Jim Jordan no longer Republican speaker candidate after losing secret ballot – US politics live
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GOP conservatives want to hold another vote on Jim Jordan’s candidacy for speakership – source
Members of the rightwing House Freedom Caucus want to hold a vote on whether to keep Jim Jordan as the GOP nominee for speaker following his third election loss earlier today, a Republican source tells the Guardian’s US politics live blog.
Jordan has bled support over the course of this week, and it’s unclear why the Freedom Caucus, which Jordan co-founded, would want a second internal Republican election on his nomination. In the just-concluded third round of balloting in the full House, 25 Republicans voted against making Jordan speaker, up from 20 during the first vote on Tuesday.
The vote on whether to keep Jordan as nominee would occur during a behind-closed-doors GOP conference meeting set to begin at 1pm. The Republican source said it was possible Jordan could receive 60 votes against his candidacy – a significant statement of opposition.
Key events
Jim Jordan lost a secret ballot held by House Republicans which removes him as speaker designate, said Florida’s Republican representative Kat Cammack.
Louisiana’s Republican representative Steve Scalise said that Republicans will start over on Monday.
Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman reports that the vote margin was large, according to sources familiar with the vote.
JORDAN LOST — Jim Jordan lost a secret ballot. He’s no longer the speaker designate for the House GOP
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 20, 2023
Maya Yang
House Republicans are currently voting in a secret ballot election on whether Jim Jordan should stay or drop out of the speakership race.
House GOP voting NOW in secret ballot election on whether Jim Jordan should stay or drop out, per members
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 20, 2023
According to CNN’s Manu Raju, Pennsylvania’s Republican representative Brian Fitzpatrick said that if Jordan chooses to opt for a fourth round of votes, then he will lose even more votes.
GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick told me Jim Jordan will lose even more GOP votes if he goes to a fourth ballot. Fitzpatrick on why he flipped to oppose Jordan: “We cannot have an entire branch of government offline when the world is on fire.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 20, 2023
Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy has told reporters that the Republican conference is “in a very bad place right now.”
The day so far
Jim Jordan has lost his third election to become House speaker, after 25 of his fellow Republicans opposed him – five more than when the vote was first held on Tuesday. The House GOP has retired for a behind-closed-doors meeting, where a source says conservative Freedom caucus members want to hold a vote on renominating Jordan, though that would appear to be detrimental to him, since he keeps losing support. Thus, the House speaker’s race is far from finished, but here’s something different that may actually have been resolved: the criminal charges against former Donald Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who has accepted a plea deal from Georgia prosecutors.
Here’s what else has happened today:
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A New York judge threatened to jail Trump for violating a gag order.
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House Republicans were spotted paging through a resolution to boot acting speaker Patrick McHenry from the job, reportedly as part of the effort to give him the full powers of his post.
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Joe Biden is leaning on Congress to approve billions of dollars in aid to Israel and Ukraine. It cannot do so until the House elects a new speaker.
At his press conference following Jim Jordan’s third rejection as speaker, top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries said his lawmakers were willing to work with Republicans on a solution to the standoff.
“House Democrats continue to make clear that we are willing to find a bipartisan path forward so we can reopen the house and solve problems for hard-working American taxpayers,” Jeffries said.
“It’s time for traditional Republicans to get off the sidelines, get in the arena, realize that the chaos, dysfunction and extremism has to end, and the only way to do it is to figure out how we can partner in a bipartisan fashion to reopen the House and govern in a reasonable, common sense way.”
The subtext here is that any solution Democrats would support won’t involve Jordan, who the party loathes for his support of Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, and pursuit of impeaching Joe Biden.
Former Trump lawyer Chesebro accepts plea deal in Georgia election subversion case
Kenneth Chesebro, a former lawyer for Donald Trump has accepted a plea deal to resolve felony charges against him in what could be significant development for the Georgia election subversion case.
Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Jewel Wicker:
Kenneth Chesebro, the attorney who allegedly devised the “fake electors” plan to prevent Joe Biden from winning the 2020 election, has accepted a plea deal and will avoid going to trial in the Fulton county racketeering case involving Donald Trump and 17 others.
Chesebro was facing seven felonies, including a conspiracy count and six additional charges related to a plan to create “alternate electors” to falsely certify that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election.
Attorneys for Chesebro and representatives for the Fulton county’s district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jury selection for Chesebro’s case was still under way as CNN reported that prosecutors and defense had resumed meetings to discuss a potential plea agreement. Jury selection was slated to continue into next week.
Attorney Sidney Powell, who was also set to stand trial beginning today, accepted a plea deal earlier this week, potentially pressuring Chesebro into doing the same. ABC reported that he had rejected a plea offer from prosecutors to avoid jail time by pleading guilty to the conspiracy charge two days ago.
Some clarity, from Punchbowl News, on that resolution to remove Patrick McHenry as acting speaker that the Associated Press spotted:
A growing number of Republicans have called for giving McHenry the full powers of House speaker as a solution to the conference’s ongoing stalemate.
GOP conservatives want to hold another vote on Jim Jordan’s candidacy for speakership – source
Members of the rightwing House Freedom Caucus want to hold a vote on whether to keep Jim Jordan as the GOP nominee for speaker following his third election loss earlier today, a Republican source tells the Guardian’s US politics live blog.
Jordan has bled support over the course of this week, and it’s unclear why the Freedom Caucus, which Jordan co-founded, would want a second internal Republican election on his nomination. In the just-concluded third round of balloting in the full House, 25 Republicans voted against making Jordan speaker, up from 20 during the first vote on Tuesday.
The vote on whether to keep Jordan as nominee would occur during a behind-closed-doors GOP conference meeting set to begin at 1pm. The Republican source said it was possible Jordan could receive 60 votes against his candidacy – a significant statement of opposition.
Could Republican infighting plunge the House into even worse chaos?
Perhaps. An Associated Press photographer snapped a GOP lawmaker reading through a resolution booting acting speaker Patrick McHenry from his post:
McHenry is a longtime North Carolina lawmaker who chairs the high-profile financial services committee, and found himself temporarily leading the House after Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the job, and wrote his name down first on a list of successors he is required by federal law to make.
Top House Democrat Jeffries convenes press conference after Jim Jordan loses third speakership election
The House’s Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, will soon hold a press conference, after the rightwing Republican Jim Jordan failed for the third time to win election as the chamber’s speaker.
Jeffries has managed to get the most votes of any candidate on all three ballots tallied this week, but Democrats don’t have a majority in the House, and he’s not seen as having a chance at becoming speaker. Rather, expect Jeffries to decry the chaos that’s engulfed the House GOP, and make the pitch that Democrats are the competent alternative.
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