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      Jim Jordan forced out of House speaker race after losing secret ballot

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      Jim Jordan of Ohio was forced out of the House speakership race on Friday after his Republican colleagues voted against his continued bid for the seat in a secret ballot after his third failed attempt to corral enough support to win the gavel.Jordan’s lost bid followed a contentious week on Capitol Hill, during which he and his allies attempted to cajole more moderate Republicans into backing Jordan.After his loss, Jordan told reporters he was “going to go back to work” and that it was “time to unite”.It is not clear who Republicans could elevate as a next nominee. There’s a deadline of Sunday at noon for candidates to announce interest in the speakership. The conference is expected to return on Monday evening to hear from candidates for the speakership, with voting set for Tuesday. By that time, the House will have been without a speaker for three weeks, hamstrung on conducting the work they were elected to do.Some moderates want to see a consensus candidate, while the far-right flank that ousted former speaker Kevin McCarthy previously said they would be “prepared to accept censure, suspension or removal from the conference” to get Jordan the speakership.A handful of Republican House members have either said they’ll seek the speakership or are considering the idea. Most prominent among them is Minnesota’s Tom Emmer, currently the majority whip, the No 3 Republican in the chamber, who has McCarthy’s backing. Others in the mix include Oklahoma’s Kevin Hern, Georgia’s Austin Scott, Florida’s Byron Donalds, Louisiana’s Mike Johnson and Michigan’s Jack Bergman.In the first floor vote of the speakership election, on Tuesday, 20 House Republicans opposed Jordan, leaving him far short of the 217 votes needed to capture the top job. Because of Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House, Jordan could only afford four defections within his conference and still ascend to the speakership.Even as Jordan tried to assuage moderates’ concerns, a second floor vote held on Wednesday revealed that opposition had only grown, as 22 Republicans opposed Jordan’s candidacy. By the third vote, on Friday, Jordan lost more support, with 25 House Republicans voting against him.As long as the House remains without a speaker, the chamber cannot advance any legislation, leaving members unable to pass critical bills like a stopgap government funding measure or an aid package for Israel and Ukraine. Government funding is set to run out in less than a month, raising the threat of a federal shutdown next month.Jordan’s announcement came two weeks after the historic ouster of McCarthy, after eight House Republicans joined Democrats in supporting a motion to vacate the chair. Following McCarthy’s removal, the House majority leader, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, initially won his conference’s nomination for speaker, but he dropped out of the race last week due to entrenched opposition among hard-right lawmakers.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAs of Friday, it remained unclear how Republicans could end the standoff and resume the business of the House. One idea floated by centrist Democrats and embraced by some of Jordan’s critics involved expanding the powers of the acting speaker, the Republican Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, but the plan fizzled. Such a solution would raise serious constitutional questions, as the powers of an acting speaker are murky.With Republicans embroiled in conflict, the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, has repeatedly called for the creation of a bipartisan governing coalition between Democrats and more moderate Republicans. Even Jordan’s staunchest opponents have rejected the idea of teaming up with Democrats, although that could change if the House remains at a standstill.On Friday, Jeffries, who has received the most votes in the speakership votes but would not be able to get enough support to take the spot since Democrats are in the minority, called on his Republican colleagues to get to work. “Embrace bipartisanship and abandon extremism,” Jeffries said. More

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      Jim Jordan loses third House speaker vote as Republican holdouts reach 25

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      The far-right congressman Jim Jordan lost a third consecutive bid for speaker on Friday, failing to overcome entrenched opposition from a widening group of Republican holdouts, some of whom say they have received death threats for blocking his ascent to the gavel.With the House leaderless for an 18th day, Jordan, a founder of the ultra-conservative House Freedom caucus and hard-charging ally of Donald Trump who led the congressional effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, won 194 votes, well shy of the majority needed to be elected speaker.In a troubling sign for Jordan, 25 Republicans voted against his nomination, three more than in the second vote and five more than in his first failed effort. All Democrats rallied behind their party’s leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who received 210 votes.Earlier on Friday, Jordan indicated that he was prepared to plough through several more rounds of balloting, noting that it took the former Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, 15 rounds to claim the gavel. Following the third vote on Friday, Republicans were planning to retreat once again behind closed doors to chart their next steps.Nominating Jordan for the job, McCarthy nodded to the chaos engulfing House Republicans. “Being speaker is not an easy job, especially in this conference,” he said, drawing some laughs in the chamber. But he urged the group he once led to set aside their objections and grievances and vote for Jordan: “I know he is ready for the job.”Congresswoman Kathleen Clark, the No 2 House Democrat, then nominated Jeffries to the speakership, warning that Jordan was a “true threat to our democracy and our constitution”.