Fundraising email from Florida congressman said ‘Rinos are working with radical Democrats … to block Jim Jordan’
The Florida Republican representative Matt Gaetz has issued an apology over a fundraising email sent out allegedly without his team’s approval.
On Wednesday, Gaetz apologized for an email “sent by a vendor without my team’s approval” and said that “it should have never been sent”.
Continue reading...Tally showed 22 members of his own party opposing him, including four Republicans who supported Jordan a day earlier
The House of Representatives again failed to elect a new speaker on Wednesday, after the hard-right congressman Jim Jordan failed to win the gavel in the second round of voting.
The second vote tally showed 199 Republicans supporting Jordan and all 212 Democrats supporting their leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Twenty-two Republicans opposed Jordan on Wednesday, leaving him far short of the 217 votes needed to ascend to the speakership. Because of Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House, Jordan can only afford four defections within his party and still become speaker.
Continue reading...Republican hardliner’s bid hangs in the balance but ally Scott Perry says loss of votes is part of what he calls fight to change status quo
Despite the seemingly stiff opposition against him becoming speaker of the House, Jim Jordan told reports he is not in favor of empowering Patrick McHenry to take the job:
Note that McHenry is also a Republican.
Continue reading...Congresswoman Debbie Lesko, from Arizona, says ‘it is hard to get anything done’
A Republican congresswoman has said she will not run for re-election next year, claiming “DC is broken”.
Debbie Lesko, from Arizona, said in a statement that traveling to Washington each month had also proven difficult.
Continue reading...Twenty Republicans oppose hard-right congressman in first round of voting following historic ouster of Kevin McCarthy
The House of Representatives was unable to elect a new speaker on Tuesday, as the hard-right congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio struggled to win the gavel following the historic ouster of the Republican Kevin McCarthy earlier this month.
In the first round of voting, 20 Republicans opposed Jordan, while 200 Republicans supported the judiciary committee chair. The result left Jordan far short of winning the speakership, given that he can only afford four defections within his conference and still capture the gavel. All 212 House Democrats supported Hakeem Jeffries of New York, giving the Democratic leader more votes than Jordan.
Continue reading...The former Texas congressman’s long-shot 2024 bid has come to an end, but he has no regrets – and he insists Trump’s nomination is not inevitable
Will Hurd wanted to be the most powerful man in the world. Like so many candidates before him, he knew the loneliness of the long distance runner criss-crossing Iowa and New Hampshire in a quest for votes that might make him president of the United States. But it was not be.
This week Hurd called it a day after a campaign that failed to make much of a splash. Indeed, arguably his biggest headline came in July when he declared, “Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison,” and was roundly booed at the Iowa Republican Party’s Lincoln Dinner. Unrepentant, Hurd told them: “Listen, I know the truth is hard.”
Continue reading...Rightwing speakership contender says he thinks he has 217 votes needed to win despite group who say they will not support him
The rightwing congressman Jim Jordan is seeking to shore up support for his bid to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, with plans to appear on the House floor early this week to try to sway Republican members of Congress who signaled in a secret ballot vote they will not support his bid.
Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, claimed in a brief interview with Politico he believes he will get the 217 votes required to secure the speakership in a vote he wants to happen on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Rightwing attorney general holds off crowded field and will replace Democrat John Bel Edwards, who has served two terms
Attorney General Jeff Landry, a rightwing Republican backed by Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor’s race, holding off a crowded field of candidates.
The win is a major victory for the Republican party as they reclaim the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current governor John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek re-election due to consecutive term limits.
Continue reading...At event in Iowa, governor conflates Palestinian civilians with Hamas, the terrorist group that attacked Israel a week ago
Republican presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis has rejected accepting Palestinian refugees from Gaza to the US, speaking at a campaign rally in the US midwest on Saturday.
“We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees,” he said. “If you look how they behave … not all of them are Hamas but they are all antisemitic, none of them believe in Israel’s right to exist.”
Continue reading...The chaos in the House may have devastating outcomes for the people of Ukraine, some experts warn
As he excoriated Kevin McCarthy over his leadership of the House Republican conference last week, hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz accused the then speaker of cutting a “secret side deal” with Joe Biden to provide additional funding to Ukraine amid its ongoing war against Russia.
“It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for, and it’s not the Republican conference,” Gaetz, who represents a solidly Republican district in Florida, said in a floor speech at the time.
Continue reading...Israel and Gaza explode, Ukraine asks for more help and other predicaments demand US attention while Republicans quarrel among themselves
The US’s closest ally in the Middle East is reeling from what many call its “9/11” and now a humanitarian disaster looms in Gaza. Winter is approaching in Ukraine, which needs urgent supplies to maintain its counteroffensive against Russia. From China’s expansive ambitions, to coups in Africa, to the climate crisis, the world is crying out for leadership.
