr Meadows left the House to become White House chief of staff, Mr Jordan became chairman of the Oversight Committee before resigning that post to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

The ‘legislative terrorist’

Sunday 15 October 2023 11:00 , Eric Garcia

Mr Jordan holds few legislative accomplishments and he criticised leaders in his own party as often as he criticised the Obama administration and Democrats. Rather than focusing on the work of governing, he focused more on raising his objections in the media.

After Republicans won the majority in the House of Representatives, he turned down a position on the House Appropriations Committee, which allocates money to various programmes and has long been considered the most prestigious committee in the House. Rather, he chose to lead the Republican Study Committee, an ideologically conservative focused on advancing conservative policies.

In 2013, he and a handful of Tea Party conservatives teamed up with Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) in an effort to shut down the government if Congress did not defund the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The effort would never be successful since Democrats controlled the Senate at the time and Mr Obama still occupied the White House. But it burnished Mr Jordan’s credentials as a conservative warrior.

In 2015, he became the founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, serving as its inaugural chairman. Ultimately, his colleague Mark Meadows, a congressman from North Carolina who would go on to serve as White House chief of staff, filed a motion to vacate the chair during John Boehner’s tenure as speaker. The vote never came but it was enough to end Mr Boehner’s time as speaker. Later, Mr Boehner would criticise his tactics. “Jordan was a terrorist as a legislator going back to his days in the Ohio House and Senate,” before dubbing him “a legislative terrorist”.

How has Jim Jordan gotten to this point?

Sunday 15 October 2023 08:00 , Eric Garcia

Prior to serving in Congress, Mr Jordan attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he became a champion wrestler in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association. Shortly thereafter, he received a master’s degree from Ohio State University and a law degree from Capital University Law School, though he never took the bar exam and never practised law, telling NPR in 2018, “I’m just a wannabe”.

He later served in both chambers of Ohio’s General Assembly before he won a seat in the US Congress in 2006. In the following years, he became one of the loudest voices in the Tea Party movement that served as a backlash to Barack Obama’s presidency.

Jim Jordan is a conservative hellraiser in the House. Now he’s Trump’s top choice for speaker

Sunday 15 October 2023 05:00 , Eric Garcia

Early in the morning of 6 October, former president Donald Trump threw his support behind Rep Jim Jordan in the race to become speaker of the House. The endorsement was not entirely surprising given Mr Jordan, an Ohio congressman, occupied the same lane in the House of Representatives that Mr Trump has as a presidential candidate and president – as an expression of conservatives who were dissatisfied with Republican leadership and a candidate who channelled their rage.

Following the failure of Majority Leader Steve Scalise to get the backing he needed for vote on the floor of the House, the focus returned to Mr Jordan, who was the only challenger to Mr Scalise in the first internal GOP vote on who should be the next speaker. Mr Scalise won that vote 113 to Mr Jordan’s 99.

A product of the Tea Party wave and founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, Mr Jordan’s tenure in the House led to the ouster of former speaker John Boehner, which set the stage for Kevin McCarthy’s downfall earlier this month, despite his steadfast support for the speaker.

In addition, as a previous chair of the House Oversight Committee and now the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he has defended Mr Trump vociferously. Fast-talking, pugnacious and prone to inflammatory rhetoric that veers into outright falsehoods, Mr Jordan often can be seen roaming the halls of the House not wearing a suit jacket.

But he also played a significant role in Mr Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and spreading misinformation since then. He’s faced further scrutiny about whether he refused to report the sexual abuse of wrestlers he coached while at the Ohio State University.

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‘There are still some people that have their own agendas'

Sunday 15 October 2023 02:00 , Rachel Sharp

Mr Scalise was nominated for the speakership by House Republicans on Wednesday, edging out Trump-backed Ohio Rep Jim Jordan in a vote of 113 to 99.