“It is not too late for the majority to choose a bipartisan path forward to reopen the House,” she said.The speaker’s chair has been empty since a cadre of hardline Republicans ousted McCarthy at the start of the month, a first in American history. Without a speaker, the immobilized chamber has been unable to conduct legislative business as wars rage in Europe and the Middle East and a government shutdown looms unless Congress passes a federal funding bill before mid-November.The White House on Friday sent a sprawling package to Congress, requesting more than $105bn in funding to, among other things, aid Ukraine and Israel and address rising numbers of migrants entering the country without authorization at the US-Mexico border.At a brief press conference on Friday morning, Jordan attempted to rally his conference behind him with remarks that placed his quest to win the speakership alongside American achievements like taking flight and landing on the moon.“The fastest way to get to work for the American people is to elect a speaker so the House can be open and we can get things done,” Jordan said on Friday morning.After three failed votes in which Jordan saw his opposition widen, additional rounds of balloting were not expected to break the impasse. A number of the holdouts have expressed their outrage at the hardball tactics employed by Jordan’s allies to win over their votes, which has devolved into harassing calls and even death threats against lawmakers and their families.“One thing I cannot stomach or support is a bully,” said a statement from the congresswomanMariannette Miller-Meeks, an Iowa Republican, who switched her vote against Jordan on a second ballot after receiving “credible death threats”.With no end in sight to the present situation on Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed a plan to expand the authority of the interim speaker, a position currently held by Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. Jordan briefly backed the proposal as a way to allow Congress to return to its work while he continued to campaign for the post that is second in line to the presidency.But a group of hard-right conservatives revolted, calling the plan “asinine” and arguing that it would in effect cede control of the floor to Democrats. Jordan dropped the idea and vowed to fight on.Republican infighting reached a boiling point this week as lawmakers vented their frustration and traded accusations of who was to blame for plunging the party – and the chamber – into chaos.The bitter feud over Jordan’s speakership bid has pitted an assorted coalition of political moderates and institutional pragmatists against the pugnacious chair of the judiciary committee. The Ohio Republican has relied on an endorsement from Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, and support from the party’s conservative grassroots to pressure them to fall in line behind him.Concerns about a Jordan speakership vary. Some fear his combative brand of politics will make it harder for Republicans to defend their House majority in the 2024 elections, while others believed the challenges facing the country and the world were too great to hand the gavel to a lawmaker one former Republican speaker branded a “legislative terrorist”.Jordan’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost to Joe Biden has also cost him the vote of at least one Republican lawmaker, Ken Buck, a conservative from Colorado.Asked on Friday whether he believes the 2020 election was stolen, Jordan replied: “I think there were all kinds of problems with the 2020 election.”In the narrowly divided House, Jordan would need the support of nearly every Republican in the conference to claim the gavel. In a second ballot on Wednesday, Jordan also lost ground, with 22 Republicans voting against him, two more than on the first ballot.Late on Thursday, Jordan met with his detractors. At the press conference, he characterized the conversation as “good” but it was clear he remained far off from winning the 217 votes needed to become speaker.Following a meeting with Jordan, the congressman Mike Lawler, a New York Republican opposed to Jordan, called for the conference to reinstate McCarthy or empower McHenry.“We must prove to the American people that we can govern effectively and responsibly or, in 15 months, we’ll be debating who the minority leader is and preparing for Joe Biden’s second inaugural,” he said. More

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      Jim Jordan says he will seek third vote and not planning to drop out of House speaker race – live

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      Jim Jordan said that he plans to seek a third vote and has no plans of pulling out the House speaker race.Speaking to reporters after tense closed-door meetings with other Republicans, Jordan said:
      “I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the vote and win this race.”
