Jim Jordan picked as Republican House speaker nominee

Jim Jordan, but he doesn't seem to have enough votes either. NPR political correspondent Susan Davis is covering all of this and joins me now.

Jordan wasn’t about to back down, however. He cornered then-House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) on the House floor and presented him with a choice: Either you summon Koskinen to the Hill or the Freedom Caucus forces a vote on his impeachment a few weeks before Election Day.

Jordan got his hearing.

That is one of many instances where the Ohio Republican used hardline tactics — or what some of his colleagues would call bullying — to get his way. He was so good at it, in fact, that POLITICO dubbed him the “other speaker of the House” at the time.

The turmoil threatens to keep the House from returning to business and taking any significant action on important international and domestic issues, including the unfolding Israel-Hamas war and a looming government shutdown.

And there’s practically no chance that Jordan will get any help in a floor vote from Democrats; about a dozen House representatives gathered outside the Capitol after Jordan’s nomination Friday to denounce the pick. Standing on the Capitol steps, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Jordan the “chairman of the chaos caucus, a defender in a dangerous way of dysfunction, and an extremist extraordinaire.”

Jordan or any other Republican speaker candidate can only afford to lose four GOP votes when the full House votes for speaker if all members are voting.

Republican Rep. Mike Garcia of California said on Friday that Jordan and his team will have 48 hours to “make phone calls to understand why people aren’t there quite yet, and hopefully get them there before Monday” as he expressed confidence that Jordan can ultimately prevail.

Jordan is a polarizing figure on the national stage, which could contribute to concerns for more moderate members of the conference, though hardliners like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz have celebrated his nomination.

Jordan himself faces questions about his past. Some years ago, Jordan and his office denied allegations from former wrestlers during his time as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University who accused him of knowing about claims they were inappropriately groped by an Ohio doctor. Jordan and his office have said he was never aware of any abuse.

The situation is not fully different from the start of the year, when McCarthy faced a similar backlash from a different group of far-right holdouts who ultimately gave their votes to elect him speaker, then engineered his historic downfall.

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