However, the Louisiana Republican failed to secure enough votes for a deciding vote, prompting him to withdraw from the race. “There are still some people that have their own agendas,” he said as he announced that he was quitting. “And I was very clear we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs this country is counting on us to come back together.”

Subsequently, Mr Jordan jumped back into the race.

The House hullabaloo follows the ouster, just over a week ago, of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Social media commentators mock Steve Scalise as his speaker dreams are outlasted by a head of lettuce

Saturday 14 October 2023 23:00 , Kelly Rissman

Social media commentators didn’t have much faith in Steve Scalise’s aspirations to become the next House speaker, including one user who correctly predicted that a head of lettuce would outlast the Majority Leader’s goals.

“My money’s on the lettuce,” MeidasTouch Network posted on X on Thursday, alongside a picture featuring a framed photo of Mr Scalise next to an example of the salad ingredient adorned with googly eyes.

“Winning. Winner. Won,” one user wrote.

“The undefeated Lettuce wins again,” another joked.

The post was an echo of memes by British newspaper the Daily Star that haunted embattled UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose short tenure in the post was compared to the “shelf-life of a lettuce” in The Economist.

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'I always tell people, don’t worry, please don’t worry. It’s much worse than you think’

Saturday 14 October 2023 20:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Amid the GOP’s seemingly never-ending struggle to agree on a new speaker, Mr Colbert asked Mr Fetterman if the members of the upper chamber “feel pretty good right now that they’re not the most dysfunctional part of the government?”

“Well it’s a low bar, really,” Mr Fetterman said.

“I just want everybody to realise just how truly dysfunctional it really is,” he added. “And I always tell people, don’t worry, please don’t worry. It’s much worse than you think.“

John Fetterman says America’s ‘best and brightest’ are not in Congress

Saturday 14 October 2023 17:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Sen John Fetterman said on Wednesday that the US “is not sending their best and brightest” to Congress.

“Sometimes you literally just can’t believe, like, these people are making the decisions that are determining the government here. It’s actually scary,” Mr Fetterman told Stephen Colbert during an appearance on The Late Show on CBS.

“Before the government almost shut down, I mean, it came down to a couple hours,” he noted about the last-minute deal struck between Republicans and Democrats to fund the government until the middle of next month that prompted the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“I was in my office, and they finally came over from the House. And they’re like, ‘Okay, well, this has to be unanimous in the Senate.’ And out of 99 of us, if one single one of us would have said no, the whole government would have shut down,” Mr Fetterman said.

“That’s how dangerous that is to put that kind of power in one’s hands because you have some very less gifted kinds of people there that are willing to shut down the government just as score points on Fox,” he noted.

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How we got here

Saturday 14 October 2023 14:00 , Rachel Sharp

The speaker seat has been empty since eight Republicans – led by Rep Matt Gaetz – joined Democrats to vote to remove Mr McCarthy from the speakership on 3 October.

Mr McCarthy had grown increasingly at odds with the far-right wing of the party – notably lead rebel and MAGA Republican Mr Gaetz.

Mr Gaetz had filed a motion to vacate the speaker in outrage that Mr McCarthy struck a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown – one that could have temporarily shuttered key services for American people and furloughed federal workers.

After Democrats declined to bail out the speaker and members of his own party turned on him, Mr McCarthy was removed in a 216-210 vote to vacate – marking the first time in American history that a speaker has been ousted by other lawmakers.

House in session for less than nine hours in two weeks

Saturday 14 October 2023 11:00 , Rachel Sharp

CNN reporter Kristin Wilson noted that in the two weeks since Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the role, the House has been in session for less than nine hours – stalling the passage of bills for the American people.

“They’ve been in session a total of 8 hours and 39 minutes since McCarthy cancelled recess two weeks ago tomorrow,” she posted on X.

Because of the Republican party split, a candidate can only afford to lose four Republican votes to pass the threshold of 217 votes.

‘This Party wants to govern America, yet they can’t even govern themselves'

Saturday 14 October 2023 08:00 , Rachel Sharp

Former US Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal questioned how the GOP can hope to run the country when they can’t resolve their infighting.

