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      Jim Jordan loses US House speaker vote for second time as support ebbs

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      The House of Representatives again failed to elect a new speaker on Wednesday, after the hard-right congressman Jim Jordan failed to win the gavel in the second round of voting.The second vote tally showed 199 Republicans supporting Jordan and all 212 Democrats supporting their leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Twenty-two Republicans opposed Jordan on Wednesday, leaving him far short of the 217 votes needed to ascend to the speakership. Because of Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House, Jordan can only afford four defections within his party and still become speaker.In a worrisome sign for Jordan’s prospects, four Republicans who had supported him a day earlier flipped against him on Wednesday. Only two Republicans who initially voted against Jordan, Doug LaMalfa of California and Victoria Spartz of Indiana, switched to supporting him, giving Jordan a net loss of two votes on the second ballot.The result intensified questions over whether Jordan, a congressman from Ohio, has any path to the speakership given the rising opposition among more moderate members of the Republican conference. A couple hours after the second vote failed, Jordan informed reporters that the House would not vote again on Wednesday evening. Asked whether he planned to hold a third round of voting on Thursday, Jordan said he hoped to do so and would confer with the acting speaker, Republican Patrick McHenry of North Carolina.The House has been without a speaker since the historic ouster of the Republican Kevin McCarthy earlier this month. As long as the chair is vacant, the House is immobilized, unable to advance any legislation.Many Republicans have expressed their desire to quickly pass an aid package for Israel amid its war with Hamas, but the House cannot do so until a new leader is elected.In his nomination speech for Jordan on Wednesday, Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma, chair of the House rules committee, said the ouster of McCarthy had “put the Congress in a state of chaos and the country into a state of uncertainty”.“We have a chance today to end that chaos and to end that uncertainty,” Cole said.But those words failed to convince enough of Jordan’s skeptics to end the standstill, which has now stretched on for more than two weeks. In an attempt to rally the troops, Jordan called on Republicans to unify, a somewhat ironic request given that Jordan made a name for himself in Congress by clashing with House leadership.“We must stop attacking each other and come together. There’s too much at stake,” Jordan said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Let’s get back to working on the crisis at the southern border, inflation, and helping Israel.”Jordan’s detractors appeared confident after the first ballot, correctly predicting their ranks would grow in the second round of voting. One of the holdouts, Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida, said on Wednesday morning that Jordan “will not be able to get the Republican votes to become speaker”, adding, “I think all of us have to get together and figure out what’s the next step.”Some of Jordan’s Republican critics reported receiving harassing phone calls attempting to pressure them to support Jordan, but those lawmakers made clear that they would not be intimidated into changing their votes.“This was a vote of conscience and I stayed true to my principles,” Congresswoman Kay Granger of Texas, one of the holdouts, said on Twitter. “Intimidation and threats will not change my position.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBecause of the entrenched Republican opposition, Jeffries once again won more votes than Jordan on the second ballot. In his nominating speech for Jeffries on Wednesday, the House Democratic caucus chair, Pete Aguilar of California, boasted about Democrats’ unity and reiterated his call to moderate Republicans to join them in forming a bipartisan coalition.“The people’s House has spoken and Leader Jeffries has the support to be [the] speaker that this country needs,” Aguilar said. “No amount of election denying is going to take away from those vote totals.”On Tuesday, Jeffries indicated that some Republicans were prepared to work across the aisle to resolve the standoff, saying that there have been “informal conversations that have accelerated over the last few days”.“My hope, now that it’s clear Jim Jordan lacks the votes to be speaker, [is] that those conversations will accelerate this evening,” Jeffries told reporters.One idea floated by centrist Democrats would involve temporarily expanding the powers of the acting speaker, McHenry, to allow the House to take up urgent legislation. In addition to the proposed aid package for Israel, the House must approve some kind of stopgap funding measure by 17 November to avoid a government shutdown. The idea of expanding McHenry’s capabilities as speaker pro tempore appeared to be gaining traction among moderate Republicans after the second failed vote on Wednesday.Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon, a Republican who has now voted against Jordan twice, said in a statement: “It’s time to empower the speaker pro tempore. The Republican conference is still deeply divided. While we continue working on finding a consensus candidate for speaker that will prevent this dysfunction from continuing, we must resume the business of governing. Let’s get back to work.” More

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      Matt Gaetz sorry for email that blamed other Republicans amid speaker fight

