Republicans abruptly dropped Rep. Jim Jordan on Friday as their nominee for House speaker, making the decision during a closed-door session after the hard-edged ally of Donald Trump failed badly on a third ballot for the gavel.

The outcome left Republicans dejected, frustrated and sinking deeper into turmoil, another week without a House speaker bordering on a full-blown crisis. House Republicans have no realistic or working plan to unite the fractured GOP majority, elect a new speaker and return to the work of Congress that has been languishing since hard-liners ousted Kevin McCarthy at the start of the month.

Afterward, Mr. Jordan said simply of his colleagues, “We put the question to them, they made a different decision.”

The hard-charging Judiciary Committee chairman said House Republicans now need to come together and “figure out who our speaker is going to be.”

Their majority control floundering, Republicans left the private session blaming one another for the divisions they have created. Next steps were highly uncertain, as a wide range of Republican lawmakers started pitching themselves for speaker.

But it appears no one at present can win a GOP majority, leaving the House without a speaker and unable to function for the foreseeable future, an embarrassing blow to a central U.S. seat of government.

“We’re in a very bad place right now,” McCarthy said.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise said they would “start over” on Monday. New nominees are to come forward for a candidate forum and internal party votes.

Exasperated with no easy solutions in sight, Rep. Mark Alford, a freshman from Missouri, was far from alone in expressing his anger and disappointment.

“I gave up my career to come here to do something for America, to rebuild our military, to get spending under control, to secure our border — and here we are in this quicksand,” he said.

In a floor vote Friday morning, Jordan’s third reach for the gavel, he lost 25 Republican colleagues, worse than he had fared earlier in the week, and far from the majority needed.

A founder of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, Jordan’s run essentially collapsed in large part because more centrist Republicans are revolting over the nominee they view as too extreme and the hardball tactics being used to win their votes. They have been bombarded with harassing phone calls and even reported death threats.

To win over GOP colleagues, Jordan had relied on backing from Trump, the party’s front-runner in the 2024 election, and groups pressuring rank-and-file lawmakers for the vote. But they were not enough and in fact backfired on some.

Friday’s vote was 194 for Jordan, his lowest tally yet, and 210 for Jeffries, with two absences on each side.

In fact, the Jordan lost rather than gained votes despite hours spent trying to win over holdouts, no improvement from the 20 and then 22 Republicans he lost in early rounds this week.

McCarthy himself rose in the chamber to nominate Jordan, portraying him as a skilled legislator who reaches for compromise. That drew scoffs of laughter from the Democratic side of the aisle.

Democrats nominated Leader Hakeem Jeffries, with Rep. Katherine Clark calling Jordan, who refused to certify the 2020 presidential election results, “a threat to democracy.”

For more than two weeks the stalemate has shut down the U.S. House, leaving a major part of the government severely hobbled at a time of challenges at home and abroad. While Democrats have offered to broker a bipartisan deal to re-open the House, the Republican majority appears to have no idea how to end the political turmoil and get back to work.

With Republicans in majority control of the House, 221-212, any candidate can lose only a few detractors. It appears there is no Republican at present who can win a clear majority, 217 votes, to become speaker.

One extraordinary idea, to give the interim speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, more powers for the next several months to at least bring the House back into session and conduct crucial business, was swiftly rejected by Jordan’s own ultra-conservative allies and brushed back by McHenry himself.

A “betrayal,” said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind.

Republicans predict the House could essentially stay closed until the mid-November deadline for Congress to approve funding or risk a federal government shutdown.

“We’re trying to figure out if there’s a way we can get back with a Republican-only solution,” said veteran legislator Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.

“That’s what normal majorities do. What this majority has done is prove it’s not a normal majority.”

What’s potentially more unsettling is that it’s not at all clear what the House Republicans are even fighting over any more — let alone if any GOP leader can fix it.

The Republican chaos that erupted Oct. 3 when a small band of eight hardliners led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida orchestrated McCarthy’s historic ouster, has cascaded into angry grievances, new factions and untested alliances.

