Speaker race dissolves into total chaos for House Republicans amid “credible death threats”
Over the past day and a half, various House Republicans have been grumbling about Jim Jordan’s bullying tactics behind the scenes. It’s part of why, after losing the first round of voting for Speaker of the House yesterday, Jordan got even fewer votes today. Nor does it appear that he’s ever going to win over some of the dissenters, given how things are going.
House Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks voted for Jim Jordan yesterday, but after seeing that he wasn’t viable, she voted against him today. Now she’s just released a statement revealing that after her “no” vote, she’s received “credible death threats” which she’s passed on to law enforcement.
To be clear, this kind of thing should never, ever, ever happen. Death threats are the opposite of democracy. This is a terrible thing. But it’s not surprising, given that Donald Trump and Jim Jordan have already incited a violent attempt at overthrowing the government on January 6th (Trump is now set to stand criminal trial and go to prison for it). So it’s not a surprise that supporters of that same Trump-Jordan movement are now making a deranged attempt at helping Trump-endorsed candidate Jordan to become the Speaker.
The saving grace is that, for now at least, this doesn’t appear to be working. Given that Jim Jordan is losing ground in each round, and (for now) appears to be on track to lose again in tomorrow’s third round, we’re being reminded that this is a functioning enough democracy that inciting violence does not get you ahead.
