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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

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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