Jim Jordan held an early Friday morning press conference to try to bully Republicans into voting for him for Speaker, and it was a disaster.
Jordan immediately got angry when he was asked to lay out his path forward:
Q to Jim Jordan: Lay out your path. Are you going to call roll call vote after roll call vote and try to wear your opponents down?
Jordan immediately gets testy and cuts off the question, “Stop.” pic.twitter.com/4cSGFEpqGE
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) October 20, 2023
It got so bad that even reporters were telling Jordan he doesn’t have the votes to be Speaker:
Jordan rambled on about going to the Wright Brothers museum and said repeatedly that the only way out of this mess is for Republicans to elect a Speaker and that he planned on keeping the House in Washington for votes all weekend until he is elected.
Jim Jordan’s Press Conference Did Nothing But Confuse and Enrage House Republicans
CNN’s Manu Raju:
Have heard from a lot of GOP members not happy about Jordan’s suggestion to keep them in all weekend to vote on more ballots. May only drive up his Republican opposition
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 20, 2023
The only thing that Jordan accomplished was losing more votes:
Jim Jordan’s opposition within his party is expected to grow despite his efforts to flip holdouts over the last couple days, according to multiple Republican members who oppose his nomination. One predicted he could lose 29 today.
Jordan hopes he has flipped at least a couple
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 20, 2023
Jake Sherman says Republicans have no idea what Jordan is doing:
House Republicans — Jordan supporters and opponents — are completely befuddled by that press conference. I’ve gotten a number of what-is-he-doing calls in the last 20 minutes.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 20, 2023
Jordan’s Press Conference Was A Disaster
Jim Jordan has no plan or vision for a path forward for House Republicans. Jordan thinks he can drag this out long enough that his opponents will give and go along with him as Speaker.
Rep. Jordan had nothing to say, and he referred to himself as the Speaker designee, but no one designated him to be the next Speaker. Jim Jordan is the Republican nominee to be Speaker of the House, but there is no such thing as a Speaker designee.
Jordan has assigned himself a title, and he seems to be trying to fake it until he makes it, but House Republicans don’t want him, and Jordan’s presence is making the crisis worse.
