A few updates this morning on the Republican-on-Republican brawl to become Christofascist Speaker of the House.
Memories...
It appears there's some confusion on here about Jim Jordan's role in Trump's insurrection plot. So let me leave these here for you: pic.twitter.com/gECIUArh8m
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) October 14, 2023
...For Tuesday night’s candidates forum, Republicans moved their meeting to the Ways and Means committee room in the Longworth building. One-hundred forty journalists crowded into “Gucci Gulch” — as the lobbyist-filled hallways outside the committee room are known — and, because the building is open to the public, so did some right-wing activists. One of them, Ivan Raiklin, informed me that “38,000 were murdered” by the coronavirus vaccine and explained how Trump could be installed as House speaker.
Another activist interrupted McCarthy’s impromptu news conference in the hallway to inform him that it was the birthday of Ashli Babbitt, the woman fatally shot inside the Capitol as she tried to breach the House chamber on Jan. 6, 2021, and to demand the release of more security footage from the insurrection. “That’s another day, another question,” McCarthy said, asking reporters for a different question.
For the moment, there was really only one relevant question: “How do we get to 217 and how do we bring this party back to a functioning majority?” as Rep. Mike Garcia (Calif.) put it. And the answer to that was ... well, nobody knew...
Representative Jim Jordan and his allies have begun a right-wing pressure campaign against Republicans opposed to electing him speaker, working to unleash the rage of the party’s base voters against any lawmaker standing in the way of his election.
Even after Mr. Jordan, the hard-right Ohio Republican, won his party’s nomination for the post on Friday, he remained far short of the 217 votes he needed to win the gavel, with scores of his colleagues refusing to back him.
In efforts to close the gap, lawmakers and activists close to him have taken to social media and the airwaves to blast the Republicans they believe are blocking his path to victory and encourage voters to browbeat them into supporting Mr. Jordan.
It is an extraordinary instance of Republican-on-Republican fighting that underscores the divisions that have wrought chaos inside the party, paralyzing the House of Representatives in the process. Several of Mr. Jordan’s supporters have posted the phone numbers of mainstream G.O.P. lawmakers they count as holdouts, encouraging followers to flood the Capitol switchboard with calls demanding they back Mr. Jordan — or face the wrath of conservative voters as they gear up for primary season...
(Spoiler alert: He won't be Speaker. Period.)
Don't threaten us with a good time
... "Rep. George Santos, who has resisted calls to resign for lying about his background and credentials, said he would resign from congress if Rs and Ds work together to elect a House Speaker," [WaPo's Azi] Paybarah wrote.
The report was also confirmed by Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall.
Santos "just threatened that he’ll resign from Congress if there’s a deal to elect a Speaker with the Dems," according to Marshall's account.
That's what's known as an "incentive" for both Democrats and those Republicans who've been trying to ditch the embarrassment who happens to be a perfect distillation of the values of their party.