Gaetz and the hardliners wanted to punish McCarthy for a number of perceived wrongs, including passing legislation with Democrats to keep the government funded and prevent a federal shutdown.

But when Majority Leader Steve Scalise won the nomination to replace McCarthy, Jordan’s allies broke from party rules and blocked the Louisianan’s rise. Scalise abruptly withdrew his nomination.

Angry that Scalise didn’t seem to get fair treatment, more mainstream Republicans staged their own revolt against hard-liner Jordan, saying he didn’t deserve the gavel.

Weeks of heated, fiery meetings later, Republicans have drifted far off track from what had been their House majority’s stated priorities of cutting spending and other goals.

Democratic Leader Jeffries reiterated that his party was “ready, willing and able” to work with more traditional Republicans on a path to re-open the House —- particularly as Congress is being asked to consider President Joe Biden’s aid package for Israel, Ukraine and other needs.

Jordan has been a top Trump ally, particularly during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack by the former president’s backers who were trying to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Biden. Days later, Trump awarded Jordan a Medal of Freedom.

First elected in 2006, Jordan has few bills to his name from his time in office. He also faces questions about his past.

Some years ago, Jordan denied allegations from former wrestlers during his time as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University who accused him of knowing about claims they were inappropriately groped by an Ohio State doctor. Jordan has said he was never aware of any abuse.

Washington:

Hardline conservative Republican Jim Jordan’s quest to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives ended on Friday as his fellow Republicans revoked their support following a third, failed vote on the House floor, lawmakers said.

The secret-ballot vote means the chamber will be leaderless and unable to respond to President Joe Biden’s request for aid to Ukraine and Israel until next week at the earliest.

Opposition to Jordan’s candidacy from within his party grew over the course of the week. Some 25 Republican lawmakers voted against him in a third round of balloting on the House floor on Friday, more than the 22 who had opposed in the second round on Wednesday. Jordan received 194 votes, well short of the 214 he needed to claim the speaker’s gavel.

Republicans then voted to revoke Jordan’s nomination in a closed-door meeting.

Now ending its third workweek without a leader, the House cannot act on a $106 billion national-security package unveiled by Biden on Friday that would bolster U.S. border security and send billions to Israel and Ukraine.

“Jim is a good man. But you know, when the votes aren’t there, the votes aren’t there,” said Republican Representative Greg Murphy, a Jordan supporter.

A close ally of Donald Trump, Jordan was a “significant player” in the former president’s attempts to overturn Biden’s 2020 election win, according to a congressional investigation.

“I think there were all kinds of problems with the 2020 election, and I’ve been clear about that,” he said at a news conference before the vote.

The narrow and fractious Republican majority has failed to unite behind Jordan or any other candidate to replace Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted by a handful of party members on Oct. 3. They also have been unable to agree on a fallback plan that would let the chamber take up legislation.

Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority, though some members were absent from Friday’s voting.

Jordan’s vote total was less than McCarthy netted in 15 grueling rounds of voting in January.

DEATH THREATS

Jordan’s bare-knuckle approach seems to have worked against him, as some of his Republican opponents have been outraged by harassing phone calls and death threats.

Jordan’s allies say that should not matter. “All of us in Congress receive death threats. I don’t know if that’s a newsflash for anybody here,” Republican Representative Scott Perry said.

Democrats describe Jordan as a dangerous extremist and have unanimously voted against him.

“Their nominee’s vision is a direct attack on the freedom and the rights of the American people, and he’s got the record to prove it,” Democratic Representative Katherine Clark said on the House floor.

It is unclear whether Republicans will be able to unite behind any other candidates possible candidates if Jordan drops out.

Republicans also are divided on a backup option that could allow the chamber to address Biden’s aid package and other pressing matters, like spending legislation that would allow the U.S. government to keep functioning beyond a Nov. 17 deadline.