“This Party wants to govern America, yet they can’t even govern themselves,” he posted on X, sharing a link to an article about Mr Scalise’s exit from the race.

Gun control activist Fred Guttenberg posted that Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries should take the gavel.

“A bipartisan solution is the only path forward. It is time for Speaker Hakeem Jeffries,” he said.

‘This is all totally unprecedented in American history'

Saturday 14 October 2023 05:00 , Rachel Sharp

MSNBC host Chris Hayes revealed his shock that the US has been thrown into this “totally unprecedented” situation.

“This is all totally unprecedented in American history. We haven’t had this before,” he said.

“It’s 100 years since we had a motion to vacate the chair. Amidst an unfolding global crisis, the second in line to the president and constitutional office of Speaker of the House remains vacant, with no clear path for this House Republican caucus to rally behind anyone for an election.”

‘This is very problematic at a terrible time going on in our world right now’

Saturday 14 October 2023 04:00 , Rachel Sharp

Several Democratic lawmakers and other critics were quick to hit out at the GOP for plunging the nation into yet more chaos.

Senator Cory Booker said that the US is “in crisis right now” because of the party’s inner turmoil and condemned the far-right faction of the GOP for “undermining the function of government”.

“This is a problem. We are in crisis right now in the county we have important issues we should be dealing with,” he said in an appearance on MSNBC.

“Resolutely supporting the effort in Ukraine. Resolutely standing with Israel helping it to aid in its defence in protection of its citizens and in the evacuation of Americans from Gaza.

“There are important issues we should be dealing, with not to mention running the government.”

He added: “To have this level of dysfunction amongst the House Republicans – and especially a small group of right-wing folks who are undermining the function of the government – this is very problematic at a terrible time going on in our world right now.”

Cory Booker leads criticism of GOP House speaker turmoil: ‘We are in crisis right now’

Saturday 14 October 2023 03:00 , Rachel Sharp

The Republican Party is coming under intense criticism for plunging the US government into chaos as infighting continues to derail all hopes of appointing a new leader of the House of Representatives.

On Thursday night, hopes that the House would finally get a new speaker were dashed when the GOP nominee Steve Scalise suddenly dropped out of the race.

In a bombshell move, House Majority Leader Mr Scalise announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy, hitting out at the “agenda” of members of his own party.

“If you look over the last few weeks, if you look at where our conference is, there’s still work to be done,” he told reporters.

“Our conference has to come together and is not there. There are still some people that have their own agenda.”

READ MORE

VIDEO: Steve Scalise ends bid for House Speaker after failing to win enough votes

Saturday 14 October 2023 02:00 , Gustaf Kilander

‘We’re dysfunctional, we’re disorganised and we’re broken'

Saturday 14 October 2023 01:00 , Alastair Jamieson, Eric Garcia

Rep Troy Nehls of Texas has suggested nominating Donald Trump to be the leader of the House. (The US constitution does not explicitly require the speaker to be a member of the House of Representatives, but every speaker so far has been. The speaker is second in line to the presidency, after the vice-president.)

But he acknowledged his plan was unlikely, not least because the party is too divided.

“We’re dysfunctional, we’re disorganised and we’re broken,” he said after yet another meeting broke up without agreement. “One of the members said in there, you know, I don’t think the Lord Jesus himself could get 217.”

Republicans hoped to avoid repeat of embarrassing spectacle from January

Saturday 14 October 2023 00:00 , Alastair Jamieson, Eric Garcia

Republicans had hoped to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing spectacle that occurred in January when hardline conservatives forced Kevin McCarthy to endure no fewer than 15 floor votes over four days before winning the gavel.

Several Republicans said they would stick with Mr Scalise’s rival, Jim Jordan, who lost out in a secret ballot on Wednesday. Mr Jordan had encouraged his supporters to vote for Scalise.