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      The Florida Republican representative Matt Gaetz has issued an apology over a fundraising email sent out allegedly without his team’s approval.On Wednesday, Gaetz apologized for an email “sent by a vendor without my team’s approval” and said that “it should have never been sent”.The email in question read: “Michael – It’s Matt Gaetz. We are inches from electing Speaker Jim Jordan. But RINOs are working with RADICAL DEMOCRATS like AOC, ILHAN OMAR and RASHIDA TLAIB to BLOCK JIM JORDAN FROM BECOMING SPEAKER!!!”It triggered criticism from the New York Republican congressman Mike Lawler, who was one of the 22 Republicans who voted against Jim Jordan on Wednesday. Lawler instead voted for Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker.Lawler responded to a screenshot of the email – which criticized “Republicans in name only” for working alongside progressive Democrats – and wrote: “Does someone want to tell Matt Gaetz that he worked with RADICAL DEMOCRATS like @AOC, @IlhanMN and @RashidaTlaib to remove @SpeakerMcCarthy, a REPUBLICAN SPEAKER.”Gaetz, who led a historic motion to oust McCarthy following his cooperation with Democrats on a bipartisan bill to avert a federal government shutdown earlier this month, apologized for the email.“I sincerely apologize to Mike Lawler and anyone else who felt targeted by this ill-conceived email message. I will make changes to ensure this does not happen again,” Gaetz said.“I intend to heed Speaker-Designate Jordan’s call to not attack fellow Republicans as we work through this,” he added.This is not the first time Lawler has been critical of Gaetz.Last week, following hours of closed-door meetings amongst Republicans in attempts to decide on a speaker, Lawler told CNN’s Manu Raju: “Matt Gaetz is frankly a vile person. He’s not somebody who’s willing to work as a team. He stands up there and grandstands. He lies directly to folks.”McCarthy also chimed in on Gaetz’s latest fundraising email, with the former House speaker telling Raju shortly before Wednesday’s second round of votes: “We’re going in, we want to elect Jim Jordan, and if Jim’s numbers drop, it’s a lot of that is due to Gaetz’s email that he put out last night.”He added: “Did you guys see that, the fundraising email he put out, accusing Republicans of working with certain Democrats when he had worked with every Democrat and then the crazy eights worked with him? That is infuriating.” More

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      Who is temporary House speaker Patrick McHenry?

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      The speaker pro tempore, Patrick McHenry, who has been presiding over the US House of Representatives for the past two weeks after Kevin McCarthy was ousted, could become the next actual speaker, at least temporarily.Efforts by Republicans to elect a new speaker have stalled after a top contender, the congressman Jim Jordan, repeatedly failed to get enough votes, leaving the chamber without a leader and sitting largely idle on congressional work for two weeks.The father of three with a penchant for bow ties was thrown into the spotlight after McCarthy’s ouster, when McHenry slammed a gavel hard enough to go viral. The North Carolina congressman has since “wielded the gavel with extreme care, making no attempts to test the limits of his unusual role”, the Associated Press noted, basically just gaveling in and out quickly.In the latest idea to resume a semblance of normalcy and allow Congress to pass bills, some want to see McHenry given more power for a while instead of waiting on further rounds of speakership votes. Currently, a temporary speaker’s role is presumed to be more limited than an elected speaker, though the exact abilities of the odd position McHenry occupies have been cause for debate. The high-profile former Republican speakers John Boehner and Newt Gingrich like the plan.The 47-year-old, a Republican, was once the youngest member of Congress, first elected in 2004 at the age of 29. He is now in his 10th term representing North Carolina’s 10th congressional district and chairs the committee on financial services. His political career is long: before Congress, he served in the North Carolina house of representatives and he worked on the former president George W Bush’s 2000 campaign.While the top contenders for the speakership have, at least to some degree, cast doubt on the 2020 election, McHenry voted to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 win. McHenry helped McCarthy become speaker and was a key negotiator in the debt limit deal that got McCarthy booted by the far-right flank of the Republican party. But he also, soon after taking the interim role, ordered the former speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, to vacate her office in a “sharp departure from tradition”, Pelosi charged.Beyond his new high-profile placement, the lifelong North Carolinian says his most important role in Congress is to “listen to the voters of the 10th district and act as their voice in Washington” and “to provide the highest level of constituent services at home in western North Carolina”.McHenry also saved a child from choking earlier this year, when he helped the congressman Mike Lawler’s 15-month-old at an event. Lawler praised McHenry as a “good friend” who “became the favorite congressman in my household for my wife”, Lawler said. More

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      Jim Jordan vows to press on for speaker’s chair despite second election loss – as it happened