That plan would give more authority to Republican Representative Patrick McHenry, who is filling the speaker’s chair on a temporary basis. House Democrats and the White House have said they are open to the idea, but Republicans rejected it on Thursday.

‘PETTY, PARTISAN, ANGRY POLITICS’

Biden urged Republicans to resolve their differences in a televised speech on Thursday. “You can’t let petty, partisan, angry politics get in the way of our responsibilities as a great nation,” he said.

Investors say the turmoil on Capitol Hill is also contributing to market volatility.

Jordan has built his reputation as a leader of that uncompromising right flank. His backers said that would make him an effective fighter for conservative policies in a town where Democrats control the Senate and the White House.

He helped to engineer government shutdowns in 2013 and 2018 and helped to push Republican Speaker John Boehner into retirement in 2015.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

US lawmakers rejected hard-line conservative Jim Jordan’s bid for speaker of the US House of Representatives for a second time on Wednesday, as the leadership vacuum paralysing Washington entered a 15th day with no clear resolution in sight.

The lower chamber of Congress has been in a tailspin since Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by his party’s far right on October 3 — unable to address a looming government shutdown or war in the Middle East.

Jim Jordan, an acolyte of scandal-engulfed Donald Trump, could only afford to lose four Republicans, but 22 of his colleagues rejected his candidacy in the second ballot — two more than were against him a day earlier.

The Israel-Hamas conflict, a renewed push for aid to Ukraine and the threat of a government shutdown have dramatically upped the stakes, with Republican aides hoping the urgent need for Congress to respond would unite the fractured party.

But Mr Jordan’s centrist colleagues, already wary of his hard-right politics, voiced irritation over a concerted effort to whip extra votes for the 59-year-old former wrestling champion.

“Each day that passes without a speaker of the House is a national security risk,” said Jordan supporter and California Republican David Valadao.

“I voted for the Republican Conference’s nominee for speaker because we must get back to work, and we cannot do that until we have a speaker.”

Mr Jordan’s second defeat compounded growing angst around the speaker’s race and disarray within the Republican Party, with no immediate plans for a third vote and many — including Valadao — pushing to expand the limited powers of the largely ceremonial caretaker speaker.

No clear alternative

Jim Jordan, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee, will be expected to show significant progress if he takes the contest to a third round, but the holdouts appear to be dug in.

His Republican opponents met after voting against him for the first time Tuesday and nearly all reaffirmed their objections, with some predicting Jordan would only hemorrhage more support.

The Ohio lawmaker has little of the goodwill among the rank-and-file that McCarthy spent years cultivating and it is unlikely that they would indulge him in the 15 rounds of voting that it took to get his predecessor elected.

Party strategists worry that Jordan going backwards could herald days of further deadlock, as there is no obvious alternative with the support and the profile to corral a party that has become synonymous with division and dysfunction.

“And why run for the mayor of a city that’s just been nuked?” asked online politics outlet Punchbowl News.

There is momentum behind a push to formally appoint caretaker speaker Patrick McHenry for a limited period of perhaps a few months — expanding his purely ceremonial powers so that he can bring legislation to the floor.

“After two weeks without a speaker of the House and no clear candidate with 217 votes in the Republican conference, it is time to look at other viable options,” Ohio congressman Dave Joyce said in a statement reported by politics newspaper The Hill.

“By empowering Patrick McHenry as Speaker Pro Tempore we can take care of our ally Israel until a new Speaker is elected.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Republicans nominated conservative hardliner Jim Jordan as their candidate for speaker of the US House of Representatives, the party leadership announced Friday, as the lower chamber of Congress remained paralyzed for a 10th day.

The 59-year-old chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee saw off a challenge from Georgia congressman Austin Scott to win a secret ballot of House Republicans for the nomination, said conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik.

But he will have to win a majority of the 433-member full House to secure the gavel.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, talks to reporters as he announces he is ending his campaign to be the next House speaker after a Republican meeting at the Capitol in Washington, on October 12, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Representative Steve Scalise, who Republicans nominated to be the next speaker of the House of Representatives, dropped out of the race on Thursday as the party failed to resolve its divisions, prolonging the leadership crisis in the chamber.

