Republican Rep. Jim Jordan failed again Wednesday on a crucial second ballot to become House speaker, but the hard-fighting ally of Donald Trump showed no signs of dropping out despite losing support from even more of his GOP colleagues.
Next steps were highly uncertain as angry, frustrated Republicans looked at other options. A bipartisan group of lawmakers floated an extraordinary plan — to give the interim speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., more power to reopen the immobilized House and temporarily conduct routine business. But that seems doubtful, for now.
What was clear was that Jordan’s path to become House speaker was almost certainly lost. He was opposed by 22 Republicans, two more than he lost in first-round voting the day before. Many view the Ohio congressman as too extreme for a central seat of U.S. power and resented the harassing hardball tactics from Jordan’s allies for their votes. One lawmaker said they had received death threats.
You’re getting downvoted by people who don’t understand what this means for the US right now, or by people who aren’t fans of the US and think your last comment is indicative of US imperialist thinking. Some see this petty in-fighting as the downfall of the horrible GOP, which could be good in the long term. But for today it means that no legislative work can be done, which includes a long term budget agreement. We are currently plodding along under a temporary budget agreement that expires Nov 17. If a speaker doesn’t get elected, then a vote on a budget can’t be held; which means there will be a government shutdown. Millions of federal employees will be furloughed without pay until the GOP decides to actually fucking work at their fucking job.