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      Republican nominee Jim Jordan will continue his campaign for speaker of the House despite losing the second round of balloting for the position this afternoon.“We’re going to keep going,” Jordan’s spokesman Russell Dye told me.The House has once again failed to agree on electing a speaker, with Jim Jordan rejected for the second time in two days after 22 Republicans said no to their party’s nominee. What happens now? Who knows. Some Republicans want to hold a vote on giving acting speaker Patrick McHenry the job’s full powers so the chamber can get back to legislating on issues like aid to Israel and government funding. Jordan has said he would be in favor of holding a vote on that motion, but has also vowed to stay in the race. It appears we will not find out how Republicans’ conundrum resolves itself today – no more votes are expected in the House.Here’s a look back on the day:
      Capitol police were arresting protesters in a House office building, who had entered by the hundreds to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for Israel to allow humanitarian aid.
      Jordan pleaded for unity, but one of his supporters warned he would lose more support in the second round of voting – and was right.
      Romney-Cruz 2016? Not as far-fetched as it sounds, former Republican presidential candidate turned senator from Utah Mitt Romney writes in a new book.
      McHenry’s acting capacity means pretty much all he can do is gavel the House into and out of session, and count the votes for speaker.
      A Jordan opponent voted for John Boehner. Remember him?
      The House is done with voting for the day, a source familiar with the matter tells me, as Republican lawmakers remain unable to agree on elevating rightwing congressman Jim Jordan to the speaker’s post.Hours ago, the second election to install Jordan as Kevin McCarthy’s successor failed after 22 Republicans and all Democrats rejected his candidacy for speaker. The House then adjourned, though there was speculation lawmakers could return for another round of voting, or to consider a resolution to give acting speaker Patrick McHenry the job.Police have arrested some of what appear to be hundreds of protesters who converged on the US Capitol calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory.The protest was organized by activist group Jewish Voice for Peace, which said some of its members had planned acts of civil disobedience. Reporters in the Capitol say the arrests took place in the Cannon office building, where House lawmakers have their chambers and which is open to the public:Here are more photos from the protest:For the latest on the conflict in the Gaza Strip, and Joe Biden’s just-concluded visit to Israel, follow our live blog:Texas’s Republican representative Chip Roy said that to grant further powers to the House’s speaker pro tempore in order to resume the House’s business “makes no sense” and is “directly contradictory to the Constitution.”Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Roy said:
      “We should do our job and select a speaker. The constitution says that so any move to do otherwise is contrary to the Constitution and would do enormous damage to not just the Republican party but the House of Representatives. I violently oppose any effort to do that on the floor of the House…
      I think it is directly contrary to the Constitution in terms of saying that we shall choose a speaker and to go appoint somebody with the full powers of the speaker without having chosen the speaker. It makes no sense so I think we need to take a step back, do our job and choose a speaker.”
      He went on to add that he will support Jim Jordan for House speaker “for however long it takes.”As Jim Jordan fails for the second time to garner enough votes to become speaker, a handful of Republicans are speaking out about the strong-arming they have been facing by Jordan’s allies in attempts to make him speaker, including allegedly sending anonymous text messages.On Tuesday, 20 Republicans voted against the hard-right Ohioan’s speakership, continuing to leave the House in a state of limbo since extremist Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote earlier this month.With Jordan struggling to secure the 217 votes needed to become speaker of the House, several Republicans have told Politico of Jordan’s “broader team … playing hardball” in attempts to garner votes.The Nebraska congressman Don Bacon – one of the 20 Republicans who voted against Jordan in the first vote – told the outlet that his wife had received anonymous texts that warned of her husband never holding office again.Screenshots of the alleged text messages sent to Bacon’s wife and shared with Politico showed one saying: “Talk to your husband tell him to step up and be a leader and help the Republican party get a speaker. There’s too much going on in the world for all this going on in Republican party. You guys take five steps forward and then turn around take 20 steps backwards – no wonder our party always ends up getting screwed over.”For further details, click here:Here is video of the moment a pro-Palestinian protestor interrupted the former treasury secretary Jack Lew’s Senate confirmation hearing for ambassador to Israel.“How many children need to be killed? Our families are dying! We need a ceasefire now!” the protestor yelled at Joe Biden’s pick as security escorted him out of the room.Another protestor then appeared, yelling: “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza … and we’re funding it!” She also was escorted out by security.Utah’s Republican senator Mitt Romney considered a third presidential bid in 2016 in attempts to stop Donald Trump with “scary” Texas senator Ted Cruz, a new book reveals.The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:“Romney was willing to wage a quixotic and humiliating presidential bid if that’s what it took,” McKay Coppins writes in Romney: A Reckoning, a biography of the 2012 Republican nominee written in close cooperation with its subject.“He might even be able to swallow sharing a ticket with Cruz, a man he’d described as ‘scary’ and ‘a demagogue’ in his journal. But Romney didn’t think the gambit would actually succeed in taking down Trump. The problem was that no one else in the party seemed to know what to do about Trump, either.”Widely trailed, Coppins’ book will be published in the US next Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy. A spokesperson for Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.For further details, click here:Democratic minority House speaker Hakeem Jeffries who received 212 votes on Wednesday urged Republicans to work alongside Democrats, tweeting:
