House Republicans on Friday emerged from their conference after nominating Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to become the next Speaker, which could have implications far beyond the halls of Congress if he manages to win.
According to The New York Times, GOP leaders decided to hold off on a Speaker vote until next week since several members have said they don’t yet support Jordan. He is the second Republican to be nominated after Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) failed to win enough support from the caucus to win the gavel.
“By a vote of 124 to 81, Mr. Jordan defeated Representative Austin Scott of Georgia, a mainstream conservative and an ally of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy who had decided just hours earlier to seek the nomination,” The Times reported. “Mr. Scott had effectively put himself forward as a protest candidate against Mr. Jordan, the co-founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and a favorite of former President Donald J. Trump’s.”
“But while Mr. Jordan won the contest, his quest for the speakership still faced serious challenges. A second secret-ballot vote revealed that a sizable chunk of Republicans did not intend to support him on the floor, where he needs 217 votes to win the gavel. It was a continuation of the bitter party infighting that has broken out in recent days, paralyzing the House,” the outlet continued.
Following a week of uncertainty, Republicans sent their members home for the weekend with hopes of holding a vote for Speaker next week. It’s not clear if, in the meantime, Jordan will be able to convince enough Republicans to support him; he needs 217 votes to take the gavel.
“I think it’s a very difficult math equation for him to overcome,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). “He deserves the opportunity to try to see if he can get that math better. The math is not good for him right now.”
Should he win, though, he could immediately become a thorn in the side of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, with whom he is locked in a battle to obtain information about her cases against Trump and 18 other co-defendants whom she has charged with unlawfully trying to flip the results of the 2020 election in the state.
Late last month, Jordan clapped back at Willis over her response to his panel’s investigation into her prosecution of Trump.
Previously, Willis ripped Jordan and his committee in a letter earlier this month, claiming that he was attempting to interfere with her prosecution via records requests. But Jordan countered that her “position is wrong” regarding her opinions about congressional authority.
“Your letter contends that the Committee, by conducting oversight into apparently politicized local prosecutions, is ‘obstruct[ing] a Georgia criminal proceeding’ and ‘advanc[ing] outrageous partisan misrepresentations.’ Your position is wrong,” Jordan said in a letter that was obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Jordan said his committee could “only conclude” from Willis’ response to the committee’s records request to see if her case against Trump is motivated by politics that she is “actively and aggressively engaged in such a scheme.”
Willis, in her rebuttal to a records request, argued that her case was a state and local matter and, thus, Congress had no ground to investigate. But Jordan said that prosecuting a former president “implicates substantial federal interests.”
“If state or local prosecutors can engage in politically motivated prosecutions of senior federal officers for acts they performed while in federal office, this could have a profound impact on how federal officers choose to exercise their powers,” Jordan wrote.
He went on to argue that a special grand jury report indicated that she “contemplated an even more extensive intrusion into federal interests” after jurors recommended charges against sitting and former U.S. senators, including Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
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