Tangle - The latest on the House Speaker race.

Episode Date: October 18, 2023

Jim Jordan. The Ohio Republican failed to win the requisite votes to become Speaker on Tuesday, leaving his future in doubt and the House of Representatives in a state of paralysis. Jordan’s nomination for House Speaker began after a handful of Republicans ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) earlier this month, citing broken promises on spending and for working with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down. You can read today's podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠, today’s Under the Radar story ⁠⁠here⁠⁠, and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. You can also check out our latest YouTube videos, a recording of the “My Take” from Tuesday’s Israel piece ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ and an interview with Christopher Dowling-Magill about conversion therapy here.Today’s clickables: Quick hits (1:22), Today’s story (3:55), Right’s take (6:34), Left’s take (10:40), Isaac’s take (14:38), Listener question (18:38), Under the Radar (21:06), Numbers (22:00), Have a nice day (22:53)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place where you get news from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of Isaac's take. I'm your host, John Law, and I'm going to be filling in for the next couple of days. And today we are talking about Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican, who is currently on a bid to try to become Speaker of the House. Before we continue, a quick note, we have a new YouTube video up that we posted today. Recently, Isaac sat down with Christopher Dowling McGill to talk about his experience with conversion therapy. It is a fascinating, poignant, heartfelt interview. I learned a lot watching it and editing it, and I think you all will too. So I'm encouraging you to go to our YouTube channel and watch the interview in full.

There is a link to it in today's episode description. And without further ado, we'll get things started today with some quick hits. First up, an unknown number of people were reportedly killed after an explosion at a hospital in Gaza where civilians were taking shelter. Initial reports from the Palestinian Health Ministry, who blamed an Israeli airstrike, suggested hundreds were dead. Israel said a failed launch from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible. Neither assertion, nor the number of people killed, could be verified. And images shared Wednesday morning seemed to indicate the damage was less serious than initially reported. responsible. Neither assertion, nor the number of people killed, could be verified, and images shared Wednesday morning seem to indicate the damage was less serious than initially reported.

Since the attack that killed more than 1,400 in Israel, more than 3,000 people have now been killed in Gaza, and another 61 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank. Number two, separately, the White House has been discussing using military force against Hezbollah, a militant group in Lebanon, if it continues to attack Israel on the northern border. President Biden is in Tel Aviv today. Number three, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a confirmation hearing on Wednesday morning for Jack Lew, President Biden's nominee, to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Number four, India's Supreme Court declined to recognize same-sex marriage, passing the responsibility back to Parliament.

And number five, a new Marist poll found that in a presidential race with former President Donald Trump, President Biden would benefit from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running as an independent. There's a new frontrunner in the race for House Speaker today. Republicans voted to nominate staunch conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. He went to the top of the list when House Majority Leader Steve Scalise abruptly dropped out of the race last night. This morning, hard right Ohio Republican Jim Jordan vowing to keep fighting for the speaker's gavel. We've got to have a speaker and it can't be some deal with the Democrats. We're going to keep working. Tuesday's failed vote was the first of any kind on the House floor since the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy 15 days ago. Backed by former President Trump and 199 of his GOP colleagues, Jordan still came up 17 votes short of the outright majority he needs to claim the speakership. It's official. What we went to the House floor for was the formal declaration of the vote

and that voted results in Jim Jordan losing his second effort to convince his fellow Republicans to elect him Speaker of the House. The Ohio Republican failed to win the requisite votes to become Speaker on Tuesday, leaving his future in doubt and the House of Representatives in a state of paralysis. and the House of Representatives in a state of paralysis. Jordan's nomination for House Speaker began after a handful of Republicans ousted Representative Kevin McCarthy earlier this month, citing broken promises on spending and for working with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down. Jordan's path to becoming frontrunner for House Speaker has been winding. Initially, he said he wasn't interested in the job.