      “The time has come for House Republicans to reject extremism and embrace bipartisanship.”
      Jeffries’ tweet follows another one he made earlier in the day in which he called on House Republicans to “get real, end the Republican Civil War and join House Democrats in a bipartisan path forward.”The House has once again failed to agree on electing a speaker, with Jim Jordan rejected for the second time in two days after 22 Republicans said no to their party’s nominee. What happens now? Who knows. Some Republicans want to hold a vote on giving acting speaker Patrick McHenry the job’s full powers so the chamber can get back to legislating on issues like aid to Israel and government funding. Jordan has said he would be in favor of holding a vote on that motion, but he has also vowed to stay in the race. We’ll see if he opts to push for a third round of voting.Here’s a recap of the day so far:
      Jordan pleaded for unity, but one of his supporters warned he would lose more support in the second round of voting – and was right.
      McHenry’s acting capacity means he can pretty much just gavel the House into and out of session, and count the votes for speaker.
      A Jordan opponent voted for John Boehner. Remember him?
      It’s tough to tell what happens next in the House.Democratic whip Katherine Clark has told members “additional votes are possible today”, but there’s no saying when, or if, that happens.A Republican aide told the Guardian’s US politics live blog that the party’s lawmakers were told to expect a meeting of the Republican conference, but that has not yet been officially scheduled.The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell is at the Capitol, and spotted one of the surest signs that lawmakers aren’t leaving anytime soon: pizza is being delivered.With their party apparently deadlocked over making Jim Jordan speaker of the House, more Republicans are calling to make Patrick McHenry the chamber’s leader.McHenry took over as acting speaker following Kevin McCarthy’s ouster two weeks ago, while the GOP has nominated Jordan to become his permanent replacement. But Jordan has now twice failed to secure a majority of votes necessary to ascend to speaker’s chair, and some supporters now think it would be best to give McHenry the job and allow the chamber to begin functioning again.Here’s California’s David Valadao, who represents a Democratic-leaning district and backed Jordan in the just-concluded round of voting:Jordan’s detractors are also making their case to give McHenry the job. Here’s Jen Kiggans, a recent arrival in the House who represents a Virginia swing district:And another vulernable Republican, Carlos Gimenez, remains upset about McCarthy’s removal. He, too, is in favor of putting McHenry in charge:Republican nominee Jim Jordan will continue his campaign for speaker of the House despite losing the second round of balloting for the position this afternoon.“We’re going to keep going,” Jordan’s spokesman Russell Dye told me.“No person having received a majority the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected,” Patrick McHenry declared from the House dais.What now? Some Republicans want to hold a vote on expanding McHenry’s powers from acting speaker to full speaker of the House. Earlier today, Jim Jordan said he would be in favor of putting that resolution up for consideration.That could be a very interesting affair, since Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the party may be open to supporting that, but McHenry gaveled the House into recess, so it seems that vote won’t happen right away.Jim Jordan has lost the second election for House speaker, as more Republicans voted against elevating him to the chamber’s leadership role.Jordan lost 22 GOP votes, two more than in the initial round of balloting on Tuesday. He received 199 votes in total, while Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries received 212.Voting appears to be over, and we are now waiting for acting speaker Patrick McHenry to make the result official.Jim Jordan has for the second day in a row failed to receive a majority vote to become speaker. After McHenry confirms the election, the question will become: what will the GOP do now?There are now 21 no votes against Jordan – one more than in the first round of balloting yesterday.The election has not yet concluded, but his margin of defeat is an indication of the amount of opposition Jordan will have to overcome if he is ever to get the speaker’s gavel.Democrats, meanwhile, have unanimously voted for their minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. He has received 200 votes to Jordan’s 184.Jim Jordan’s Republican objectors have voted for other politicians, usually former members of the House.Pennsylvania’s Mike Kelly voted for John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House from 2011 to 2015, who resigned his position in part due to trouble with the party’s conservative wing:Michigan’s John James voted for former GOP congresswoman Candice Miller, one of the more obscure names called out in this round of voting, More