Representative Greg Murphy said it was not clear that Mr Jordan could win enough support to succeed on the floor.

“It’s going to be hard,” Mr Murphy told reporters. “Personally, I think it may end up being a compromise candidate.”

Mr Scalise, 58, gained near legendary status within Republican circles by surviving a severe gunshot wound after a gunman opened fire during practice for a charity baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2017.

He also commands widespread respect as a veteran legislator who has spent years in party leadership positions.

But he also faces new health concerns as he undergoes treatment for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, which some Jordan supporters cited as a reason not to vote for him.

New York representative Nicole Malliotakis initially backed Mr Jordan but got behind Mr Scalise… although she was unable to explain why, except to say Mr Scalise is a nice guy.

“Steve Scalise is a good person,” she said. “He’s a good man. He’s is a person who I think can be a good communicator and leader for this conference.”

‘Dysfunctional’ race for US House speaker in chaos as Scalise drops out

Friday 13 October 2023 23:00 , Alastair Jamieson, Eric Garcia

A Republican race to become the next speaker of the US House of Representatives was mired in chaos on Friday after party divisions scuppered the first choice of candidate, Steve Scalise.

He dropped out of the race after it became clear that internal opposition would leave him short of the votes needed to be elected on the House floor.

It sent the House of Representatives into its 10th day without leadership, which means the chamber has been unable to act to support Israel’s war against Hamas militants or pass government spending bills before funding runs out on 17 November.

Republicans have such a slender majority that opposition from just four representatives is enough to stop a party nominee from getting the necessary 217 votes.

“There are still some people that have their own agendas,” Mr Scalise told reporters as he quit the race.

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Social media commentators mock Steve Scalise as his speaker dreams are outlasted by a head of lettuce

Friday 13 October 2023 22:30 , Kelly Rissman

Social media commentators didn’t have much faith in Steve Scalise’s aspirations to become the next House speaker, including one user who correctly predicted that a head of lettuce would outlast the Majority Leader’s goals.

“My money’s on the lettuce,” MeidasTouch Network posted on X on Thursday, alongside a picture featuring a framed photo of Mr Scalise next to an example of the salad ingredient adorned with googly eyes.

“Winning. Winner. Won,” one user wrote.

“The undefeated Lettuce wins again,” another joked.

The post was an echo of memes by British newspaper the Daily Star that haunted embattled UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose short tenure in the post was compared to the “shelf-life of a lettuce” in The Economist.

READ MORE

Jordan could be charged in connection to 2020 election scheme, legal observer says

Friday 13 October 2023 22:20 , Gustaf Kilander

Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) may be indicted as “an accessory after the fact” to former President Donald Trump and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, legal observers have told Newsweek, noting that prosecutors would have to show that Mr Jordan’s claims were part of a larger conspiracy.

An adjunct professor of law at New York University, Peter Shane, told the outlet that the First Amendment doesn’t protect against intentionally false statements.

“Laws against fraud, perjury, and defamation, for example, are not unconstitutional,” he said.

“The First Amendment would make it difficult to uphold a prosecution of Jordan based solely on his speech unless it could be shown to be part and parcel of some larger criminal act,” he added.

“If it could be shown that Jordan was part of a conspiracy to defraud the United States of the sort charged against Trump in his DC indictment, and his false statements were made in furtherance of that conspiracy, the First Amendment would not preclude using his statements as evidence,” Mr Shane said.

‘We must unite behind one leader’

Friday 13 October 2023 22:00 , Gustaf Kilander

The focus has returned to Mr Jordan as he was the only challenger to Mr Scalise, with the supporters of the Ohioan noting his conservative pedigree as a former chair of the Republican Study Committee and the House Freedom Caucus, adding that he has become less and less of a thorn in the side of GOP leadership in the last few years.

Rep Richard Hudson (R-NC) said in a statement on Friday that “we must unite behind one leader with the integrity, the ability and the vision to lead us. I believe that Jim Jordan is that leader and I ask my colleagues to join me now”.

