Cory Booker says US ‘in crisis’ because of GOP House speaker chaos
Jim Jordan is returning to the race for House speaker for another attempt after Majority Leader Steve Scalise failed to get the 217 votes needed from his 221 members to take the gavel.
The House Judiciary Committee chair announced his second attempt on Friday after he lost an internal GOP vote to Mr Scalise earlier this week, receiving 99 votes to 113 for the majority leader.
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 as the GOP divisions appear far from softening.
As the GOP has a very small majority, Mr Jordan can only lose four votes, and a number of Republicans on the moderate end of the conference have already said they won’t back Mr Jordan, including Missouri’s Ann Wagner, Georgia’s Austin Scott, and Nebraska’s Don Bacon.
“I think he’s gonna have a math problem as well,” Californian Mike Garcia told Axios and Greg Murphy of North Carolina added that “it’s going to be hard” for Mr Jordan to become speaker.
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Fetterman: The US ‘is not sending their best and brightest’ to Congress
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.“
Gustaf Kilander13 October 2023 20:00
Sean Hannity of Fox News comes out in support of Jordan
Gustaf Kilander13 October 2023 19:53
VOICES: The speaker fracas has real-life consequences
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.
Eric Garcia13 October 2023 19:45
Liz Cheney slams Jim Jordan: ‘They’ll lose the House majority and they’ll deserve to’
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.”
Gustaf Kilander13 October 2023 19:30
Gustaf Kilander13 October 2023 19:01
‘Everything is up in the air’
Rep Brian Fitz (R-PA) said on Friday that he’s not ready to back anyone for speaker, adding that he wants answers on the debt limit, how to fund the government, aid to Ukraine, and the rules on a motion to vacate.
“The only thing I really know right now is: Everything is up in the air,” he said, according to NBC.
Gustaf Kilander13 October 2023 19:00