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      Republicans say they faced ‘barrage’ of calls and texts to make Jordan speaker

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      As Jim Jordan fails for the second time to garner enough votes to become speaker, a handful of Republicans are speaking out about the strong-arming they have been facing by Jordan’s allies in attempts to make him speaker, including allegedly anonymous text messages.On Tuesday, 20 Republicans voted against the hard-right Ohioan’s speakership, leaving the House in a continued state of limbo since extremist Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote earlier this month.With Jordan struggling to secure the 217 votes needed to become speaker of the House, several Republicans have told Politico of Jordan’s “broader team … playing hardball” in attempts to garner votes.The Nebraska congressman Don Bacon – one of the 20 Republicans who voted against Jordan in the first vote – told the outlet that his wife had reportedly received anonymous texts that warned of her husband never holding office again.Screenshots of the alleged text messages sent to Bacon’s wife and shared with Politico showed one saying: “Talk to your husband tell him to step up and be a leader and help the Republican party get a speaker. There’s too much going on in the world for all this going on in Republican party. You guys take five steps forward and then turn around take 20 steps backwards – no wonder our party always ends up getting screwed over.”Another message read: “Why is your husband causing chaos by not supporting Jim Jordan? I thought he was a team player.”In response, Bacon’s wife wrote: “Who is this???”The anonymous individual then wrote: “Your husband will not hold any political office ever again. What a disappoint [sic] and failure he is.”Bacon’s wife then replied: “He has more courage than you. You won’t put your name to your statements.”Speaking to Politico, Bacon said: “Jim’s been nice, one-on-one, but his broader team has been playing hardball.”The publication also reported that other Republicans saying that they had received a “barrage of calls” from various local conservative leaders.House Republicans also told the outlet that Jordan and his allies had been “calling people who voted for him trying to stop the bleeding” and went on to say that those calls were “pissing off” members.“He’s lost support because of this … Constant smears – it’s just dishonesty at its core,” one House Republican told Politico anonymously.According to the Ohio Republican David Joyce, Jordan “didn’t necessarily support the strategy”, Politico reports. Nevertheless, the pressuring tactics appear to have backfired, after 20 Republicans refused to vote for Jordan on Tuesday.The Florida congressman Carlos Giménez, who voted against Jordan on Tuesday, told Politico that he was not going to change his mind, “especially now, in the light of these pressure tactics”.Giménez’s fellow Florida congressman Mario Díaz-Balart echoed similar sentiments to the outlet, saying: “The one thing that will never work with me – if you try to pressure me, if you try to threaten me, then I shut off.”Following Tuesday’s vote, Fox News host Sean Hannity published a list of the 20 Republicans who voted against Jordan, along with their numbers.“We encourage you to call them – politely, of course – and encourage these holdouts to throw their support behind Jordan and get the country moving again!” Hannity’s website wrote.In a second vote, on Wednesday, the number of Republicans voting against Jordan rose to 22.In a letter issued earlier this week, Jordan warned against the in-party attacks, saying: “The country and our conference cannot afford us attacking each other right now. As Republicans, we are blessed to have an energetic conference comprised of members with varied background, experiences, and skills – just like the country we represent.” More

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      Why are Republicans failing over and over to find a speaker of the House? | Moira Donegan

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      In times of chaos and dissension, you will often hear pundits, professionals, and those who self-identify as serious call for an “adult in the room”. The “adult in the room” is a person willing to make difficult compromises, a person willing to sacrifice vanity for pragmatism, a person with a clear eye of their own priorities and needs and more determination to achieve them than a desire to make a point.Over the past weeks, some have called for “an adult in the room” at the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives: as the House majority party fails, over and over again, to find a new speaker, having exiled Kevin McCarthy from the post on 3 October, it can seem that what the Republicans need is someone more level-headed and serious, someone willing to accept imperfect compromises and to subvert his own ego for the good of the party, someone who might even possess a quality that passes for dignity.But to call the Republican House caucus children, to declare that the far-right firebrands who ousted McCarthy from the speakership at the beginning of the month and are now trying to hoist Jim Jordan into it, would be to miss the point. The far-right caucus that has instigated the Republican speaker fight is not constituted by hysterics driven by emotionalism. They are acting rationally, pursuing their own very clear incentives.Last week it looked, briefly, as if all this might be put behind us. The House Republican caucus nominated Steve Scalise to be speaker. The Louisiana Republican once gave a speech at a gathering hosted by a white supremacist group, and has called himself “David Duke without the baggage”. This, we were told, was the Republican party’s pragmatic consensus candidate. His support fell apart almost immediately, and his candidacy for the speakership never proceeded to a floor vote.Next up was Jim Jordan, an insurrectionist from Ohio, whose claims to fame range from allegedly helping to cover up sexual abuse of student athletes while he was a wrestling coach at Ohio State, to largely causing the 2013 and 2018 government shutdowns, to helping to coordinate Trump’s attempted coup in the wake of the 2020 election. That last effort included pressuring Mike Pence to illegally throw out the electoral votes at the January 6 congressional joint session, and overturn the election results.Jordan defied subpoenas from the House January 6 committee, and has still never admitted that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. After the January 6 insurrection, he reached out to Donald Trump’s administration in search of a pardon. John Boehner, the former Republican House speaker, once called Jordan a “legislative terrorist”, but it’s not clear that he actually does much legislating: during his nearly two decades in the House, not a single bill that he has introduced has become law.On Tuesday, Jim Jordan failed to garner enough votes to win the speakership on the House floor. The chamber adjourned, and the Republican party slipped deeper into the backbiting and dysfunction that has paralyzed even the most basic functions of Congress one month before a government shutdown and amid a slew of mounting national crises.Let’s be clear about something: men like Scalise and Jordan – extremists and election deniers, comfortable with white supremacy and willing to discard democratic principles – have ascended to what counts for leadership in the Republican conference not in spite of the depravity of their positions, but because of them. They are the products of rightwing political, fundraising and media apparatuses that incentivize candidates to move further and further to the right – and which have left the Republican party itself both unable and unwilling to impose discipline on its politicians.In many ways, the Republican party brought this internal dysfunction on itself. In a project that spanned decades, Republicans and their allies built a vast conservative media infrastructure and developed an impressive skill for shaping and whetting the ideological appetites of their audience, creating a more and more conservative base.At the same time, Republicans seized control of state legislatures and their congressional redistricting powers, creating safely Republican House seats that were insulated from democratic competition, and where the only meaningfully competitive elections were in Republican primaries – thereby insuring that dozens of Republican congressmen would view the greatest threat to their careers as a primary challenge from their right. And so a base of more and more conservative voters began demanding – and electing – more and more conservative politicians, a cycle that has given us Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene and no small number of other embarrassments.It has also given us the rise of a new and sinister character: a Republican politician with no interest in public service and an ideological opposition to government functioning, whose incentives drive them not to govern or compromise, but to make constant demonstrations of their own conservatism – to offend and shock, throw sand in the gears, prevent the ordinary functioning of government bodies, and above all, to draw as much attention as possible to themselves.Viewed from this angle, it is not hard to see why the Republicans have failed, over and over again, to elect a speaker or assure the functionality of their conference. Why would they? With the drama high and the cameras trained on them, the obstructionist Republicans are already getting everything they want.
      Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist More

