Published October 18, 2023
On Monday night, I watched an interview with Newt Gingrich who was cheerfully predicting that “a handful” of Republicans might vote against Jim Jordan to be the Speaker, but even if he fell short on the first try, most of them would come around after casting a “protest vote” and put him over the top on the second attempt. We all saw how that worked out. The “handful” somehow spiraled into nearly two dozen and there was so much discord in the conference that they didn’t even bother attempting a second vote. So this morning they had to give it another go. At the time of publishing, the vote wasn’t quite concluded because nothing ever happens on schedule in Washington. But in the end, it may not really matter, which I’ll get to in a moment. But for now, the drama continues in the House and nobody seems to be terribly happy or truly in control.
Having lost the first vote to become House speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan will try again on a decisive second ballot that will test whether the hard-edged ally of Donald Trump can win over the holdouts or if his bid for the gavel is collapsing, denied by detractors.
Ahead of Wednesday morning’s voting, Jordan made an unexpected plea for party unity, the combative Judiciary Committee chairman telling his colleagues on social media, “we must stop attacking each other and come together.”
But a surprisingly large and politically diverse group of 20 Republicans rejected Jordan’s nomination, many resisting the hardball tactics enforcing support, and viewing the Ohio congressman as too extreme for the powerful position of House speaker, second in line to the presidency.
In the end, Jim Jordan’s fate and future as a leader in the GOP caucus probably isn’t really the big story here. He was just the face that emerged to be plastered on the story. It’s becoming worryingly obvious that the House GOP caucus is slowly reaching the point of becoming ungovernable and dysfunctional. And the real reason doesn’t have much to do with Jordan, Keven McCarthy, moderates or even the Freedom Caucus.
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SOURCE: https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/10/18/jim-jordan-tries-again-will-it-matter-n585708
RELATED: Donald Trump ally Jim Jordan loses vote for US House Speaker
Ohio congressman must overcome deep Republican divisions in second ballot scheduled for Wednesday
Jim Jordan, centre, was defeated in an initial vote to become Speaker of the House of Representatives © Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Published October 17, 2023
Jim Jordan was fighting for his political future on Tuesday night, after 20 members of his own party voted against the Donald Trump loyalist in his bid to become Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The House went into recess immediately after Jordan lost the vote on Tuesday afternoon. Plans for a second ballot were scrapped, as the Ohio congressman struggled to win over detractors. Another vote has been scheduled for 11am Eastern Time on Wednesday.
“We’re gonna keep going,” Jordan said, adding that he was having “great discussions” with colleagues.
But Jordan faces an uphill battle if he is going to seize the Speaker’s gavel and end weeks of uncertainty in Washington.
Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House, meaning Jordan could only afford to lose a handful of votes from his party. He will need to win over as many as 17 of his fellow Republicans if he is to secure victory in a ballot of the whole House.
The scale of Jordan’s defeat on Tuesday reflects the deep divide among House Republicans, and adds to the chaos that has gripped Capitol Hill in recent weeks at a time of mounting geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East.
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SOURCE: https://www.ft.com/content/0c94c4e7-21b2-419e-8f87-97026914b4b1
RELATED: The Symbiotic, Democracy-Eroding Relationship Between Donald Trump and Jim Jordan
Jordan is a perfect ally for Trump, and a walking embodiment of a radicalized G.O.P. That won’t change, even if his Speaker bid fails because enough Republicans from Biden-majority districts hold the line.
If Jim Jordan were to be elected as Speaker, it would signal that the Republican Party had formally accepted its role as a mere appendage to an insurrectionary right-wing movement.
Published October 17, 2023
On Tuesday, Donald Trump was back in New York to attend his civil trial on charges of business fraud, and, as usual, he stopped directly outside the courtroom to attack the prosecutor, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James; and the judge, Arthur F. Engoron. “They are the frauds,” Trump said, repeating his false allegation that James and Engoron personally valued his Mar-a-Lago estate at eighteen million dollars. (In fact, a Palm Beach property appraiser valued the property at between $18 million and $27.6 million.) Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
The former President’s latest rant came a day after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan—who is overseeing his federal trial in Washington, D.C., on charges relating to his failed effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election—imposed a partial gag order on him, saying that he is not allowed “to launch a pretrial smear campaign against participating government staff, their families, and foreseeable witnesses.” In recent months, Trump has repeatedly referred to the special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the case’s prosecution, as “deranged.” He has also attacked Mike Pence, his former Vice-President, and the retired general Mark Milley, who was formerly the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—both of whom may well be called to testify about what they saw in the period after the 2020 Presidential election.
As Trump was renewing his assault on the courts, one of his staunchest allies in Washington, the Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, was making a bid to become the next Speaker of the House. In an initial floor vote, Jordan fell well short of the tally he needed, with twenty Republican representatives voting against him. The G.O.P. caucus subsequently indicated that it would hold another vote on Wednesday, and Jordan said, “We’re going to keep working.”
