Republican Holdouts Make Their Position Clear Ahead of 3rd Speaker Vote: 'No Way Forward'
As a third vote loomed Friday morning on Rep. Jim Jordan’s hopes to become Speaker of the House, the Ohio Republican said he would not quit even as his opponents said he would not win.
On Thursday, after Jordan first said he would drop his bid after losing two votes but then said he would go for a third time Friday, some of the Republicans opposing him said he was heading for another defeat.
Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania — one of the 22 GOP representatives who voted against Jordan on Wednesday — said it was clear to Jordan during a GOP meeting Thursday evening that most of the dissenting Republicans did not plan to budge, according to Roll Call.
“You know how smart this guy is, right? And he doesn’t wear glasses. He can see the writing on the wall,” Kelly said.
He said Jordan did not get angry and “handled it with a lot of class.”
Rep. John Rutherford of Florida likewise said Jordan got a clear signal Thursday night that the votes against him were not likely to change.
“Our mind is set. He needed to know there is no way forward for the speakership,” he said, according to a video posted to X on Thursday.
NEW: After a meeting with Jim Jordan and the hold outs about the future of his potential Speakership.. Rep. John Rutherford made it clear where things stand:
“Our mind is set. He needed to know there is no way forward to the Speakership.”
via/ @bacallaooo pic.twitter.com/QkpZkPLXm2— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) October 19, 2023
The congressman cited what happened to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who won the closed-door vote of the Hosue Republican Conference over Jordan but withdrew when it was clear a solid GOP faction would not support him.
Jordan “missed his moment of leadership when he failed Steve Scalise, and that was pretty much everybody’s opinion,” Rutherford said.
Another Republican holdout, Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, said it was time to bring back former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose ouster kicked off the two weeks of intensive House GOP infighting.
“The best thing that could happen now — for our conference, the House of Representatives, and the country — is for cooler heads to prevail, past grievances to be dropped, and for Republicans to concede that ousting Kevin was a mistake and set things right,” Lawler said, according to Roll Call.
The outlet said Thursday night’s meeting included expressions of anger from Republicans including Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Drew Ferguson of Georgia, who said they received death threats because they have stood in Jordan’s way.
“That is simply unacceptable, unforgivable, and will never be tolerated,” Ferguson posted on X.
Statement on Speaker vote: pic.twitter.com/MtmXll9yE2
— Congressman Drew Ferguson (@RepDrewFerguson) October 19, 2023
Jordan spoke to the media Friday morning, saying the House needed to elect a speaker and do its work, according to Fox News.
“We’ve got important work to do, important work to do. We need to help Israel. We need to get the appropriations process moving so that the key elements of our government are funded and funded in the right way, particularly our military,” the congressman said.
“We need to get back to our committee work and frankly, we need to continue the oversight work that I think is so darn important,” he said. “In short, we need to get to work for the American people.”
“Our plan this weekend is to get a speaker elected to the House of Representatives soon as possible, so we can help the American people,” Jordan told reporters.
The third vote on his speakership bid was scheduled for 10 a.m. ET Friday.
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