The House Republican conference met again on Friday morning as they attempted to get over the so far insurmountable divisions within the caucus.

The chaos began last week when then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted after eight Republicans voted with all the Democrats to remove him after a motion to vacate was triggered by Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

“We had a process and we had a nominee and people stabbed him in the back,” Rep Pat Fallon (R-TX) said, according to NBC News. “So that’s not something to be proud of.”

VIDEO: Kevin McCarthy says he will support Jim Jordan for House speaker

Friday 13 October 2023 21:56 , Billal Rahman

Friday 13 October 2023 21:56 , Gustaf Kilander

‘The adults in the room on Capitol Hill ... ought to sit some people down’

Friday 13 October 2023 21:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Mike Pence said on Friday that it was a “breach of trust” for some Republicans not to back Steve Scalise after he was nominated to be speaker.

“It’s time for them to step up … Get it done this week because the days are only becoming more dangerous and more perilous,” he said.

“The adults in the room on Capitol Hill ... ought to sit some people down. Just ask them if they want to be on the team ... I give no quarter to those that are sowing chaos in the Congress today,” he added.

Trump-backed Jim Jordan secures GOP nomination for speaker amid party chaos

Friday 13 October 2023 21:19 , Gustaf Kilander and Eric Garcia

Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) has secured a majority of the GOP votes for speaker to grasp the nomination but he was unable to reach the 217 votes he needs from his caucus to win a vote of the full House.

Mr Jordan beat challenger Rep Austin Scott (R-GA) by 124 votes to 81 on Friday afternoon, according to Politico.

This comes after Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) gave up his attempt to become speaker after he beat Mr Jordan in the first internal ballot on nominating a candidate for speaker earlier this week.

Mr Jordan is a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and has a reputation in Congress as a rightwing hardliner and brawler. He may yet end up failing to get the votes he needs for a floor vote as the GOP divisions appear far from softening.

As the GOP has a very small majority, Mr Jordan can only lose four votes on the House floor, and a number of Republicans on the moderate end of the conference have already said they won’t back Mr Jordan even in a vote of the full chamber.

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Dems sends pitch to temporary speaker to get House back in business

Friday 13 October 2023 21:03 , Gustaf Kilander

Americans united behind Biden and Israel even as House has no speaker, Raskin says

Friday 13 October 2023 21:02 , Gustaf Kilander

Jim Jordan is a conservative hellraiser in the House. Now he’s Trump’s top choice for speaker

Friday 13 October 2023 21:00 , Eric Garcia

Early in the morning of 6 October, former president Donald Trump threw his support behind Rep Jim Jordan in the race to become speaker of the House. The endorsement was not entirely surprising given Mr Jordan, an Ohio congressman, occupied the same lane in the House of Representatives that Mr Trump has as a presidential candidate and president – as an expression of conservatives who were dissatisfied with Republican leadership and a candidate who channelled their rage.

Following the failure of Majority Leader Steve Scalise to get the backing he needed for vote on the floor of the House, the focus has now returned to Mr Jordan, who was the only challenger to Mr Scalise in the first internal GOP vote on who should be the next speaker. Mr Scalise won that vote 113 to Mr Jordan’s 99.

A product of the Tea Party wave and founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, Mr Jordan’s tenure in the House led to the ouster of former speaker John Boehner, which set the stage for Kevin McCarthy’s downfall earlier this month, despite his steadfast support for the speaker.

In addition, as a previous chair of the House Oversight Committee and now the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he has defended Mr Trump vociferously. Fast-talking, pugnacious and prone to inflammatory rhetoric that veers into outright falsehoods, Mr Jordan often can be seen roaming the halls of the House not wearing a suit jacket.