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      What to know about the US House speaker election

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      The US representative Jim Jordan faced strong opposition to his House speakership bid Tuesday as 20 Republicans voted against him on a first ballot. The chamber adjourned for the day as the Ohio Republican worked to flip some of his detractors his way.It’s the second time in this Congress that the House has faced multiple rounds of voting for speaker, following the protracted struggle in January when Kevin McCarthy won the gavel on the 15th attempt.Twenty GOP lawmakers voted for a candidate other than Jordan, as many protested the removal of McCarthy as speaker earlier this month and the process that has unfolded to replace him.Conservatives have been mounting an intense pressure campaign to persuade the final holdouts to support Jordan, but some of his opponents appear even more determined to stop him from becoming speaker.Jordan will need to flip at least 16 Republicans to become speaker, as Democrats are certain to continue backing their own nominee, the minority leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Republicans currently control the House 221-212.The House is expected to come back for a second round of voting on Wednesday.Here’s what to know before more voting for speaker:When is the speaker election? And how does it work?The House gaveled into session Tuesday at noon to hold what would be the first of several votes to elect a speaker. It’s a speaker’s election unlike any other following the removal of McCarthy of California, who was unexpectedly ousted from the post after just nine months on the job.Normally the speaker is elected every two years in January, when the House organizes for a new session. A new election can only be held if the speaker dies, resigns or is removed from office.On Tuesday, once the House was in a quorum – meaning a minimum number of members were present to proceed – each party nominated its candidate for speaker. Republicans nominated Jordan. As they did last week against the representative Steve Scalise, Democrats nominated Jeffries and are expected to continue to vote for him.House members remained present during the speakership vote. It’s one of the few times – including during the State of the Union address – that lawmakers are all seated in the chamber.How many votes does it take to elect a speaker?It takes a simple majority of the votes from House members who are present and voting to elect a speaker. There were 432 Democrats and Republicans in attendance during Tuesday’s vote, with one GOP lawmaker absent. Two House seats are currently vacant. That means Jordan or any other Republican candidate needs 217 votes to win.Once the second roll call for speaker begins Wednesday, members of the House will once again call out their choices. The House will vote as many times as necessary until someone wins. Jordan made clear that he was not giving up after the first ballot.“The House needs a speaker as soon as possible,” Russell Dye, a spokesperson for Jordan, said in a statement. “It’s time for Republicans to come together.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIt’s uncertain how many rounds it might take for Jordan to clinch the gavel, but supporters have expressed confidence that the consecutive public floor votes will force holdouts to flip their way. McCarthy narrowly won the speakership in January on the 15th round of balloting, after five excruciating days.Who is supporting and opposing Jordan?Jordan, a darling of the party’s hardline rightwing base, still faces opposition from some members of the conference who doubt his ability to lead.“Being speaker of the House is not being the chairman,” the representative Mario Díaz Balart, one of the holdouts, said Friday. “Because you deal with foreign policy, you deal with the heads of state, you deal with domestic policy and you deal with security issues.”He added: “I think there are a lot of questions about whether he can unify and lead the conference, and whether he can even lead his own people, his closest people.”Some Republicans are upset with how the speaker’s race has played out.Steve Scalise, the majority leader, first won his colleagues’ nomination for speaker last week. Jordan, who came in second, threw his support behind Scalise, stating that he would support his nomination when it came to the floor and urging the rest of the conference to do the same. But more than a dozen Republicans refused, leading Scalise to withdraw a day later.Those same members who refused to back Scalise are now Jordan’s strongest base of support. They spent the weekend publicly and privately lobbying each of his critics to drop their opposition and become a “team player”. They say the party’s grassroots base pressure could prove decisive in the vote.Other Republicans opposing Jordan’s speaker bid come from swing districts and are facing tough re-election races next year. More

