The House GOP remains in chaos as some members are standing by Jim Jordan.
For a brief moment, many Republicans hoped the party’s nomination of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) for speaker of the House could quickly unite their fractious conference.
That was a pipe dream.
Scalise narrowly triumphed Wednesday in the first step of the speaker election process, an internal vote among House Republicans. That win meant he’d be the party’s nominee for the next step: the speaker election vote on the House floor.
But on Thursday, the extent of the difficulty he’ll face in attaining the near-unanimous House GOP support he needs for that floor vote became clear as problem after problem piled up.
With Democrats unanimously opposed, a mere five Republican defections is enough to block Scalise from winning on the House floor — and at least 19 have already said they won’t vote for him, according to CNN’s Haley Talbot. Most (though not all) of this opposition is coming from right-wing hardliners who prefer Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). Jordan conceded and pledged to support Scalise after the House GOP’s internal vote Wednesday, but his supporters aren’t all going along.
Take for instance Donald Trump, who endorsed Jordan last week. During a radio interview, Trump argued that Scalise’s recent blood cancer diagnosis meant he was in “serious trouble” and should focus on getting better.
Then former speaker Kevin McCarthy — who reportedly had a tense relationship with Scalise, his No. 2, this year — undercut his would-be successor Thursday. When asked whether Scalise would come up with the votes he needs: “It’s a big hill,” McCarthy said. “He told a lot of people he was gonna be at 150 [in the internal party vote],” McCarthy continued, “but he wasn’t there.” (Scalise beat Jordan by just 113 to 99.)
The timeline for moving forward on the speaker vote is now totally up in the air.
