Having lost the first vote to become House speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan will try again on a decisive second ballot that will test whether the hard-edged ally of Donald Trump can win over the holdouts or if his bid for the gavel is collapsing, denied by detractors.

Ahead of Wednesday morning’s voting, Jordan made an unexpected plea for party unity, the combative Judiciary Committee chairman telling his colleagues on social media, “we must stop attacking each other and come together.”

But a surprisingly large and politically diverse group of 20 Republicans rejected Jordan’s nomination, many resisting the hardball tactics enforcing support, and viewing the Ohio congressman as too extreme for the powerful position of House speaker, second in line to the presidency.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    what rational person wants the job considering whoever gets it will be plunged right back into a debt ceiling bill fight

    • Stiffneckedppl@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      He doesn’t care about that. He wants the speakership so he can exert additional pressure toward making certain problems go away for Trump and himself.

      • grue@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        29
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        He wants to be in a position to make the next coup attempt succeed.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        The House won’t really be able to affect Trump’s legal woes, since at least one of them is beyond the reach of even the federal courts. What he’d do with the speakership is call impeachment votes for Biden every week, then prattle on about how it’s somehow the Democrats’ and RINO’s faults that the votes never succeed.

        Basically, he would try to act like some kind of Conservative strong-man to win political theatre points.

        • Stiffneckedppl@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          1 year ago

          Lacking the authority over state level legal proceedings hasn’t stopped Jordan from trying to exert pressure over Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis. It’s not about what he can do within the bounds of the law. He’s already tried it without the speakership. The speakership just gives him more weight to throw around and makes it just a little harder to impose accountability on him.

          • Telorand@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Oh, sure. It’s practically a given that he’ll try and continue to fail to exert authority over things beyond his jurisdiction. But that’s the “political strong-man” act I was referring to, and even with his weak attempts to affect the state cases, I don’t expect that sort of behavior to stop while he still breathes.

            It doesn’t matter to him if he ultimately succeeds, because the point is to make a show to his base that he still swears fealty to the Orange Oaf.