Once he threw his hat in the ring, his competition, Representative Steve Scalise, was widely considered the favorite. When it became clear Scalise couldn't win the requisite 217 votes, he dropped out, and Jordan took his place as the most likely McCarthy successor. Jordan earned 200 votes in the first round of voting on Tuesday, with 20 Republicans voting for someone else. Another floor vote is occurring simultaneously during the recording of this podcast. Many moderate Republicans have objected to a Jordan speakership, in part because of the electoral implications. Jordan is a divisive figure among Republicans and also strongly disliked by many Democrats and independents. among Republicans and also strongly disliked by many Democrats and independents. Democrats are already producing ads about how Jordan voted to decertify Pennsylvania and Arizona's 2020 election

results. He's also staunchly anti-abortion, supports cuts to welfare, and has promised to reduce education funding, all issues Democrats think they can use in campaigns against Republicans running in purple districts. At the same time, Jordan is beloved by the Republican base, including former President Donald Trump, who endorsed him. Many Republicans have cheered on his work as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, where his sharp questioning of witnesses has often scored political points for the right. He's also received a nearly unanimous backing from the House Freedom Caucus, which was responsible for helping oust McCarthy. Major players in conservative media are behind him, too, including Fox News host Sean Hannity,

who reportedly orchestrated a pressure campaign on members of Congress to try to help Jordan win the speaker's race. However, with Jordan's path uncertain, some Republicans are now considering throwing their support behind the speaker pro tempore, Representative Patrick McHenry, who would need Democratic support to be fully empowered in the role. Today, we're going to take a look at some views from the right and the left about Jordan's rise and the latest on the race, and then Isaac's take. First up, we'll start with what the right is saying. The right is split on the best path forward, but many resent the position the GOP is in and blame the party's far right for its predicament. Some say Republicans should elevate Patrick McHenry to acting Speaker

to allow some House business to proceed. Others argue Jordan is a fighter for conservative causes and has earned the Speakership. The Wall Street Journal editorial board said, nobody for Speaker of the House. After two weeks of House paralysis, it's no clearer who can pull Republicans back together, the board wrote. If Jordan continues to fall short, perhaps the solution for now is to empower acting Speaker Patrick McHenry. With each turn of the screw, the eight Republicans who deposed Mr. McCarthy

look more foolish all the time. They didn't have a plan for what to do next. They didn't have an alternative candidate for Speaker. What kind of an idiot mutineer takes over the Man of War, tosses the captain overboard, and then spends two weeks pulling ropes at random, hoping like hell that the thing will somehow drift ashore before the supplies run out? The People's House always includes some unserious characters, but now it has serious work to do. One option is to pull the Patrick McHenry emergency lever, which is to say temporarily expand the Speaker pro tempore's remit to cover the limited agenda.

Mr. McHenry doesn't seem to want the job, and at this point, what sane person would? But he's well-respected, and he could be convinced to do it for the good of the country. In The Hill, Representative Gus Bilirakis wrote that Jordan is the statesman we need at this moment. Fundamentally, most Americans want their elected officials to work together to do what's right for our country. They expect their leaders to have courage of conviction, but have also grown weary of the grandstanding and petty bickering that too often characterizes contemporary politics. They want results, Bilirakis said. Jordan has a proven track record of securing results. He understands that progress is only possible when we are willing to cooperate with one another

and prioritize the needs of our constituents, which is why I enthusiastically support his candidacy for House Speaker. Jordan has been tenacious in his quest to ensure a government that is transparent and accountable. He has worked to root out corruption in federal agencies, including the IRS, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security. His efforts led to the passage of legislation that would defund the hiring of 87,000 IRS agents, a Biden administration policy that the majority of Americans deplored. He has worked to empower parents and ensure they have a strong voice in their children's education in the face of a weaponized Department of Justice.

Now is the time for such a warrior. In National Review, Noah Rothman said Jordan and the MAGA wing are weaponizing party loyalty against the loyal. Jordan and his allies have made explicit what was previously only implied, though all but universally recognized, as the MAGA writes, biggest tactical advantage over the Republican Party's more conventional conservatives. Those Republicans who have little or no use for the party as an institution are weaponizing the loyalty to it among those who do, Rothman wrote.

