Jim Jordan decision to delay House speakership bid and back more power for McHenry draws mixed response – live | Republicans

Steve Scalise, who dropped out of speaker race, said to be opposed to temporary solution

Close-door Republican meeting gets heated, reports say

Dan Newhouse, a Republican representative from Washington, said “We need a reset” upon being asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether Jim Jordan should stay as House speaker nominee.

Raju also reports that in a closed-door meeting, a handful of Republicans urged Jordan to drop his speakership bid but he is not yielding, according to several sources.

Marjorie Taylor Greene says Jordan speaker delay ‘wrong thing to do’

Jordan decision draws both praise and criticism from Republicans

Republican politicians’ inflammatory rhetoric threatens safety of Arab Americans, Muslim groups warn

Refusing to drop out, Republican Representative Jim Jordan told GOP colleagues today he would back a temporary US House speaker for the next several months as he works to shore up support to win the gavel himself, the Associated Press reports.

Jordan delivered the message at a closed door meeting at the Capitol as the Republican majority considered an extraordinary plan to give the interim speaker pro-tempore, Representative Patrick McHenry, more powers to reopen the House and conduct crucial business until January, according to Republicans who attended the private meeting and insisted on anonymity to discuss it.

There is a sinking realization that the House could remain endlessly stuck, out of service and without a leader for the foreseeable future as the Republican majority spirals deeper into dysfunction. The impasse has left some Republican lawmakers settling in for a protracted stretch.

McHenry has brushed off attempts to take the job more permanently after he was appointed to the role after the unprecedented ousting of Kevin McCarthy more than two weeks ago.

I did not ask for additional powers. My duty is to get the next speaker elected. That’s my focus,” said McHenry, a North Carolina Republican who is well-liked by his colleagues and viewed as a highly competent legislator.

Elevating McHenry to an expanded speaker’s role would not be as politically simple as it might seem. The hard-right Republican lawmakers including some who ousted McCarthy, don’t like the idea.

Asinine,” said Chip Roy of Texas, a leader of far-right House Freedom Caucus.

While Democrats have suggested the arrangement, Republicans are loth to partner with the Democrats in a bipartisan way. And it’s highly unlikely Republicans could vote to give McHenry more powers on their own, even though they have majority control of the House.

It’s a bad precedent and I don’t support it,” said Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, the Freedom Caucus chairman.

Installing a temporary speaker for the next few months is backed by many of Jordan’s opponents and would give him an offramp so he would not have to declare defeat.

Next steps were highly uncertain on Thursday as angry, frustrated Republicans looked at other options. Some predict the House could stay essentially shuttered, as it has been almost all month, until the mid-November deadline for Congress to approve funding or risk a federal government shutdown.

I think clearly Nov. 17 is a real date,” said Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, who leads a large conservative caucus, referring to the next deadline.

What was clear was that Jordan’s path to become House speaker was almost certainly lost, after he failed in a crucial second ballot on Wednesday, opposed by 22 Republicans, two more than he lost in first-round voting the day before.

The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said that the justice department was monitoring an increase in reported threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities in the United States tied to Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Reuters reports.

The entire justice department remains vigilant in our efforts to identify and respond to hate crimes, threats of violence, or related incidents, with particular attention to threats to faith communities,” Garland said in prepared remarks at a news conference in Jacksonville, Florida.

Garland said that last week he had directed the Federal Bureau of Investigation and US attorneys’ offices to work with state and local law enforcement agencies to respond to threats, and urged federal prosecutors to be in contact with faith and community leaders.

Garland plans to meet later today with law enforcement officials in Miami, home to one of the largest Jewish populations in the US.

The 7 October cross-border terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s subsequent bombing of the Hamas-controlled enclave of Gaza have sparked tensions around the world, including in the United States.

The FBI said on Monday it was investigating the stabbing death of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Muslim boy, in Illinois as a hate crime. A suspect has already been charged with state crimes, and authorities said the boy and his mother were targeted because they were Palestinian Americans.

US authorities on Tuesday charged a North Carolina man for allegedly sending a threatening message to a Jewish organization. Even before the current war, the Anti-Defamation League reported a record number of antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2022.

Jim Jordan to delay House speakership bid and support expansion of interim speaker’s powers

Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries said that Democrats have not yet assumed a position on the resolution to empower temporary House speaker Patrick McHenry.

Speaking to CNN’s Manu Raju, Jeffries said:

“Jim Jordan is still the speaker nominee and our goal is to prevent him, a clear and present danger to our democracy and the poster child for Maga extremism, from becoming the speaker.

The Republicans have to end this saga as opposed to us having another futile effort to elevate an insurrectionist to lead the House of Representatives.”

Iowa’s Republican representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks said that she has received death threats after she switched from voting for Jim Jordan to another House Republican.

Miller-Meeks, who voted for Jordan on Tuesday then voted for Texas representative Kay Granger on Wednesday, wrote in a statement:

“Since my vote … I have received credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls. The proper authorities have been notified and my office is cooperating fully.

One thing I cannot stomach, or support is a bully. Someone who threatens another with bodily harm or tries to suppress differing opinions undermines oppurtunity for unity and regard for freedom of speech.”

Jim Jordan won’t hold third vote and support McHenry as interim speaker until January, reports say

President Biden to deliver primetime address tonight on Israel, Ukraine