But on Capitol Hill in Washington, Republicans can’t find one. Friday marked the 10th day of paralysis as the party struggles to elect a speaker of the House of Representatives to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy. This after majority leader Steve Scalise won a closed-door vote but abandoned his run because he lacked enough support to win on the House floor.
Continue reading...Party still faces issue of how to reunite their fractious majority and prove to skeptical US public that they are capable of governing
The US House of Representatives will remain leaderless into a second week as Republicans continue to confront a familiar conundrum: how to unite their fractious majority and prove to a skeptical US public that they are a party capable of governing, not just funneling rightwing outrage and culture war rhetoric.
More than a week after a cadre of discontented Republicans deposed their own speaker, Kevin McCarthy, the conference is still deeply divided over who should replace him with no one candidate seemingly able to garner enough support to end the squabbling.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. House remains without speaker as Jordan only has a backing of 152 Republican members
Georgia’s Republican representative Austin Scott criticized certain Republicans whom he said “like to go on the TV and are not necessarily negotiating for anything other than TV time.”
Speaking to CNN following yesterday’s closed-door meetings, Scott, who is not supporting Jim Jordan, added, “It makes us look like a bunch of idiots.”
Continue reading...House unable to govern, with next steps uncertain, after Louisiana senator fails to secure his party’s support
The Republican congressman Steve Scalise is ending his bid to become the US House speaker after failing to secure enough votes to win the gavel.
“I just shared with my colleagues that I’m withdrawing my name as a candidate for speaker-designee,” Scalise said as he emerged from the closed-door meeting at the Capitol, where he first informed fellow Republican colleagues of his decision.
Continue reading...Congressional business at a standstill as House majority leader drops out of speaker race on Thursday
The House of Representatives remained without a speaker on Thursday, as the fractious Republican majority refused to unite behind their party’s chosen nominee, congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
A day after narrowly becoming House Republicans’ candidate for speaker in a secret ballot vote, Scalise moved no closer to overcoming the entrenched divisions on Thursday.
Continue reading...Frustrated US district judge Aileen Cannon shuts down conflict-of-interest hearing after lawyers make surprise request
The federal judge in the criminal case about Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents rebuked prosecutors for “wasting the court’s time” on Thursday with their sudden request to partly restrict the lawyer for one of Trump’s co-defendants.
US district judge Aileen Cannon abruptly postponed the hearing after getting the request – which came after prosecutors had first said they would not seek disqualification.
Continue reading...Steve Scalise doesn’t yet have the support he needs from his own party to become speaker
Here’s a little more from South Carolina’s Republican representative Nancy Mace’s interview on CNN during which she said she would not vote for Steve Scalise as House speaker.
Mace, who has thrown her support behind far-right Ohio representative Jim Jordan, said that she “actually talked to Democrats who trust him at his word.”
Continue reading...Having no US ambassador to Israel in place and Republicans holding up military promotions is a threat to democracy, experts say
Political turmoil in Washington has left the US without key diplomats across the Middle East and raised concerns that years of congressional dysfunction are taking their toll on US leadership.
A devastating weekend attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen shook the region and came at a moment when there is no US ambassador in place in Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon or Oman.
Continue reading...Jim Jordan plans to vote for the man who beat him, a source with direct knowledge tells the Guardian
Several former Ohio State University wrestlers are voicing their opposition towards Republican representative Jim Jordan’s speaker candidacy.
The former students have accused Jordan of ignoring sexual abuse and failing to protect them from a sexual predator while he was the team’s assistant coach.
“The first order of business under speaker Steve Scalise is going to be bringing a strong resolution expressing support for Israel. We’ve got a very bipartisan bill … ready to go right away to express our support for Israel.
Continue reading...Court hears redistricting case after lower court ruled Republicans had unlawfully moved 30,000 votes out of a congressional district
The supreme court’s conservative majority appeared skeptical on Wednesday that South Carolina Republicans discriminated against Black voters when it redrew one of the state’s congressional districts to make it friendlier to the GOP.
During two-hours of oral argument on Wednesday, the court’s conservative justices aggressively poked holes in a three-judge panel’s ruling earlier this year finding that Republicans had unlawfully moved around 30,000 Republican voters out of South Carolina’s first congressional district to make it more Republican. Chief Justice John Roberts, a key swing vote on the court, seemed unconvinced by the evidence the lower court had accepted, saying at one point the challengers were asking the court to embrace arguments that “would be breaking new ground in our voting rights jurisdprudence”.
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