      He added that he plans to speak with the 20 Republicans who voted against him to secure their support.In attempts to buy time for a third round of votes for his own speakership, Jordan has thrown his support behind expanding House speaker pro tempore’s powers. The current interim House speaker is North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry.Jordan’s decision to support McHenry’s interim speaker position has spurred mixed reactions, with Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene calling it “the wrong thing to do.”Republican Matt Gaetz echoed similar sentiments, saying, “We need to stay here until we elect a speaker.”Meanwhile, Democrat Jared Moskowitz hailed the decision, saying, “If there is a bipartisan deal to empower the pro-Temp, which I’m a favor of, I want to see the details of course first.”The House of Representatives remains in limbo and without a speaker, despite far-right Ohio representative Jim Jordan trying his best to rally holdout colleagues.With the House in its weeks-long gridlock, there are increasing calls from Democrats and Republicans expand the powers of the chamber’s acting speaker, North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry, so that the chamber can carry on with business.The chaos in the House of Representatives comes at precarious moment on the world stage amid the ongoing conflicts between Israel and Hamas, as well as Ukraine and Russia.
      Former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell is taking a plea agreement in Georgia’s Fulton county and will plead guilty in the Georgia election subversion case.
      The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said that the justice department was monitoring an increase in reported threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities.
      Joe Biden is set to deliver a primetime address tonight at 8pm ET in which he will discuss the US response to the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.
      Jim Jordan’s bid for speaker appears to still be an uphill climb.Per reporters at Capitol Hill, he did not take any questions from the press after meeting with holdout Republicans.Mike Lawler, the New York Republican who voted against Jordan previously, issued a statement endorsing Patrick McHenry as an interim speaker. “In the absence of an immediate resolution, we must empower Speaker Pro-Tempore Patrick McHenry to serve as Speaker temporarily to allow us to get back to work,” he said.Meanwhile, some Senate news: Laphonza Butler, who was appointed just over two weeks ago to fill the seat left vacant by California senator Dianne Feinstein’s death, said she would not run for a full term.The New York Times reports that Butler said that the Senate was “not the greatest use of my voice”.Her appointment to serve the remainder of Feinstein’s term by California governor Gavin Newsom drew criticism, especially from supporters of congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Black Bay Area representative who had already been campaigning for the upcoming Senate term before Lee died last month.Newsom had promised that given the opportunity, he would appoint a Black woman to the seat. But he also implied he would not be appointing anyone who was already running for the senate, and said that he would instead choose an “interim” candidate. When announcing Butler’s appointment, his office made clear that she was free to run for a full term if she chose to.Still, his choice drew the ire of many Lee supporters, including the Congressional Black Caucus. “Barbara Lee, and Black women, are not mere caretakers, but the voting and organizing center of the national Democratic party,” Aimee Allison, whose organization She the People promotes women of color in politics, said at the time.Butler became the only Black woman in the senate and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.In a statement, Butler said: “California voters want leaders who think about them and the issues they care most about. I now have 383 days to serve the people of California with every ounce of energy and effort that I have.”Butler had never held elected office. Prior to joining the senate, she led Emily’s List, a national political organization dedicated to electing Democratic women who support reproductive rights. She also served as a strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and was a former labor leader of SEIU California, the state’s largest union, representing more than 700,000 workers.Meanwhile, Democrats are continuing to push the message that Republicans’ inability to work together to elect a speaker is a sign of the party’s incompetence ahead of a big election year.DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika wrote:
      Today, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming their support for Israel, President Biden returned from Israel and is preparing to address the nation, and House Democrats stand ready to get back to work. All of the adults are in the room working, except for House Republicans who are – literally – cursing at one another and fighting among themselves. It’s time for the House GOP to grow up, pull themselves together, and join Democrats in working for the American people.
