Jim Jordan is defeated in Speaker battle, and Patrick McHenry is falling apart already [UPDATED]
Jim Jordan clearly didn’t find the votes he needed overnight, given that he canceled today’s scheduled third round of voting for Speaker of the House. Now House Republicans are talking about making interim Speaker Patrick McHenry the temporary Speaker – but even that plan appears to be falling apart in real time.
To be clear, Jordan hasn’t fully given up. He’s pretty obviously hoping that if and when McHenry’s temporary powers expire around the holidays, Jordan’s House Republican colleagues will forget how much they hate him, and maybe there will be a few key absences, and he can become Speaker at that time. It’s a longshot at best, but we need to be aware of the possibility down the road so we can defend against it.
That said, things may not even get that far. Even amid reports that House Republicans were going forward with the Patrick McHenry plan, Matt Gaetz announced to the TV cameras that the McHenry plan is dead. The votes would seem to be there for McHenry, given House Democrats would support McHenry as temporary Speaker under the right conditions and binding concessions. But these House Republicans are so uniquely inept, they may not be able to get this plan to a full House vote even if they overwhelmingly have the votes.
We’ll see where this goes. House Republicans are still finding new ways to embarrass themselves. But keep in mind that in the big picture, the damage is already done. Several House Republicans seeking reelection in toss-up districts have voted for Jim Jordan one or both times, thus handing us fantastic messaging to use against them in 2024. And the day is still young. Update, 15:02pm EST: That was quick. Jim Jordan just put himself back into the race for Speaker. He still doesn’t appear to have the votes.
