McCarthy vows to do ‘everything’ he can to help Jim Jordan become House speaker
House Speaker Emeritus Kevin McCarthy is vowing to do everything in his power to push Rep. Jim Jordan over the finish line to become the next speaker.
Jordan (R-Oh.) appears to lack sufficient votes to lay claim to the gavel as he prepares for a vote on Tuesday. Still, McCarthy (R-Calif.) was optimistic about Jordan’s prospects.
“I think Jim Jordan can get there,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.
“I’m one who understands how difficult it is. I did walk in with more support during this time, but I believe at the end of the day, Jim can get there.
“I’m doing everything I can to help him be able to become speaker.”
McCarthy’s optimism was a slight change in tone from when House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) pursued the speakership last week.
“It’s possible but it’s a big hill. He [Scalise] told a lot of people he was going to be at 150 and he wasn’t there so,” McCarthy told reporters at the time.
Scalise initially edged out Jordan in a tight 113 to 99 closed-door vote by House Republicans to be the speaker-nominee. After failing to lock down sufficient votes, Scalise dropped out of consideration last Thursday evening.
Jordan clinched the party nod to be speaker the following day in a 124-81 vote. Strikingly, his chief opponent, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) only announced his candidacy about four hours earlier and managed to garner dozens of defectors.
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Jordan during his matchup against Scalise.
McCarthy was ousted on Oct. 3 in a coup by eight Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) who joined a solid bloc of Democrats.
The former speaker still has some allies on his side who want him to get back in the running. Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.), for instance, previously indicated he was sticking with McCarthy.
Earlier this month, Jordan publicly suggested Republicans should not head to the floor for a vote until it was certain that the speaker nominee had sufficient support.
“We shouldn’t go to the House floor until we have 218 votes for the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives,” Jordan told Fox News. “We shouldn’t have to go through what we did back in January.”
Now that he is the speaker nominee, Jordan appears to be changing tact. Whip notices from both House Republicans and Democrats indicated a speakership vote is likely on Tuesday.
The move appears to represent a pressure strategy on Jordan’s part to put holdouts on the spot and peel off skeptical moderates.
Many of Jordan’s allies such as Gaetz have publicly pressed to have the GOP select a speaker as soon as possible.
Such a pressure campaign risks alienating moderates, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tx.) surmised.
“So what I would really recommend to Jordan’s allies too, is a lot of them have mounted this high-pressure campaign,” Crenshaw said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“That is the dumbest way to support Jordan, and I’m supporting Jordan,” he continued. “As somebody who wants Jim Jordan, the dumbest thing you can do is to continue pissing off those people and entrench them.”
In public, Jordan has struck a more unifying tone.
“The differences between Republicans and Democrats in the House far outweigh our differences in the Republican Conference. This country and the GOP Conference cannot afford us attacking each other. It’s time to get to work,” he posted on X Sunday.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) underscored that Democrats are “ready, willing and able” to work toward resolving the impasse.
“There are informal conversations that have been underway. When we get back to Washington tomorrow, it’s important to begin to formalize those discussions,” Jeffries told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Since McCarthy’s ouster, the lower chamber has been stuck in paralysis, unable to vote on pressing national security concerns such as the war in Israel, the war in Ukraine, and the Nov. 17 government shutdown deadline.
Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has taken the reigns in the interim. But his powers are deeply limited.
Republicans have a four-seat majority and any potential speaker would need to notch a majority to claim the gavel, which could be 217 depending on attendance.
Back in January, McCarthy took a historically unprecedented 15 marathon votes to ascend to the speakership, which he did without a vote to spare.
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