Mr. Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, had secured his party’s nomination to replace ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy but was still short of the 217 votes needed to be elected on the House floor, as several of his fellow Republicans said they would not support him.

EDITORIAL | Fractured collective: On Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as U.S. House Speaker

Republicans could afford no more than four defections as they control the House by a narrow 221-212 margin if they wanted to end the House’s leaderless bout that has already lasted nine days.

“I just shared with my colleagues that I was withdrawing my name as a candidate for our speaker designee,” Mr. Scalise told reporters.

“If you look at over the last few weeks, if you look at where our conference is, there is still work to be done… There are still some people that have their own agendas.”

The Republican infighting has left the chamber unable to act to support Israel’s war against Palestinian militants of Hamas and pass government spending bills before funding runs out on November 17.

Republicans had been hoping to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing spectacle that occurred in January, when hardline conservatives forced Mr. McCarthy to endure 15 floor votes over four days before winning the gavel.

‘At a standstill’

Several Republicans earlier said they would stick with Scalise’s rival Jim Jordan, who lost out in a secret-ballot vote on Wednesday. Mr. Jordan has encouraged his supporters to vote for Mr. Scalise, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

While Mr. McCarthy was the first speaker to be removed in a formal vote, the last two Republicans to hold the job wound up leaving under pressure from party hardliners.

Mr. Scalise, 58, gained near legendary status within Republican circles by surviving a severe gunshot wound after a gunman opened fire during practice for a charity baseball game in 2017.

He also commands widespread respect as a veteran legislator, who has spent years in party leadership positions.

But Mr. Scalise also faces new health concerns as he undergoes treatment for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, which some Mr. Jordan supporters cited as a reason not to vote for him.

Mr. Jordan was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and appeared to be the favorite of populist minded hardliners.

Mr. Trump in an interview with Fox News Radio earlier on Thursday said he did not object to Mr. Scalise as speaker.

“Steve is a man that is in serious trouble from the standpoint of his cancer. I mean, he’s got to get better for himself,” he said in an interview with Fox News Radio.

Former President Donald Trump is officially backing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, House Judiciary Committee chairman and long-time Donald Trump defender, to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

“Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C., representing Ohio’s 4th Congressional District,” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social site shortly after midnight Friday. “He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”

The announcement came hours after Texas Rep. Troy Nehls said on October 5 that Mr. Trump had decided to back Mr. Jordan’s bid and after Mr. Trump had been in talks to visit Capitol Hill next week as Republicans debate who should be the next speaker following Mr. McCarthy’s stunning ouster.

The trip would have been Donald Trump’s first to the Capitol since leaving office and since his supporters attacked the building in a bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on January 6, 2021. Mr. Trump has been indicted in both Washington and Georgia over his efforts to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to President Joe Biden.

Donald Trump, the current GOP Presidential front-runner, has used the leadership vacuum on the Hill to further demonstrate his control over the Republican Party. House Republicans are deeply fractured and some have been asking him to lead them — a seemingly fanciful suggestion that he also promoted after inflaming the divisions that forced out Kevin McCarthy as Speaker.

Mr. Trump had been telling people in recent days that he preferred Jim Jordan for the post, according to two Republicans familiar with his thinking and granted anonymity to discuss it. But it was unclear whether he intended to announce it before Mr. Nehls’ tweet.

“Just had a great conversation with President Trump about the Speaker’s race. He is endorsing Jim Jordan, and I believe Congress should listen to the leader of our party,” Mr. Nehls wrote late Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Explained | What are the implications of Kevin McCarthy’s ouster?

In an interview with The Associated Press, Mr. Nehls, who had been encouraging Donald Trump himself to run for job, said the former President had made up his mind.

“After him thinking about it and this and that … he said he really is in favour of getting behind Jim Jordan,” Mr. Nehls said. “He believes Jim Jordan is right for the job.”

