‘The Jim Jordan from Ohio?’ CNN host incredulous as Nancy Mace claims Democrats trust hardliner

Jim Jordan is followed by reporters as he leaves a closed-door vote to nominate a new speaker. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

A Republican opposing Steve Scalise, the party’s pick for US House speaker, claimed Democrats trusted Jim Jordan, the hard-right Ohioan Scalise defeated in an internal vote on Wednesday.

“I think Jim Jordan is not out of the mix,” Nancy Mace of South Carolina told CNN on Wednesday night. “I have talked to a lot of people who still support him. I have actually talked to Democrats who trust him at his word. I don’t think that’s out of the realm of possibility.”