      In an interview with CNN, hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz, who started the push to oust former speaker Kevin McCarthy, said “This is how its supposed to be, and it’s not clearn and its not orderly… I don’t seem to mind it too much.”CNN’s Manu Raju asked Gaetz what he got out of removing McCarthy, he said, “We’re shaking up Washington, DC.”White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates has urged Republicans to “get their act together” amid their “self-inflected, extreme chaos.”In a memo released on Thursday, Bates said:
      “The House GOP’s backbiting and competition to out-extreme each other is also surfacing hardline positions that the American people have solidly rejected again and again. Including dangerous conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, radical abortion bans, and cuts to Medicare and Social Security…
      As president Biden acts to make America more secure, grow our economy for the middle class, and protect our freedoms, House Republicans are falling over one another to find out who can be the most erratic and out of step with the priorites of working families.
      They need to get their act together and join this president at the adults table.”
      In a new interview with CNN, Democrat representative Nancy Pelosi said that “you have to make him speaker,” referring to interm House speaker Patrick McHenry.Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash, Pelosi said:
      “From a standpoint of the speakership, you really cannot give Mr. McHenry power. Someone suggested, well, just let him do this and let him do that. No, you have to make him speaker, and then he has the awesome power of the speakership.
      Question is, for how long, the longevity of it? My hearing is that it will be to the end of this session, so until the end of the year. Secondly, what is the legislative scope of it? What does it contain? And third is the structure. Do they do anything about the motion to vacate or what we do about motions, other motions on the floor?
      So it’s substance. It’s timing. It’s structure. It’ll be up to Hakeem, and we all have confidence in him,” she added.
      Jim Jordan said that he plans to seek a third vote and has no plans of pulling out the House speaker race.Speaking to reporters after tense closed-door meetings with other Republicans, Jordan said:
      “I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the vote and win this race.”
      He added that he plans to speak with the 20 Republicans who voted against him to secure their support.In attempts to buy time for a third round of votes for his own speakership, Jordan has thrown his support behind expanding House speaker pro tempore’s powers. The current interim House speaker is North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry.Jordan’s decision to support McHenry’s interim speaker position has spurred mixed reactions, with Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene calling it “the wrong thing to do.”Republican Matt Gaetz echoed similar sentiments, saying, “We need to stay here until we elect a speaker.”Meanwhile, Democrat Jared Moskowitz hailed the decision, saying, “If there is a bipartisan deal to empower the pro-Temp, which I’m a favor of, I want to see the details of course first.”Here is video of Jim Jordan telling reporters that he made a “pitch” in attempts to “lower the temperature” by throwing his support behind the House speaker pro temporare.
      “We decided that wasn’t where we’re going to go. I’m still running for Speaker, and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race. But I want to a few of my colleauges. Particularly I want to talk with the 20 individuals who voted against me,” said Jordan.
      Additionally, Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman reports that Jordan said that he expects another speaker vote and added that he wants to meet with the 20 Republicans who voted against him.It remains unclear when the next round of votes would be.Sherman also reports that House majority whip Tom Emmer as well as House majority leader Steve Scalise are curently opposed on the idea to elect a temporary speaker.Commenting on the Patrick McHenry House resolution that is set to expand the chamber’s speaker pro tempore’s powers, Jim Jordan is reported to have said:
      We made the pitch to members on the resolution as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work. We decided that wasn’t where we’re gonna go. I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go the floor and get the votes and win this race.”