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      House in limbo after 20 Republicans sink Jim Jordan’s first attempt to win speaker vote – live

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      While Jim Jordan may not have enough votes to become House Speaker, another round of voting is expected today.A spokesperson for Jordan confirmed to CNN’s Manu Raju that Jordan will force another round of votes.“The House needs a speaker as soon as possible. Expect another round of votes today. It’s time for Republicans to come together,” said Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye.In his bid to become the next speaker, far-right representative Jim Jordan quickly ran into the same problem Kevin McCarthy did during his speakership election in January: the GOP is deeply divided and unable to agree on a leader.Jordan was unable to secure a majority after 20 Republicans voted for another candidate. Jordan will have another try tomorrow, but it’s unclear whether the Ohio congressman has enough clout to sustain multiple rounds of balloting to win the speakership.Democrats meanwhile were united in voting for House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Without any Republican support, Jeffries can’t win the speakership either.
      Democrats plan to turn Jordan’s speakership, if he is actually elected, into a campaign issue, by highlighting his extreme positions and arguing there are no moderates in the House GOP.
      Calling Republicans the “chaos caucus”, DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika accused GOP members of making “a mockery of our institutions” and being “incapable of governing”.
      Former speaker Kevin McCarthy was optimistic Jordan would be elected, perhaps even on the first round of votes. He has already turned out to be part wrong.
      Remember, Jordan was a “significant player” in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, according to the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack.
      Meanwhile, Joe Biden is heading to Israel to “consult on next steps”, the White House said, as the country prepares for an invasion of the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas’s terrorist attacks less than two weeks ago. For the latest on the conflict, follow our blog.
      – Guardian staffEr, scratch that. The latest is that Jordan will try to win the speakership again tomorrow. Per House GOP whip Tom Emmer, the House will vote on the speaker tomorrow at 11am.It’s looking like the House may hold another vote this evening, after Jordan supporter Gus Bilirakis returns from a funeral.Representative Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called on the “handful of Republicans who try to portray themselves as reasonable” to step up and work with Democrats.“The dynamics any Republican speaker would face is the same: a slim majority, an empowered Maga wing and a divided government. Jim Jordan did not even get as many votes as Kevin McCarthy’s lowest vote total – and that was with all bullying tactics in full force,” she wrote in a statement.“Republicans simply have not been able to govern and the stakes are high. We have just a month left until the next government funding deadline. Come to the table, work with us, and let’s get real work done.”The heads of MI5 and the FBI have issued an unprecedented joint warning that the threat of a domestic terrorist attack could rise as a result of the crisis in the Middle East.The counter-terror chiefs said Jewish communities and organisations, as well as other groups, may face a heightened danger from lone actors, Hamas militants, and Iran, a supporter of Hamas, on British or US soil.Ken McCallum, the director general of Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5, said there was a risk that “self-initiated” individuals who may have been radicalised online might respond in “spontaneous or unpredictable ways” in the UK after the terrorist attacks on Israel and what could become a drawn-out conflict.Speaking before a public summit of intelligence chiefs in California, and seated alongside the FBI director Christopher Wray, McCallum said there was also a danger that terror groups or Iran may step up violent activity and that Jewish individuals or organisations could be targeted by neo-Nazis and Islamists.“There clearly is the possibility that profound events in the Middle East will either generate more volume of UK threat, and/or change its shape in terms of what is being targeted, in terms of how people are taking inspiration,” he said.On Monday night, a gunman shot dead two Swedish football fans in Brussels. The Belgian prosecutor’s office originally said there was no evidence the attack was related to the Israel-Gaza conflict, but on Tuesday a spokesperson said a link was being explored.France was put on its highest level of security alert on Friday after a suspected radical Islamist killed a teacher and injured three others in the north of the country.The incidents come at a time of heightened counter-terror concern, given the scale of violence unleashed by Hamas’s attack on Israel 10 days ago.Wray, the FBI director, said terrorist threats were fast-evolving in the US and that “we cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or other foreign terrorist organisations could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks on our own soil.”Read more:It is unclear how a Jim Jordan speakership will affect US aid to Ukraine and Israel.Far-right Republicans, including Jordan, have argued that aid to Ukraine is taking funds away from domestic security issues. In line with an “America First” principle that Donald Trump touts, the hard right has advocated for a more isolationist foreign policy.Though Democrats and many Republicans still support the idea of sending funds to Kyiv, Jordan could limit what legislation reaches the House flood and therefore impact whether future aid bills are prioritized.The White House and lawmakers are currently considering emergency national security legislation that would send aid to Ukraine as well as Israel, among other things.Jim Jordan is finding support from Republicans for another round of voting on his bid to become House speaker – but not from his allies.Florida’s Mario Diaz-Balart wants the chamber to reconvene and vote again. In the first round of voting earlier today, Diaz-Balart backed majority leader Steve Scalise