With Speaker Bid Stalled, Jim Jordan Backs Plan For Temporary Speaker, Then Backs Off

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Thursday evening found his quest to become the 56th speaker of the House exactly where it was when the day began ― awaiting another vote where he is expected to fall short of the 217 votes needed.

In between, though, he backed a plan to give more power to the temporary speaker who replaced Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), reversed course to back away from that idea, tried to woo holdouts who opposed him, and ultimately delayed a third vote on whether he should become speaker.

“We made the pitch to members on the resolution as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work,” Jordan told reporters. “We decided that wasn’t where we’re going to go.”

Now a third vote is not likely until Friday after Jordan lost twice this week amid opposition from more than 20 of his Republican colleagues. Instead, Republicans met for hours in the Capitol basement. At one point, McCarthy reportedly yelled at Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the charge for his ouster.

“He loses his temper sometimes. Maybe it’s the Irish in him,” Gaetz told reporters. “I’m glad that we were able to throw cold water on Speaker Light.”

Gaetz said the House would likely vote again on Jordan, though it’s unclear how Jordan could prevail.

Republicans have been leaderless since booting McCarthy from the speaker’s office earlier this month with nobody to replace him. As a result, the House can’t function. As Republicans fail to coalesce around replacements, lawmakers increasingly wonder whether they ought to let Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) run things.

But conservative Republicans immediately denounced the plan to empower McHenry, which would have to be enacted through a resolution on the House floor. Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) told HuffPost his constituents don’t want a temporary speaker — they want Jordan.

“They want somebody that will represent them in a conservative, honest, truthful manner,” Crane said. “Jim Jordan is my choice, and 87% of my district wants Jim Jordan as speaker.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also blasted the proposal, describing the House Republican conference as “absolutely broken.”

Another far-right Republican, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), said the fresh chaos only bolstered his case for giving the speaker’s gavel to former President Donald Trump. (Trump actually can’t become speaker under Republicans’ own rules, given his multiple criminal indictments, but Nehls dismissed that as unimportant.)

The resolution empowering McHenry gets at the heart of the problem facing Republicans. It would pass with Democratic votes, and if it did, the House could pass legislation — something many lawmakers consider urgent since the federal government faces a funding deadline and war is breaking out in the Middle East.

But passing bills with Democratic support was what got McCarthy fired in the first place, because a faction of Republicans refuses to accept that Democratic control of the Senate and the White House gives Democrats an equal say in governance.

Nehls expressed disgust at the idea of empowering a temporary speaker through a bipartisan vote.

“Hey, American people, I just want to let you know, you gave the Republican conference the ability to lead, you gave us a gavel, you’re begging for leadership,” Nehls said. “But what we’re going to do is we’re going to lead by bringing Democrats on board? Sickening, quite honestly.”

McHenry himself shot down another idea floated by Republicans on Thursday: that he should take the position he did not need a formal vote to be able to allow bills to be considered and other things a regular speaker can do.

On Thursday night, McHenry told reporters he thought a resolution to empower him was within House rules, but simply acting as if he already had such authority was not.

“I wanted people to be clear, though, that some other alternative here is something that I believe is unconstitutional and not conforming with House rules. Furthermore, that I would not participate in any attempt to make that type of change,” McHenry said.

McHenry did not confirm a report that he had threatened to resign rather than act as speaker without a formal vote to give him power, but he left little doubt where he stood.

“If there is some goal to subvert the House rules to give me powers without a formal vote, I will not accept it,” he said.

Republicans will continue to argue among themselves for the foreseeable future.

Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), speaking to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), has largely confined his role to overseeing the process to elect a new House speaker.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said after a party meeting Thursday morning that Democrats had come to no agreement on how they would treat an offer to boost McHenry if Republicans needed their votes or what their price would be, if any, to provide that help.

“The most important issue is making sure that we have an enlightened legislative agenda that we can act on with up or down votes that meet the needs of the American people,” he told HuffPost.

The powers that McHenry has now as speaker pro tempore are subject to debate. The House rule that made McHenry the acting speaker limits him to exercising “such authorities of the Office of Speaker as may be necessary and appropriate” to get a permanent speaker elected.

Democrats have contended that McHenry’s power is limited because the rule was adopted in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, when lawmakers were worried about a mass casualty event that could impair Congress and result in it being unable to meet. Some Republicans are also wary of interpreting the rule as allowing for a strong acting speaker.

McHenry has mostly kept his duties limited to opening and closing the House chamber and overseeing the floor votes to elect a new speaker, closer to the weaker reading of his role.

Jordan flopped in two House votes this week thanks to opposition from more than 20 of his colleagues. Some complained that they received threats and harassment from members of the public for holding out.

The upcoming supplemental spending bill with aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan may force a resolution to the impasse. While it will go to the Senate for approval first, it’s unclear how or whether it could come to the floor in the House after that without some change in the current speaker situation.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said Democrats would be willing to bail out Republicans but they would need to see the details of any offer first.

“Obviously if there’s a bipartisan path forward, we expect to govern in a bipartisan fashion,” he said.

But Moskowitz also left the door open slightly on acting without leadership’s blessing if party leaders can’t cut a deal. “I can’t see myself keeping us in this same conundrum,” he said.