      Steve Scalise, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, is reported to be opposed to the resolution to empower a temporary speaker.“I’d rather us focus on getting a speaker elected,” Scalise is reported to have said, according to Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman.The closed-door GOP meeting is reported to be fairly tense.According to CNN’s Melanie Zanona, sources said that Florida representative Matt Gaetz was told to sit down by former House speaker Kevin McCarthy and refused.“Then Rep. [Michael] Bost ‘got all emotional’ and ‘was cussing at him’ and ‘telling him it’s all his fault,’ one member said,” Zanona added.She also reported that other Republicans are reportedly furious over Jim Jordan supporting the resolution to expand House speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry’s powers, with some claiming that it is a self-serving move.Dan Newhouse, a Republican representative from Washington, said “We need a reset” upon being asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether Jim Jordan should stay as House speaker nominee.Raju also reports that in a closed-door meeting, a handful of Republicans urged Jordan to drop his speakership bid but he is not yielding, according to several sources. More

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      US House plunges into chaos as interim speaker plan collapses

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      The leaderless House was plunged deeper into chaos on Thursday after Republicans refused to coalesce around a speaker and a plan to empower an interim speaker collapsed.Angry and exhausted, the House Republican conference left a pair of tense closed-door sessions no closer to breaking the impasse that has immobilized the House for a 17th day. The party’s embattled nominee for speaker, congressman Jim Jordan, the Donald Trump loyalist who led the congressional effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and now chairs the House judiciary committee, had vowed to press ahead with his bid to ascend to the post.After losing two consecutive votes to secure the speakership, Jordan had reversed course and backed a novel, bipartisan proposal to expand the authority of the temporary speaker for the next several months as he worked to shore up support for his bid. But a group of hard-right conservatives revolted, calling the plan “asinine” and arguing that it would effectively cede control of the floor to Democrats.As support for the idea crumbled, Jordan told reporters that he would continue to press ahead with his candidacy despite entrenched opposition from a widening group of members, some of whom accused the Ohio Republican of deploying intimidation tactics.“We made the pitch to members on the resolution as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work,” Jordan told reporters on Thursday. “We decided that wasn’t where we’re gonna go. I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go the floor and get the votes and win this race.”Jordan offered no timeline and no votes were scheduled as of Thursday afternoon. Behind closed doors, tensions boiled over. Kevin McCarthy, the ousted former speaker, clashed with Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, who led the push to remove him earlier this month.“The whole country I think would scream at Matt Gaetz right now,” McCarthy said.“Temperatures are pretty high,” congressman Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, told reporters as he left a conference meeting on Thursday. He said he was headed to the chapel to pray for some “divine guidance”.The dramatic saga to elect a new speaker began earlier this month with the unprecedented ousting of McCarthy, a move backed by eight far-right Republicans and all Democrats.In a secret ballot, the Republican conference initially nominated congressman Steve Scalise to replace McCarthy, choosing the No 2 House Republican over Jordan, a founding member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus. But Scalise abruptly withdrew when Jordan’s far-right allies refused to coalesce around him.Jordan, the runner-up, then emerged as the party’s second choice to be speaker. But his candidacy ran headlong into opposition from more mainstream members wary of elevating a political flamethrower and Trump loyalist to a position that is second in line to the presidency. Wars raging in Ukraine and Israel and a government funding deadline looming had Republicans desperate to move forward.With the majority party deadlocked, a bipartisan group of lawmakers began to explore the possibility of expanding the powers of the acting speaker, the Republican congressman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, thereby allowing the chamber to take up urgent legislation.McHenry assumed the position of speaker pro tempore under a House rule put in place after the September 11 terrorist attacks. It requires a speaker to draw up a confidential list of lawmakers who would temporarily assume the job in the event the speaker’s chair should become vacant. When McCarthy was ousted, the House learned that McHenry, a close ally of the former speaker, was at the top of that list.McHenry has waived off calls to expand his power, indicating that he views the role as limited to presiding over the election of the next speaker. But McCarthy told reporters on Thursday that he believes McHenry already has the authority to conduct legislative business.