House Republicans revoked the nomination of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for speaker of the House in a vote of no-confidence taken on Oct. 20, shortly after he continued to lose ground on a third ballot on the House floor.
The 112 to 86 vote came amid intense frustration among House members over the events of the past three weeks.
That began with the ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Oct. 3 by a small group of Republicans aided by Democrats. Then when the GOP conference nominated Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) to succeed Mr. McCarthy, his nomination was derailed by a small group of Jordan supporters who stated their refusal to elect Mr. Scalise.
The conference then nominated Mr. Jordan, but he was unable to overcome the ill will generated by those events. Though he had supported both Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Scalise, some members saw him as tainted by association with them.
“It’s time for Mr. Jordan, whom I have no personal animus toward, to step down,” Rep Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said just ahead of the vote of no-confidence. “We need to have a clean slate with no baggage. We have baggage going back with Steve Scalise’s election, and Kevin’s and he was a part of that. It’s just time to move on.”
Despite this most recent setback in electing a speaker, some members were hopeful of coming to an agreement soon.
“There’s still a tremendous pool of talent in there, people who love this country, and who understand the need for us to address things like the border and the looming government shutdown,” Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) said. “We’re gonna get it done. It’s just going to take us a little bit longer.”
Republicans will hold a nominating conference on Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m., one member told The Epoch Times.
Earlier, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) pleaded with Republicans reopen the House by joining Democrats in a bipartisan governing coalition.
“House Democrats continue to make clear that we are willing to find a bipartisan path forward so we can reopen the House and solve problems for hard-working American taxpayers,” Mr. Jeffries said at a midday press conference.
“It’s time for traditional Republicans to get off the sidelines, get in the arena, and realize that the chaos dysfunction, and extremism has to end. And the only way to do it is to figure out how we can partner in a bipartisan fashion to reopen the House and govern in a reasonable commonsense way.”
Jackson Richman, Joseph Lord, Emel Akan, Ryusuke Abe, and NTD’s Melina Wisecup contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
