WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans dropped Rep. Jim Jordan on Friday as their nominee for House speaker, making the decision during a closed-door session after the hard-edged ally of Donald Trump failed badly on a third ballot for the gavel.
Afterward, Jordan said simply of his colleagues, “We put the question to them, they made a different decision.”
The hard-charging Judiciary Committee chairman said House Republicans now need to come together and “figure out who our speaker is going to be.”
The House impasse deepening into a full-blown crisis, Republicans have no realistic or workable plan to unite the fractured GOP majority, elect a new speaker and return to the work of Congress that has been languishing since hard-liners ousted Kevin McCarthy at the start of the month.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise said they’re going “come back and start over” on Monday.
Angry, frustrated Republicans who have been watching their majority control descend into chaos left the private session blaming one another for the divisions they have created. Next steps are highly uncertain as lawmakers start offering new ideas for a possible speaker. But it appears no one at present can win a GOP majority.
“We’re in a very bad place right now,” McCarthy said earlier.
In a floor vote Friday morning, Jordan’s third reach for the gavel, he lost 25 Republican colleagues, worse than he had fared earlier in the week, and far from the majority needed, as they reject his hardline approach.
But after two failed votes, Jordan’s third attempt at the gavel essentially collapsed — in large part because more centrist Republicans are revolting over the nominee and the hardball tactics being used to win their votes. They have been bombarded with harassing phone calls and even reported death threats.
Ahead of the vote, Jordan showed no signs of stepping aside, insisting at a Capitol press conference: “The American people are hungry for change.”
But afterward Jordan told colleagues behind closed doors, “I tried my best,” according to one of his opponents, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb.
For more than two weeks the stalemate has shut down the U.S. House, leaving a seat of American democracy severely hobbled at a time of challenges at home and abroad. The House Republican majority appears to have no idea how to end the political turmoil and get back to work.
With Republicans in majority control of the House, 221-212, any candidate can lose only a few detractors. It appears there is no Republican at present who can win a clear majority, 217 votes, to become speaker.
In fact, the hard-charging Judiciary chairman lost rather than gained votes despite hours spent trying to win over holdouts, no improvement from the 20 and then 22 Republicans he lost in early rounds this week.
Friday’s vote was 194 for Jordan, his lowest tally yet, and 210 for Jeffries, with two absences on each side.