“It’s about the continuity of government,” McCarthy said. “I always believed the names I was putting on the list could carry out and keep government running until you elect a new speaker.”But several conservatives decried the effort to install a temporary speaker, preferring Jordan plow ahead with more votes. After all, they argue, it took McCarthy 15 ballots to be elected speaker in January.“I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a speaker of the House,” Gaetz, the Florida Republican, told reporters.“We need to stay here until we elect a speaker.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe cast of rebels who oppose Jordan are a mix of political moderates and institutional pragmatists with deep reservations about the Ohio Republican’s approach to governance. Some hail from districts that Joe Biden won in 2020, where Jordan’s brand of far-right conservatism is unpopular. Several were wary of handing the gavel to a lawmaker the former Republican speaker John Boehner once called a “legislative terrorist”.One conservative lawmaker, Colorado congressman Ken Buck, who was among the hard-right faction that voted to oust McCarthy, said he would not support Jordan because Jordan still refused to accept Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.In a frenetic effort to win over his opponents, Jordan’s allies on Capitol Hill and in conservative media waged an aggressive pressure campaign that some lawmakers said included harassing messages and threats of a primary challenge. The calculation was that Jordan’s more mainstream critics would eventually relent and fall in line behind him. But his hardball tactics backfired, those lawmakers said.“One thing I cannot stomach or support is a bully,” said congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, an Iowa Republican, who initially voted for Jordan and then opposed on a second ballot after she said in a statement that she had received “credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls”.It was a sudden role reversal for Jordan, who is far more accustomed to being an obstructor than being obstructed. Yet on Thursday he attempted a reset, huddling once again with a group of holdouts, some of whom have vowed to block him from ever claiming the gavel.But progress eluded Jordan. After the meeting, congressman Mike Lawler, a New York Republican opposed to Jordan, called for the conference to reinstate McCarthy or empower McHenry.“We must prove to the American people that we can govern effectively and responsibly or, in 15 months, we’ll be debating who the minority leader is and preparing for Joe Biden’s second inaugural,” he said.Twenty-two Republicans and all Democrats opposed Jordan on Wednesday, up from 20 Republicans who voted against him on the first ballot. To claim the gavel in the narrowly divided House, Jordan would need support from nearly every member of his conference.Democrats, who view Jordan’s involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election that resulted in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol as disqualifying, unanimously backed their leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Democrats, however, have expressed a willingness to negotiate with Republicans to elect a consensus candidate for speaker or empower a placeholder speaker.“I think it’s a triumph for democracy in our country that an insurrectionist was rejected by the Republicans again as their candidate for speaker,” the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday. More

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      US supreme court allows delay in redrawing Louisiana map that dilutes Black voters’ power

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      The US supreme court said on Thursday it would not immediately lift a lower court’s order blocking a judge from holding a hearing to consider a new congressional map for Louisiana that increases the power of Black voters. The decision could mean that Black voters in Louisiana will have to vote under a map that has been found to illegally weaken their votes for a second time.The decision, which had no noted dissents, is the latest step in an increasingly complex legal battle over Louisiana’s congressional maps. A federal judge last year ordered the state to redraw its six districts to add a second district where Black voters could elect a candidate of their choice. Black voters currently represent about a third of Louisiana’s population but have a majority in just one district.The US supreme court put that decision on hold while it considered a similar case from Alabama. After the court upheld a ruling requiring Alabama to redraw its maps in June, it allowed the Louisiana case to move forward.In a highly unusual move, a split three-judge panel from the US court of appeals for the fifth circuit issued an order in late September blocking a judge from holding a hearing on a remedial map. The two highly conservative judges in the majority, Edith Jones and James Ho, said the lower judge had not given Louisiana Republicans enough of a chance to defend themselves or prepare a legally compliant map.The challengers in the case immediately appealed to the US supreme court, warning that putting off the hearing could mean that Louisiana might not get a new congressional map until after the 2024 election. Such a ruling would mean that Black voters in the state would have to be subject to two federal elections under maps that illegally weakened their votes.