MAGA types like Representative Anna Paulina Luna and Matt Gaetz are throwing decorum overboard by singling out their colleagues for condemnation in social media and summoning a mob to reinforce the implied conclusion that this leadership election is a career-defining vote. This tactic will not put grievances within the Republican coalition to rest. It will sow the seeds of lasting resentments, particularly among Republican lawmakers whose names you don't know, because they reliably put the interest of the party and the country above promoting their personal brands, Rothman added. This can no longer be a deliberative process because Jordan's allies are demanding that the GOP dispense with deliberation in favor of a coronation. The bonds of party unity are ever more quickly fraying as the nihilism of the right's loudest voices becomes

even harder to stomach. Those bonds will not hold forever. All right, that's it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. The left is unified in their opposition to Jordan and his potential speakership. Some think it would be more appropriate to expel Jordan from the House than make him Speaker. Others say Jordan is trying to emulate Trump's aggressive style, but is really just a wannabe strongman. In the Washington Post, Ruth Marcus said Speaker Jordan would be a colossal mistake. For the sake of the country and Republicans, for the sake of your party, let us hope that Jordan's bid for the speakership fails in future votes as it did on Monday and Tuesday. Because if Jordan becomes the 56th Speaker, he would be a bomb thrower entrusted

with dangerous new powers and, while this carries more symbolic than practical significance, second in line for the presidency. His speakership would commence at a moment when the need for bipartisan cooperation on funding the government, on dealing with international crises in Israel and Ukraine, has rarely been greater, and when the capacity to achieve it rarely more elusive. To this fraught, even dangerous moment, Jordan would bring Jordan. There is hardly a profile of him that does not use the word firebrand. His skill isn't shutting things down, not making them work. His legislative record is thin to the point of indiscernible. He hasn't passed a single bill, Marcus wrote. It is possible,

I suppose, that a Speaker Jordan would turn out to be more accommodating, more practical than in his 16 years in the house would suggest, put me down as skeptical. In MSNBC, Hayes Brown argued Jordan should be expelled from the house, not made speaker. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this

flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca. Jordan is an anti-establishment firebrand, one who should have been expelled from the House for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Brown said. That we're even considering Jordan as a serious option doesn't seem real.

After all, this is the same Jordan whom former Speaker John Boehner, himself an Ohio Republican, described as a legislative terrorist. The same Jordan who has spent this Congress chairing the failed weaponization of the federal government's subcommittee and failing to make the case that the FBI is persecuting conservatives. The same Jordan who was tapped to join the House Intelligence Committee during former President Donald Trump's first impeachment to act as a pitbull and attack the investigation however he could.

And that's before we get to the most egregious of Jordan's sins, his support of Trump's attempted reversal of the 2020 election. Jordan was one of a key group of lawmakers Trump and his advisors were in contact with in the weeks after Election Day. He was one of the loudest voices spreading Trump's lies of election fraud and promoting the stop-the-steal narrative at rallies and on social media, Brown wrote. For him to become Speaker would be rewarding his support of authoritarian tyranny. In the New York Times, Michelle Cottle called Jordan a lousy strongman. The Republican conference is failing as a democratic entity. A healthy democracy needs

its participants to accept a basic will-of-the-majority model. Fringe factions have rights, but they do not run the show. For years, the Republican Party has been shifting toward an anti-majoritarian, burn-down-the-system ethos. Time after time, the preferences and well-being of the many are abandoned in pursuit of the desires of the extremist few, Cottle wrote. Mr. Jordan clearly fancies himself more of a Trumpian strongman. He has never been a leader or a serious legislator, but is rather a career pugilist who seems developmentally stuck in his glory days as a high school and college wrestler. who seems developmentally stuck in his glory days as a high school and college wrestler. Jordan's leverage and influence, like so many hardliners, largely derive from being a creature of Mr. Trump. Mr. Jordan may consider himself a powerful figure. In reality, he is just another