for House speaker:Jim Jordan is down, but he’s not out yet, and could yet become speaker of the House. From the Guardian’s Sam Levine, Joan E Greve and Lauren Gambino, here’s a rundown of what we know about the Ohio Republican and far-right fixture:As the House gears up to vote for its new speaker, all eyes are on Jim Jordan, a founder of the hard-right Freedom caucus. But while the Ohio congressman and his allies say they will have the votes soon, Jordan also has a long history of controversial views that many of his own party members and constituents are not aligned with.Here are some of the key things to know about Jordan as a politician – and a look into how he might act in the role of speaker.Jordan was closely involved in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the electionJordan was a “significant player” in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, according to the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. As early as November of 2020, he was part of discussions with Trump campaign and White House officials examining whether Mike Pence could overturn the election. Immediately after the election, he met with Trump campaign and White House officials at the campaign’s headquarters to help develop a strategy of repeatedly, and falsely, saying the election was fraudulent, the New York Times reported.On 2 January 2021, Jordan led a conference call with members of Congress and the White House in which they discussed urging Trump supporters to march to the Capitol. The day before the January 6 attack, Jordan texted the then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to pass on advice that Pence should “call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all”.After the violence at the Capitol, Jordan was one of several members of Congress to whom the White House reached out to try to delay counting of electoral votes. He received five calls from Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s closest allies, that night, according to the January 6 committee. The two men spoke at least twice that night. Jordan later said he spoke with Trump on January 6, but could not recall how many times.While Jim Jordan may not have enough votes to become House Speaker, another round of voting is expected today.A spokesperson for Jordan confirmed to CNN’s Manu Raju that Jordan will force another round of votes.“The House needs a speaker as soon as possible. Expect another round of votes today. It’s time for Republicans to come together,” said Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye.New York representative Anthony D’Esposito, who voted against Jordan, released a statement following the first round of votes. In his statement, D’Esposito alluded to concerns that Jordan may not understand the concerns of his district.“I want a Speaker who understands Long Island’s unique needs. Restoring the SALT deduction, safeguarding 9/11 victim support funding, and investing in critical infrastructure are our priorities,” said D’Esposito, who voted for former US representative Lee Zeldin.“I look forward to discussions with candidates.”The DNC released a statement chiding Republicans for failing, once again, to elect a House Speaker.Calling Republicans the “Chaos Caucus”, DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika accused GOP members of making “a mockery of our institutions” and being “incapable of governing.”“Serious times demand serious leadership, not the GOP’s MAGA clown show with Trump as its ringleader,” said Chitika, in part.North Carolina representative Wiley Nickel issued a statement calling Jim Jordan a “problem starter” after Jordan failed to gain enough votes to become House speaker.Nickel, a Democrat, emphasized that Jordan remains “Donald Trump’s biggest ally in spreading false claims about the 2020 election” in a statement released shortly after the failed first vote.“I came to Congress because pro-democracy Republicans, Independents, and Democrats made their voices heard in my district,” Nickel said.“My constituents want a House Speaker who can bring Congress together, find common ground, and get things done. During his 16-year tenure in Congress, Jim Jordan has done none of that.Republicans held a floor vote to elect rightwing firebrand Jim Jordan as speaker of the House, and quickly ran into the same problem Kevin McCarthy did during his speakership election in January: the GOP is deeply divided and unable to agree on a leader. Jordan was unable to secure a majority after 20 Republicans voted for other candidates, and the Democrats offered him no support. The Ohio congressman has vowed the press on, much like McCarthy did earlier this year, but it’s unclear if Jordan has enough clout to sustain the 15 rounds of balloting it took McCarthy to secure his election as speaker. We’ll find out in the hours and days to come.Here’s what else has happened today:
      Democrats plan to turn Jordan’s speakership, if he is actually elected, into a campaign issue, by highlighting his extreme positions and arguing there are no moderates in the House GOP.
      McCarthy was optimistic Jordan would be elected, perhaps even on the first round of votes. He has already turned out to be part wrong.
      Matt Gaetz, who orchestrated McCarthy’s removal, backed Jordan for speaker.
      After announcing the final vote tally, Patrick McHenry, the acting speaker of the House, gaveled the chamber into recess.Besides GOP nominee Jim Jordan and Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, McHenry listed the others who had received votes in the inconclusive election. These were:
      Republican Majority leader Steve Scalise, who received seven votes.
      Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy, who received six votes.
      Former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, who received three votes.
      California congressman Mike Garcia, who received one vote.
      Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer, who received one vote.
      Oklahoma congressman Tom Cole, who received one vote.
      Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, who received one vote.
      It’s a similar, perhaps worse, level of dissent to what McCarthy faced at the start of the year. In his speakership election’s first round of balloting, he received 203 votes, while Jeffries received 212 votes, and other candidates received 19 votes. More