Jim Jordan says he will seek third vote and not planning to drop out of House speaker race – as it happened

The House of Representatives remains in limbo and without a speaker, despite far-right Ohio representative Jim Jordan trying his best to rally holdout colleagues.

With the House in its weeks-long gridlock, there are increasing calls from Democrats and Republicans to expand the powers of the chamber’s acting speaker, North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry, so that the chamber can carry on with business.

The chaos in the House of Representatives comes at a precarious moment on the world stage amid the ongoing conflicts between Israel and Hamas, as well as Ukraine and Russia.

• Former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell is taking a plea agreement in Georgia’s Fulton county and will plead guilty in the Georgia election subversion case.

• The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said that the justice department was monitoring an increase in reported threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities.

• Joe Biden is set to deliver a primetime address tonight at 8pm ET in which he will discuss the US response to the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.

Jim Jordan’s bid for speaker appears to still be an uphill climb.

Per reporters at Capitol Hill, he did not take any questions from the press after meeting with holdout Republicans.

Mike Lawler, the New York Republican who voted against Jordan previously, issued a statement endorsing Patrick McHenry as an interim speaker. “In the absence of an immediate resolution, we must empower Speaker Pro-Tempore Patrick McHenry to serve as Speaker temporarily to allow us to get back to work,” he said.

Meanwhile, some Senate news: Laphonza Butler, who was appointed just over two weeks ago to fill the seat left vacant by California senator Dianne Feinstein’s death, said she would not run for a full term.

The New York Times reports that Butler said that the Senate was “not the greatest use of my voice”.

Her appointment to serve the remainder of Feinstein’s term by California governor Gavin Newsom drew criticism, especially from supporters of congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Black Bay Area representative who had already been campaigning for the upcoming Senate term before Feinstein died last month.

Newsom had promised that given the opportunity, he would appoint a Black woman to the seat. But he also implied he would not be appointing anyone who was already running for the senate, and said that he would instead choose an “interim” candidate. When announcing Butler’s appointment, his office made clear that she was free to run for a full term if she chose to.

Still, his choice drew the ire of many Lee supporters, including the Congressional Black Caucus. “Barbara Lee, and Black women, are not mere caretakers, but the voting and organizing center of the national Democratic party,” Aimee Allison, whose organization She the People promotes women of color in politics, said at the time.

Butler became the only Black woman in the senate and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.

In a statement, Butler said: “California voters want leaders who think about them and the issues they care most about. I now have 383 days to serve the people of California with every ounce of energy and effort that I have.”

Butler had never held elected office. Prior to joining the senate, she led Emily’s List, a national political organization dedicated to electing Democratic women who support reproductive rights. She also served as a strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and was a former labor leader of SEIU California, the state’s largest union, representing more than 700,000 workers.

Meanwhile, Democrats are continuing to push the message that Republicans’ inability to work together to elect a speaker is a sign of the party’s incompetence ahead of a big election year.

DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika wrote:

Today, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming their support for Israel, President Biden returned from Israel and is preparing to address the nation, and House Democrats stand ready to get back to work. All of the adults are in the room working, except for House Republicans who are – literally – cursing at one another and fighting among themselves. It’s time for the House GOP to grow up, pull themselves together, and join Democrats in working for the American people.

In an interview with CNN, hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz, who started the push to oust former speaker Kevin McCarthy, said “This is how its supposed to be, and it’s not clearn and its not orderly… I don’t seem to mind it too much.”

CNN’s Manu Raju asked Gaetz what he got out of removing McCarthy, he said, “We’re shaking up Washington, DC.”

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates has urged Republicans to “get their act together” amid their “self-inflected, extreme chaos.”

In a memo released on Thursday, Bates said:

“The House GOP’s backbiting and competition to out-extreme each other is also surfacing hardline positions that the American people have solidly rejected again and again. Including dangerous conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, radical abortion bans, and cuts to Medicare and Social Security…

As president Biden acts to make America more secure, grow our economy for the middle class, and protect our freedoms, House Republicans are falling over one another to find out who can be the most erratic and out of step with the priorites of working families.

They need to get their act together and join this president at the adults table.”

In a new interview with CNN, Democrat representative Nancy Pelosi said that “you have to make him speaker,” referring to interm House speaker Patrick McHenry.

Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash, Pelosi said:

“From a standpoint of the speakership, you really cannot give Mr. McHenry power. Someone suggested, well, just let him do this and let him do that. No, you have to make him speaker, and then he has the awesome power of the speakership.

Question is, for how long, the longevity of it? My hearing is that it will be to the end of this session, so until the end of the year. Secondly, what is the legislative scope of it? What does it contain? And third is the structure. Do they do anything about the motion to vacate or what we do about motions, other motions on the floor?

So it’s substance. It’s timing. It’s structure. It’ll be up to Hakeem, and we all have confidence in him,” she added.

Jim Jordan said that he plans to seek a third vote and has no plans of pulling out the House speaker race.

Speaking to reporters after tense closed-door meetings with other Republicans, Jordan said:

“I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the vote and win this race.”

He added that he plans to speak with the 20 Republicans who voted against him to secure their support.

In attempts to buy time for a third round of votes for his own speakership, Jordan has thrown his support behind expanding House speaker pro tempore’s powers. The current interim House speaker is North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry.

Jordan’s decision to support McHenry’s interim speaker position has spurred mixed reactions, with Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene calling it “the wrong thing to do.”

Republican Matt Gaetz echoed similar sentiments, saying, “We need to stay here until we elect a speaker.”

Meanwhile, Democrat Jared Moskowitz hailed the decision, saying, “If there is a bipartisan deal to empower the pro-Temp, which I’m a favor of, I want to see the details of course first.”

Here is video of Jim Jordan telling reporters that he made a “pitch” in attempts to “lower the temperature” by throwing his support behind the House speaker pro temporare.

“We decided that wasn’t where we’re going to go. I’m still running for Speaker, and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race. But I want to a few of my colleauges. Particularly I want to talk with the 20 individuals who voted against me,” said Jordan.

Additionally, Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman reports that Jordan said that he expects another speaker vote and added that he wants to meet with the 20 Republicans who voted against him.

It remains unclear when the next round of votes would be.

Sherman also reports that House majority whip Tom Emmer as well as House majority leader Steve Scalise are curently opposed on the idea to elect a temporary speaker.

Commenting on the Patrick McHenry House resolution that is set to expand the chamber’s speaker pro tempore’s powers, Jim Jordan is reported to have said:

We made the pitch to members on the resolution as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work. We decided that wasn’t where we’re gonna go. I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go the floor and get the votes and win this race.”

Steve Scalise, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, is reported to be opposed to the resolution to empower a temporary speaker.

“I’d rather us focus on getting a speaker elected,” Scalise is reported to have said, according to Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman.

The closed-door GOP meeting is reported to be fairly tense.

According to CNN’s Melanie Zanona, sources said that Florida representative Matt Gaetz was told to sit down by former House speaker Kevin McCarthy and refused.

“Then Rep. [Michael] Bost ‘got all emotional’ and ‘was cussing at him’ and ‘telling him it’s all his fault,’ one member said,” Zanona added.

She also reported that other Republicans are reportedly furious over Jim Jordan supporting the resolution to expand House speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry’s powers, with some claiming that it is a self-serving move.

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.