Trumpian lapdog, albeit an especially courage one, Cottle wrote. Generally speaking, toadies don't make for great strongmen. Small wonder that the House Republicans' leaders in recent years have been so weak and forgettable. All right, that's it for what the right and the left are saying, which brings us to Isaac's take. Just a reminder that, again, this is Isaac's take and I'm just going to be reading it in the first person. So I want to revisit a few things I said when Kevin McCarthy was ousted a few weeks ago, which seem particularly relevant now. One, Democrats really might regret not saving McCarthy. He's duplicitous and unreliable and seemed held hostage, but he was also in many ways predictable. Now Democrats may end up with

someone more extreme and more captured by the right flank. It is very possible they end up in a worse position to advance their agenda. Two, this entire drama is something politicos and journalists like me could obsess over and talk about all day, but it probably won't impact your average American at all. It's quite possible, unless this leads to another government shutdown, average American at all. It's quite possible, unless this leads to another government shutdown, that none of this impacts 99% of you in any tangible way. So there's that. Three, Donald Trump is the de facto leader of the Republican Party, and his political instincts, as they pertain to the party's base, are typically better than most career politicians.

For what it's worth, this is how he reacted to McCarthy's ouster. Why is it that Republicans are always fighting amongst themselves? Why aren't they fighting the radical left Democrats who are destroying our country? Number four. You know who is elated right now? Joe Biden. Approval ratings in the mud. Economic sentiment is terrible. Stories about him being too old in every news outlet.

And now, this. More evidence he can use to say Republicans aren't a serious party and they're incapable of governing. Have these points held up? Well, Democrats are going to miss McCarthy because if they end up with Jordan, they'll now have someone much less willing to negotiate and much further away from them on issues that matter. I got that part right. If Jordan becomes Speaker, it may eventually be more relevant to you than I initially expected. He isn't a McCarthy clone, which is what I expected out of whoever rose to the gavel. A Jordan Speakership will actually change the kind of stuff that gets done, or not, in Congress.

I could see a world where he reduces or delays funding for the IRS or guts the Department of Education. That wasn't really in the cards with McCarthy. That part I may have gotten wrong. Donald Trump's instincts were right, or at least self-fulfilling. He endorsed Jordan, and for a moment Jordan looked like the most likely to become Speaker. Now, not so much. So that part's still very much up in the air. And finally, all of this is great for Joe Biden. Other than what the House is able to accomplish, that part may be the most important heading into 2024. Jordan really is a nightmare scenario for moderate Republicans and election season. There is a reason Democratic operatives are salivating, which is why they

probably have a hard time deciding where to hit him from just because there are so many good options. At a time where abortion is a major player at the ballot box, Jordan is one of the most staunchly anti-abortion Republicans in office. At a time when abortion is a major player at the ballot box, Jordan is one of the most staunchly anti-abortion Republicans in office. At a time when many independents and Republicans abandon Trump because he refuses to acknowledge his 2020 loss, Jordan is someone who literally voted to decertify elections in Pennsylvania and Arizona. And perhaps most dangerously for Republicans, Jordan has repeatedly called for cuts to Medicare and other welfare programs,

which is a deeply unpopular position nationally. On top of all that, he isn't a great fundraiser, and he's been accused of covering up sexual abuse while a wrestling coach at Ohio State University. As for Republicans, this is an interesting development. Jordan was famously called a legislative terrorist by a fellow Republican and much better known for starting fires than putting them out. I really don't know if 20 Republicans that have refused to vote for him will budge, and it's possible a Jordan speakership is dead. In Congress, that's what happens when you make a name for yourself by being an unlikable firebrand who doesn't care much for playing nice with others. But if not Jordan, then who? I genuinely have no idea, which is part of why the ousting of McCarthy was so

surprising and confounding. There was no plan. Now we're all living in that vacuum. All right, that is it for Isaac's take, which brings us to your questions answered. This one comes from an anonymous reader in New York. This person wrote, I'm still learning, so bear with me. Why does Israel even control Gaza's gas and electricity? So as a bit of context, this question relates to the recent news that Gaza is without water and energy to provide for the basic needs of its citizens following a blockade from Israel and Egypt, the former of which is a response to the attacks from Hamas. I'll try to phrase the answer as neutrally as possible. Let's start with the fact that the Gaza Strip is a small area and is not particularly resource-rich.

