After Rep. Jim Jordan failed to win the votes for the speakership, pundits claimed it was due to a loss of Trump’s hold on the House. That seemed to be the opposite of what was actually happening, and indeed all of the new candidates were vetted by the former president in a process Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) described as “the president is interested in having someone he can work with.”
Watch:
Trump called up each of the speaker candidates. “He called me and we had a polite conversation. I believe that the president is interested in having somebody he can work with, and I think I’m one of those people,” Pete Sessions said pic.twitter.com/S8BjrzowR4
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 24, 2023
A few of the tells here are 1. Donald Trump is not “the president”, he is former president Donald Trump 2. Trump is not the president and therefore he doesn’t need to be able to “work” with anyone in the House 3. The only other “work with” purpose is finding a speaker who will help Trump attack President Joe Biden over fictional reasons and protect Trump from investigations, which is not actually the job description of the Speaker.
The fact that Trump ally Jim Jordan couldn’t get enough votes to win the speakership didn’t speak to Trump losing his hold over the House; it spoke to Jordan’s deep unpopularity and the fact that people working on his behalf threatened and harassed members and their families.
Every single one of the now eight candidates agreed, according to Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), not bring an omnibus spending bill to the House floor, in case anyone is wondering if these men have any inclination to do the actual bare minimum of the job.
For a breakdown of the front-runners and where they stand on freedom and democracy, check out our piece on The Daily.
Instead of taking Jordan’s loss as an opportunity to nominate someone who would actually do the job, the House is letting Trump personally vet candidates to see how well they serve his personal agenda of vindictive attacks on Joe Biden and protect Trump from his ongoing legal issues and various investigations by using the power of the U.S. House of Representatives to interfere in matters that it does not have purview over.
