Second round isn’t looking good for Jim Jordan either, as House Republicans begin sniping at each other
There’s still no way to know if Jim Jordan will end up with the votes for Speaker of the House. But we do know this much. If the twenty House Republicans who voted against him in the first round were merely looking to make a statement, and were planning to pivot to him in the second round, that vote would already be happening. The ongoing delay means that Jordan doesn’t have the votes and is trying to buy time to find them.
Now four House Republicans who voted against Jordan in the first round are publicly calling for an immediate second round vote. If they were planning to pivot to Jordan this time around, they wouldn’t be calling attention to themselves like this. Instead they’d simply notify the leadership in private that they’re on board. So this suggests that the anti-Jordan faction is now trying to force Jordan to quickly lose a second vote, in the hope of causing Jordan’s existing coalition to fall apart. In other words, they appear to be trying to finish Jordan off.
Meanwhile Jim Jordan just met with Steve Scalise in an attempt at wrangling up enough votes. Considering how much Scalise hates Jordan, this tells you how desperate Jordan must be. Now Jordan’s allies are leaking to Politico that Scalise isn’t being enough of a “team player,” and in response Scalise’s allies are leaking to Politico that Jordan’s allies’ claims are “bullshit.” So this seems to be going well for their side.
Again, it’s difficult to predict precisely how this will all play out. There are too many moving parts, and too many people involved who aren’t revealing their true intentions. But right now, as of this minute, Jim Jordan does not have the votes to become Speaker in the second round – or else they’d already be voting.
