Jim Jordan will vote for Steve Scalise to be House speaker, source says – live

“I think Jim Jordan is the fighter we need,” said Marjorie Taylor Greene following House Republican’s vote to nominate Steve Scalise as the next House speaker.

“The speaker of the House is the hardest job in Congress, one of the hardest jobs in the country, it is extremely demanding and it’s very personal to me and I say this with the most compassion.

My father died in April of 2021 with cancer and I like Steve Scalise…so much that I want to see him put all his time and energy into defeating cancer,” she added.

Steve Scalise is short of the 217 votes required to win the speaker election, several Republican sources told CNN.

According to one of the sources, there is broad skepticism towards Scalise as a result of an overall lack of trust throughout the GOP leadership.

Scalise is reported to be meeting individually with Republicans in attempts to convince them to support him on the House floor.

Bernie Sanders has issued a statement on the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza, calling on the international community to focus on reducing the humanitarian suffering as a result of the war.

“The United States has rightly offered solidarity and support to Israel in responding to Hamas’ attack. But we must also insist on restraint from Israeli forces attacking Gaza and work to secure UN humanitarian access,” he said.

He went on to add:

“Israel’s blanket denial of food, water, and other necessities to Gaza is a serious violation of international law and will do nothing but harm innocent cvilians…

Let us not forget that half of the two million people in Gaza are children. Children and innocent people do not deserve to be punished for the acts of Hamas.”

A Tennessee mayoral candidate has been accused by members the Franklin city council of refusing to condemn “actual, literal Nazis”.

The Guardian’s Erum Salam reports:

Gabrielle Hanson was at a candidates’ forum on 2 October when she received a visit by members of the Tennessee Active Club, a hate group known for promoting white nationalism. Members of the council, referred to as aldermen in Franklin, rebuked Hanson for enabling such hate groups, according to local news station WTVF.

“I’m not going to denounce anybody their right to be whatever it is they want to be – whether I agree with what they do in their personal life or not,” Hanson said in response to her critics.

Hanson told her colleagues “you reap what you sow”, in reference to the divisions within the community. She also noted that these were “spiritual repercussions”.

On social media, Hanson emphasized that she did not invite the group to the debate and is “categorically” not a Nazi, nor does she support nazism.

For the full story, click here:

Maryland’s Democratic representative Jamie Raskin asked on Wednesday whether the next House speaker will take a House vote to revive former House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry into president Joe Biden.

Last month, McCarthy announced that he was directing the House to launch an impeachment inquiry into Biden over unproven allegations surrounding his family’s business dealings.

“House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into president Biden’s conduct. Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption,” McCarthy said at the time.

Michigan’s Democratic representative Rashida Tlaib said that she does not support “targeting and killing of civilians, whether in Israel or Palestine.”

Speaking to Michigan Adance, Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, said, “Fact that some have suggested otherwise is offensive and rooted in bigoted assumptions about my faith and ethnicity.”

Earlier this week, Tlaib released a statement saying that the “path to that future must include lifting the [Gaza] blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.”

She went on to denounce the Israeli government and the US’s continued support for it, saying, “As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”

Tennessee Republican representative Tim Burchett, one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust former House speaker Kevin McCarthy from his seat, said he will vote for Steve Scalise.

“Absolutely,” Burchett said in response to a question from a CBS reporter on whether he would vote for Scalise on the House floor.

Meanwhile, the curious case of George Santos, the Republican congressman, fabulist and 23-times charged alleged fraudster from New York, continues.

In response to a move to expel him from Congress, mounted by his fellow New York Republicans, Santos has issued a long-winded statement.

Republicans, he says, seemingly reaching for statesmanlike prose, “must remain steadfast in our commitment to upholding due process and respecting the constitution … the cornerstone of our democracy and the guiding light that ensures justice and fairness for all”.

Santos adds:

An expulsion of myself as a member of Congress before being found guilty from a criminal investigation will set a dangerous precedent. This will do nothing other than erase the voices of the electorate. Let us not succumb to the distractions and let the political games take precedence over the people’s welfare. We must stay focused on the task at hand, working diligently to address the pressing issues that affect the lives of our constituents.

“Stay strong my fellow Americans, and trust that the process will unfold as it should.”

In a much briefer statement, the leader of the move to expel Santos, Anthony D’Esposito, said his fellow Republican’s “many deceptions coupled with the ever-expanding legal case against him further strengthen my long-held belief that he is unfit to serve in Congress”.

More:

Jim Jordan, defeated in the Republican vote to decide a nominee for House speaker, plans to vote for the man who beat him, Steve Scalise, when the question comes to the House floor and is encouraging his colleagues to do the same, a source with direct knowledge tells the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell.

Scalise will only be able to lose four Republican votes if he is to be confirmed as speaker, presuming all Democrats in the closely divided chamber vote no.

Matt Gaetz, the Florida hardliner who orchestrated the brutal ejection of the last speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has said today he will vote for Scalise. But other Republicans – the familiar contraversialists Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert among them – have said they will not back Scalise.

The Washington Post points to the biggest problem facing House Republican leaders, causing them to recess the chamber without a vote: too many members of the caucus are currently set to vote for McCarthy.

Some choice selections from the limpid prose of Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, newly announced candidate for the position of House majority leader, in his letter to Republican colleagues:

When my dear friend Steve [Scalise] is sworn in as speaker … we need a majority leader who will work alongside our speaker to help move this conference past the events of the last 10 days.

I believe that my experience outside of Congress makes me uniquely qualified to lead our majority. We need leaders who listen twice as much as they speak, who are conservative because they’ve seen the impact of Democrat [sic] policies firsthand, and who aren’t afraid to change the way things have been done around here.

… I spent 35 years in leadership outside of Washington DC, working with Americans across every aisle and background. The nameplate on my desk said “Head Excuse Eliminator” because I learned through years in business that empowering the people on my team to do their jobs was the most effective way to lead.

… My whole life, I’ve been told I couldn’t be successful, couldn’t go to college, couldn’t become an engineer. I learned at an early age that the harder you work, the luckier you are. I paid my way through college, became an engineer, and got my dream job in aerospace. No one believed in me, but I proved them wrong.

Key fact: Hern made his millions through an empire of McDonald’s franchises, thereby becoming the “McCongressman”, a nickname, Roll Call points out, he has eagerly embraced.

Georgia’s Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced that she will not vote for Steve Scalise on the House floor, citing her concerns about his cancer.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Greene said that she voted for Jim Jordan as House speaker on a private ballot and will continue to vote for Jordan on the House floor.

“I like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress. I lost my father to cancer and it’s a very serious battle,” said Greene.

“We need a speaker who is able to put their full efforts into defeating the communist democrats and save America,” she added.

Jim Jordan has offered to give Steve Scalise a nominating speech on his behalf, per a person with direct knowledge.

Additionally, the House will not vote on electing a speaker today, CNN reports.

“I hope that the House Republicans get their affairs in order so they can stop the chaos and select the speaker of their choosing so that we can move forward and do the people’s business,” the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“We’re not part of the process, we’re not going to comment on the process … but we want to see the chaos be done with,” she added.

Speaking to reporters, national security council spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday that the “sooner there is a speaker of the House, the more comfortable we’ll all be in terms of being able to support Israel and Ukraine right now”.

That position is critical in terms of bringing legislation to the floor and moving things forward … Because of existing appropriations and existing authorities, we’ve been OK but that’s not going to last forever.

In the immediate term right now, we can continue to support, with the authorities and appropriations we have, Israel and Ukraine, but we’re certainly running out of runway.