It is therefore dependent on trade with its neighbors for electricity or fuel to generate electricity, and Hamas, the governing party in Gaza, does not have a normal diplomatic relationship with Egypt or Israel. According to Gisha, an Israeli pro-Palestinian NGO, Gaza requires 400 megawatts of power daily. Gaza's lone power plant produces only 60 to 80 megawatts. Egypt sells Gaza 28 megawatts, and Israel sells it 120 megawatts. That means before the total siege Israel recently ordered, Gaza was already well short of its supply and required scheduled blackouts to ration its resources. But plenty

of other places in the world that are small and resource scarce have gotten along fine. What has made Gaza's situation especially fraught is its relationship with Israel, and to a lesser extent, Egypt. In the two decades since former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal of military and settlers and Gaza's subsequent election of Hamas, Israel and Egypt have not dealt directly with Gaza and have imposed a blockade on the territory, as both countries consider Hamas a terrorist group. In order to get access to energy and water, the government in the West Bank, which is on the eastern border of Israel, led by the Palestinian Authority, paid for Israel to send fuel, energy, and water into Gaza and then collect payment from Hamas. However, in 2017, the Palestinian Authority announced it would stop

payment for these Gazan imports. Israel continued to send the water, energy, and fuel that Gaza received until recently and deducted the balance from tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. That resulted in a tenuous state of constant insecurity that persisted before the deadly attacks by Hamas this past weekend. Even before this latest outbreak of violence, Gaza's power typically only lasted about a half a day. Alright, next up is our under the radar story. As the sophistication and technical prowess of China's military grows, the Biden administration has repeatedly enacted export controls over

semiconductor technology in an attempt to maintain the U.S. military's superiority. Now it's expanding those controls to cover cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips. This week, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced new restrictions aimed at preventing China's military from exporting advanced semiconductors or equipment, though the rules will only apply to the most advanced AI chips. The goal is the same goal it has always been, which is to limit the PRC, People's Republic of China, access to advanced semiconductors that could fuel breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, Raimondo said.

Axios has the story, and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The number of days since Kevin McCarthy was ousted as Speaker of the House is 15. The number of bills Jim Jordan has introduced since being elected to the House in 2006 is 36. The number of bills introduced by Jordan that have gone on to become law is zero. The number of Republicans who said they would not vote for Jordan to be Speaker during the internal vote last week was 55. vote for Jordan to be Speaker during the internal vote last week was 55. The number of Republicans who did not vote for Jordan on the first Speaker ballot on Tuesday was 20. The percentage of time Jordan has voted against a majority of House Republicans in the 118th Congress is 8.8%.

The percentage of time the average House Republican has voted against a majority of the party in the 118th Congress is 10.9%. And last but not least, our have a nice day story. Last week, NASA announced results for their study of the composition of an asteroid from its Johnson Space Center in Houston. They were pleased to report that when they chose the asteroid they picked to study, they'd hit the jackpot. Samples from the 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid Bennu, which were collected in space and brought to Earth by NASA, showed evidence of high carbon content and water, which together could indicate that the building blocks of life on Earth exist elsewhere in the universe. This finding was part of a preliminary assessment of NASA's OSIRIS-REx science team. The OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. There is still so much science to come, science like we've never seen before. NASA has the story and there's a link to it in today's

episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening. As always, if you want to support our work, please go to readtangle.com and sign up for a membership. Don't forget, we have a new YouTube video up in which Isaac is interviewing Christopher Dowling McGill, up in which Isaac is interviewing Christopher Dowling McGill, a Tangle reader and former church leader who had experienced conversion therapy and is now fighting against it. It's a truly amazing and fascinating story. I highly encourage you to go and check it out. I learned a lot watching it. I think you will too. We will be back again tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace.

Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited by John Law. Our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bukova, who's also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more on Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website. We'll be right back. inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from

the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.