One of the leading Republican Trumpists, Jim Jordan, was named his party’s nominee for President of the House of Representatives on Friday, October 13th. The decision comes at a time when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has been virtually paralyzed since the surprise firing of its Speaker Kevin McCarthy on October 3, after an internal rebellion a year ago that exposed the Republican Party’s gaping fractures before the Presidential election.
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The United States is currently unable to vote for new aid to Israel, a historic ally embroiled in a war with the Palestinian Hamas. Not even an additional envelope for Ukraine, which has been discussed for weeks.
This is the second vote this week within the Republican caucus, which is torn between moderate elected officials and troublemakers surrounding former President Donald Trump. The previous round on Wednesday was narrowly won by Steve Scalise, leader of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and elected from Louisiana, against Jim Jordan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and elected from Ohio, supported by Mr. Trump. But Steve Scalise announced Thursday evening that he was abandoning his candidacy because he could not garner enough votes to become speaker.
Resolved situation
Jim Jordan, who defeated Austin Scott, another Georgia member of the party’s conservative wing, in a secret vote on Friday, could find himself in a similar situation given the narrow Republican majority (221 votes to 212 Democrats). , said political commentators.
He received 124 votes against 81 for his opponent, American media reports. Then, in a second vote to find out how many elected Republicans would actually vote for him before the full House, he received 152 yes votes and 55 no votes, a deficit of 65 votes, according to the same sources. Therefore, unless there is a dramatic turn of events, the situation seems to be frozen until next week. By late Friday afternoon, many elected officials from both parties had left Washington.
Despite holding fairly similar conservative positions on abortion rights, the death penalty or firearms, Jim Jordan and Austin Scott distanced themselves from each other in the vote to certify the 2020 election of Democratic President Joe Biden, which was vehemently contested by Donald Trump. The first voted against validating the results and the second voted for it.
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