“The writ issued by the panel risks injecting chaos into the 2024 election cycle by leaving in place a preliminary injunction barring use of the map the legislature adopted in 2022, while casting doubt on whether or when a lawful remedial map can be promptly developed and implemented,” lawyers for the challengers wrote.Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, part of the liberal wing on the US supreme court, wrote a concurring opinion saying that the court’s decision not to get involved should not be seen as condoning the decision from the fifth circuit panel “in these or similar circumstances”.She also noted that she understood the panel’s ruling to halt proceedings until Louisiana had had an opportunity to draw its own maps. The state, she noted, had conceded in a court filing that it would not draw maps while the case was pending, clearing the lower court to “presumably resume the remedial process” while the full fifth circuit considered an appeal of the case.Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, noted that Louisiana won’t hold its congressional primaries until November 2024, so there should still be plenty of time to hold a full trial on the maps and get new ones in place before then. “The real question is whether any appeals after that trial mean that the redrawing gets put on hold pending appeals,” he wrote in an email.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionStephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, said the supreme court’s ruling made it “somewhat less likely” there would be a new map before 2024, but added: “It’s still a real possibility that there’ll be a new map in time.”In addition to Alabama and Louisiana, observers are closely watching Georgia and Florida, where lawsuits seek to give Black voters a chance to elect their preferred candidate. Because voting in the US south is often racially polarized, any districts designed to give Black voters an opportunity to elect their preferred candidate is likely to benefit Democrats. More

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      US senators to reportedly visit Middle East to show support for Israel

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      A bipartisan congressional delegation will visit the Middle East on Friday in a high-profile gesture of support for Israel following the Hamas attacks, it was reported on Thursday.Among the group’s most prominent members is the Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who has prompted outrage in some quarters with his aggressive criticism of Hamas combined with a seeming lack of regard for Palestinian civilian lives, saying he wants to see Gaza flattened.More moderate Democrats will also be on the trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt leaving on Thursday night, Punchbowl’s senior congressional reporter, Andrew Desiderio, said in a tweet, including Cory Booker of New Jersey.Booker has called on the Biden administration to lead the international community in contributing to a United Nations emergency appeal of almost $300m to provide humanitarian relief for Palestinians trapped in Gaza.Others named in the preliminary list are the Democrat senators Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and the Republican John Thune of South Dakota.Thune, a Republican Senate whip, is among those who have resisted Joe Biden’s nomination of the former US treasury secretary Jack Lew as ambassador to Israel.The trip would mark the second bipartisan visit to Israel since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October after Hamas launched murderous attacks out of the Gaza Strip on people in southern Israel. Last weekend Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, traveled to meet with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and members of his newly formed unity government to pledge US support for the country “on all fronts”.Since returning to the US, Schumer has promised the chamber will move quickly to advance financial aid for Israel and approve Lew’s nomination, though funding could be held up by the current paralysis in the speaker-less House of Representatives.“That means military assistance, intelligence assistance, diplomatic assistance and humanitarian assistance to care for innocent civilians,” Schumer said.“We want to move this package quickly. The Senate must go first. I know that the House is in disarray, but we cannot wait for them.”The trip has yet to be officially confirmed, although Blumenthal announced on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday that he planned to join Graham on a visit to Israel “in the coming days”.Its purpose, he said, was to “reaffirm our commitment to Israel, to share our grief at the Israeli & Palestinian lives lost & to support continued diplomatic efforts to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia”.A report published on Thursday on al.com said the delegation would consist of eight politicians, including the the freshman Republican senator Katie Britt. More

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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