UPDATE, 11:57 a.m. PT: The Republican leadership chaos continues, as a plan to designate a temporary speaker has been sidelined and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) made plans for another floor vote.
Jordan, who has failed in two votes to become speaker, earlier today embraced a plan in which a resolution would be offered so that the current speaker pro tem, Patrick McHenry, would get additional powers through January. Jordan would have still been in the speaker race, but it would have given him more time to win over holdouts, which numbered 22 on Wednesday.
But in the closed door Republican conference meeting, there was a revolt among some members, particularly those on the far right, who viewed it as a coalition plan that would give additional power to Democrats.
After the temporary speaker plan was presented, “we decided that wasn’t where we were going to go,” Jordan told reporters. “”I’m still running for speaker, and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race.” He said that he wanted to talk to the holdouts.
For much of the morning and into the afternoon, dozens of reporters lined the dimly lit hallway in the Capitol basement just outside the Republican meeting. According to multiple reports, there were heated arguments at points. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that he was at the microphone trying to speak and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who led the effort to oust him, “tried to interrupt. Essentially I told him to sit down and he sat down.”
“I think the entire conference screamed at him. The whole country I think would scream at Matt Gaetz right now,” McCarthy said.
With the temporary speaker plan sidelined, and Jordan still unable to amass the votes, there seems to be no other plan at the moment to get the House running again.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) said that “this has enough complexity to it, with so many moving parts, that I just think it is beyond them to manage this.” He also said that he would advise Democrats to demand concessions from Republicans for their votes — “you never give it away for nothing.”
He said, “The answer, I think, is you got to go back to the drawing board and find a consensus candidate, who can work with us, who has not spent his whole career being a bomb thrower, who actually has some legislative [expertise] demonstrated and is going to try to work with all elements in the Congress to get things done. Do such people exist? Yes, but Jim Jordan is not one of them.”
PREVIOUSLY, 9:10 a.m. PT: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) will not seek a third vote for House speaker and instead is backing a plan in which Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry will be vested with an interim speakership to get the chamber running again.
What’s unclear is whether there are enough votes to even pass that resolution. Some Republicans exiting a closed door meeting expressed anger and frustration.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) called the plan a “big mistake” and told reporters that it “walking Republicans off the plank” and handing power to Democrats. He predicted that more than half of Republicans would vote against it, and that it would take “Democrats to make it happen, and that is a historic betrayal to our Republican voters if we go along with it.”
“We don’t deserve the majority if we go along with a plan to the Democrats control over the House of Representatives,” Banks said.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who instigated the effort to oust the previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters he also opposes the plan. “I am against Speaker-light, I am against Bud Light, I believe it is a constitutional desecration not to elect a speaker of the House,” he said.
Democrats also were meeting today, with speculation that a number of lawmakers will get behind the plan.
Under the plan, Jordan reportedly would still be in the speaker race, but that vote would be put off until January. He has been unable to lineup the 217 votes necessary to clinch the speakership, and support for him dropped in the vote on Wednesday. Some hold out GOP members complained that they received death threats and other harassment after they refused to back him. Jordan condemned those threats on X/Twitter on Wednesday, but his detractors had already complained of a right-wing media pressure campaign over last week to get them to support him.
More to come.
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