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Here’s what will happen next — maybe — after Steve Scalise quits contest for House speaker

Friday 13 October 2023 20:30 , Gustaf Kilander and Eric Garcia

The mess that is the Republican contest to choose a new House speaker just got worse, with no clear path in sight. Here’s what could happen next:

THE BACKGROUND The new chaos emerged after the initial GOP nominee for speaker, Rep Steve Scalise (R-LA), declared on Thursday that he had been unable to secure the support he needed to take the vote to the House floor. Mr Scalise’s decision came after he had failed to convince 217 of the 221 members of the House Republican Conference required to win the gavel to vote for him for speaker.

“If you look at where our conference is, there’s still work to be done,” he said. “Our conference still has to come together. And it’s not there.”

“There are still some people that have their own agendas,” he added. “And I was very clear we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs this country is counting on us to come back together.”

READ MORE

Santos in heated exchange over Israel with a protester

Friday 13 October 2023 20:23 , Eric Garcia

Republicans to vote at 3.15pm

Friday 13 October 2023 20:04 , Gustaf Kilander

Fetterman: The US ‘is not sending their best and brightest’ to Congress

Friday 13 October 2023 20:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Sen John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Wednesday that the US “is not sending their best and brightest” to Congress.

“Sometimes you literally just can’t believe like, these people are making the decisions that are determining the government here. It’s actually scary,” Mr Fetterman told Stephen Colbert during an appearance on The Late Show on CBS.

“Before the government almost shut down, I mean, it came down to a couple hours,” he noted about the last-minute deal struck between Republicans and Democrats to fund the government until the middle of next month that prompted the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“I was in my office, and they finally came over from the House. And they’re like, ‘Okay, well, this has to be unanimous in the Senate.’ And out of 99 of us, if one single one of us would have said no, the whole government would have shut down,” Mr Fetterman said.

“That’s how dangerous that is to put that kind of power in one’s hands because you have some very less gifted kinds of people there that are willing to shut down the government just as score points on Fox,” he noted.

Amid the GOP’s seemingly never-ending struggle to agree on a new speaker, Mr Colbert asked if the members of the upper chamber “feel pretty good right now that they’re not the most dysfunctional part of the government?”

“Well it’s a low bar, really,” Mr Fetterman said.

“I just want everybody to realize just how truly dysfunctional it really is,” he added. “And I always tell people, don’t worry, please don’t worry. It’s much worse than you think.“

John Fetterman says America’s ‘best and brightest’ are not in Congress

Sean Hannity of Fox News comes out in support of Jordan

Friday 13 October 2023 19:53 , Gustaf Kilander

VOICES: The speaker fracas has real-life consequences

Friday 13 October 2023 19:45 , Eric Garcia

The House Republican conference experienced just its latest faceplant on Thursday evening when House Majority Leader Steve Scalise withdrew his nomination for speaker of the House.

The announcement was not entirely surprising. The House GOP conference is still incredibly split following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy. Plenty of conservatives who supported Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) and others had objections that they just otherwise couldn’t articulate, a sign of how much just simply opposing anything leadership supports has become a feature of being a rank-and-file House Republican.

At this point, no Republican has a clear path to reaching the required 217 votes to get the gavel in the House. Ever since January, media reports have popped up about a handful of swing-district Republicans teaming up with Democrats to vote on a consensus speaker. But these stories are always as plausible as the idea of a contested presidential nomination at a party convention; they are catnip for political junkies but almost never come to fruition.

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Liz Cheney slams Jim Jordan: ‘They’ll lose the House majority and they’ll deserve to'

Friday 13 October 2023 19:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Former Rep Liz Cheney (R-WY) slammed Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH), writing on X on Friday: “Jim Jordan was involved in Trump’s conspiracy to steal the election and seize power; he urged that Pence refuse to count lawful electoral votes.

“If Rs nominate Jordan to be Speaker, they will be abandoning the Constitution. They’ll lose the House majority and they’ll deserve to.”

‘Polarizing’ Jordan struggling to get to 217

Friday 13 October 2023 19:29 , Gustaf Kilander