Cory Booker says US ‘in crisis’ because of GOP House speaker chaos
Jim Jordan is returning to the race for House speaker for another attempt after Majority Leader Steve Scalise failed to get the 217 votes needed from his 221 members to take the gavel.
The House Judiciary Committee chair announced his second attempt on Friday after he lost an internal GOP vote to Mr Scalise earlier this week, receiving 99 votes to 113 for the majority leader.
Mr Jordan is a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and has a reputation in Congress as a rightwing hardliner and brawler. He may yet end up failing to get the votes he needs as the GOP divisions appear far from softening.
As the GOP has a very small majority, Mr Jordan can only lose four votes, and a number of Republicans on the moderate end of the conference have already said they won’t back Mr Jordan, including Missouri’s Ann Wagner, Georgia’s Austin Scott, and Nebraska’s Don Bacon.
“I think he’s gonna have a math problem as well,” Californian Mike Garcia told Axios and Greg Murphy of North Carolina added that “it’s going to be hard” for Mr Jordan to become speaker.
