America's Talking - Jordan: Speaker Vote Is Back On, No McHenry Deal

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

U.S. House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday afternoon that he would in fact keep running for speaker and hold another floor vote, despite reports that he was considering postponing his effort. The news came after Jordan reportedly said behind closed doors he would back the speaker pro Tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. for a limited temporary speakership role so that lawmakers can hit key funding deadlines coming this year. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I am Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me again today is the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper, about another long week, both in Washington and abroad, of course. Casey, we're recording this on Friday, October 20th. It's now been more than two weeks since U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by fellow Republicans from his leadership position, and that we still do not. not seem any closer to having his replacement in place. U.S. Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio has not secured the necessary support to rise to the speakership in two separate votes this week. As I said, we're recording this on October 20th, the morning of October 20th. And there could be a third vote later today. But what's your analysis of what's going on in the House, Casey, and what could happen next? Yes. The analysis is that all of the chaos, all of the hurt feelings, the partisanship,

years of frustration and division and backing Trump, resenting those who didn't back Trump and vice versa. The comments around January 6th and which side you took in the Republican Party, all of this that talks about the swamp. It's all coming to a head in one big, ugly speakership battle. And this thing has become like when you have a bitter fight over a will or a bad divorce or something, Dan, where, you know, it may just seem like, why can't these guys get this speakership thing together? But I think there's a lot under the surface and a lot of frustration with the way the party has been headed on both sides within the Republican Party on this. There is a more populous wing that feels like there is this Trump-inspired wave of populism,

but it's really bigger than him now. And the American people, you know, it's Tucker Carlson. It's Vivek, Ramoswamy's foreign policy takes. It's like all these things pushing the Republican Party in a younger new direction. And then there is kind of the traditional establishment Republicans who have been in Congress for a long time. And they really resent some of the nonsense that they see from this populace wing. And they're like, we cannot let this party be taken down by this because as soon as we hand the reins over to the more populous Republicans, we're going to turn around in this next election and only have, you know, a hundred seats in Congress. Right. So I think that, and then that's their strategy. And on top of that, they're just really

frustrated for personal reasons. I know that, you know, if we step back and look at what happened, Dan, you know, you remember that Matt Gates filed the motion to vacate and got McCarthy, who was a speaker out. And then Scalise, who was the House Majority Leader, Republican from Louisiana, he was seen as the next in line, right? And, but I know from talking, to people that a lot of people feel that Scalise was done wrong and how his chance to be speaker was handled. He never even went to the floor. A lot of people who were Jordan supporters, ultimately just were not willing to even give Scalese a chance to be voted on. And I think that caused some bad blood in the speakership battle. And so when it was Jordan's time to get a vote,

some of the Scalese allies said, no, we're not doing this. And by the way, we don't like how much you're pressuring us, Jordan and your allies and some conservative media people have been pressuring really hard. So, you know, all I just say, I think we are stuck going to be talking through lawyers pretty soon here, Dan, in this battle. And it's not getting better any time soon. There was another wrinkle Thursday, October 19th, Casey, very brief moment when it looked like Jordan might be backing out and putting his support by elevating the powers of the current speaker pro temp, Representative Patrick McKinery of North Carolina, but that didn't last too long because there were other Republicans with backlash over it. Just briefly describe what happened there.

Yeah, you're right. Jordan, I think Jordan was saying, and I believe the reports I'm seeing is that McCarthy was, you know, interested in this as well. They're saying, well, fine. If we can't like the speaker, let's put McHenry in charge just long enough to get some things done. And then in January, we'll let Jordan run again. Now, I don't think that plan was ever going to be popular. And there was a chance that they would maybe have to ask Democrats to help them with that. And I don't think Democrats would have been very willing to do so. So, you know, it's, it was a proposal that was thrown out there. And immediately a lot of Republicans were like, no, we cannot do this. Who's, you know, we don't want to empower McKinnery. A lot we're saying it's kind of unconstitutional. It's, um, it just was not a, not a popular plan. And so George said, okay, okay, we won't, we won't do this. Um, I'm going to keep trying to get these votes. Uh, he had a press conference this morning. you know, it was kind of a little bit odd, but I think he's just trying to rally, rally the support. But right now he's still falling short, and I'm not, I'm not seeing a great path forward for Jordan right now. But, man, this speakership thing has been so dysfunctional, so crazy that who knows, there really is no way of predicting, you know, people, we've talked to you and I've talked and someone will tell us on the phone, oh, this is definitely going to happen today, this guy.

and then like five minutes later we get off the phone and some new person is getting voted on and they were totally wrong. And so nobody really knows what's going to happen. I don't think even Jordan, McKinney, McCarthy, Scalise, I don't think they really know what's going to happen either. They're just trying to ride this wave of and get something done in time. And I'll just point out, you may have mentioned it, but mid-November, the government shuts down. And it's not like we can say, oh, as long as we get a speaker by mid-November will be fine. It's like, no, we have to get a speaker who then had then has enough time to pass government funding, which is, we know, extremely difficult. Not to mention funding the, you know, wars in Israel and Ukraine. President Biden called for more than $100 billion in funding for both Ukraine and now Israel, and there were some other items thrown in his message. Yeah, I mean, he's, he is regularly pledged support for Israel and warned other

foreign powers not being involved. He visited Israel that trip. You know, he was planning to visit like Jordan and others and some of that really fell through. But I think he's wanted to make a strong statement behind Israel and get that funding. You know, he took some criticism for that speech already. And I think part of that was people, Republicans felt that he was trying to use the Israel conflict to get more Ukraine money. And by wrapping these together, people can't say no. You know, Republicans aren't going to say no to Israel and Democrats aren't going to say no to Ukraine. So if you put them together, it's the bill that no one can vote against and you can just have this endless check. So that's going to be something we're monitoring at the cuntersquare.com.

As always, as we're focused on taxpayer spending. Casey, just to wrap up, I know you said not even the Republicans in leadership knows what's going to happen next. But just I'm going to put you on the spot to close. You expect a resolution in the next several days? No. There you go. You're ready here first.

No. Your one word response. Well, I appreciate your insight into this complicated but very important story, Casey. But we are now out of time. As I mentioned, listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecenter square.com. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McAulb. Please subscribe. Thank you for listening.