Jim Jordan is one of the two leading candidates manoeuvering for Speaker along with Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Both are trying to lock in the 218 votes required to win the job and need the support of both the far-right and moderate factions of the party. It’s unclear whether a Trump endorsement will force Mr. Scalise, the current GOP majority leader, out of the race.

Mr. Nehls said that if no current candidate succeeds in earning the support needed to win, he would once again turn to Mr. Trump. “Our conference is divided. Our country is broken. I don’t know who can get to 218,” he said in an interview.

Earlier, Donald Trump had told Fox News Digital that he was heading to Washington on Tuesday to meet with Republicans. Three people familiar with the matter disclosed the talks about visiting the Capitol to The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. Mr. Nehls, however, said it was unlikely Mr. Trump would make the trip.

Mr. Trump would most likely have attended a closed-door candidate forum that Republicans plan to hold Tuesday evening ahead of a Speakership vote that could happen as soon as on Wednesday, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Jordan is also one of Donald Trump’s biggest champions on the Hill and has been leading the investigations into prosecutors who have charged the former President. He was also part of a group of Republicans who worked with Mr. Trump to overturn his defeat ahead of January 6. Mr. Scalise has also worked closely with Mr. Trump over the years.

One of the people familiar with the planning had cautioned earlier on Thursday that, if Mr. Trump did go ahead with the visit, he would be there to talk with Republican lawmakers and not to pitch himself for the role.

Still, Mr. Trump continued to stoke speculation, telling Fox News Digital on Thursday that he would accept a short-term role as Speaker — for anywhere from 30 to 90 days — if another candidate doesn’t have the votes to win.

“I have been asked to speak as a unifier because I have so many friends in Congress,” he told the outlet. “If they don’t get the vote, they have asked me if I would consider taking the Speakership until they get somebody longer-term, because I am running for President.”

In a social media post earlier in the day, he added that he “will do whatever is necessary to help with the Speaker of the House selection process, short term, until the final selection of a GREAT REPUBLICAN SPEAKER is made – A Speaker who will help a new, but highly experienced President, ME, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The Republican conference is filled with members generally supportive of Donald Trump, but whether they’d back him to serve as Speaker remained to be seen. The role is a demanding position — effectively running the Capitol and dealing with hundreds of lawmakers — and requires an attention to the arcane details of legislating that Mr. Trump showed little interest in even when he was President.

While he is dominating his GOP Presidential rivals, Mr. Trump is also still travelling to early primary states to campaign and has been spending much of his time focussed on the four criminal indictments and several civil cases he is facing.

While there is no requirement that a person be elected to the House to serve as Speaker, every one of the 55 Speakers the House has elected has been a member of the chamber. From time to time, lawmakers have thrown their votes to those outside of Congress, often as a protest against the candidates running.

Mr. Trump helped Mr. McCarthy win the Speakership in January after 15 rounds of voting. But he exhorted Republicans to impeach Joe Biden and to reject deals that McCarthy negotiated. Last month, he urged the right flank to support a government shutdown if Republicans did not win deep spending cuts, declaring on social media that the GOP “lost big on Debt Ceiling, got NOTHING, and now are worried that they will be BLAMED for the Budget Shutdown. Wrong!!! Whoever is President will be blamed, in this case, Crooked (as Hell!) Joe Biden!”

Kevin McCarthy ultimately moved to keep the government open for 45 days without the cuts demanded by hard-right conservatives. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and long-time Donald Trump ally, cited that decision as reason to move to depose the Speaker.

Among those who had pushed Mr. Trump for Speaker was Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a long-time Trump ally who didn’t vote to remove Mr. McCarthy. She posted on X that she believed “he would take the job.”

Mr. Nehls, the Texas Republican who was among the first to promote Mr. Trump for the job, said before his Thursday evening conservation with Mr. Trump that he’d been contacted “by multiple Members of Congress willing to support and offer nomination speeches for Donald J. Trump to be Speaker of the House.” “Next week,” he wrote on X, “is going to be HUGE.”