Headline Roundup • October 19th, 2023
House GOP Reverses Course, Plans 3rd Jordan Speaker Vote After Tense Meeting
Politics,US House,Republican Party,Jim Jordan,Patrick McHenry,Polarization,Kevin McCarthy,Matt Gaetz
Summary from the AllSides News Team
House Republicans say they will try a third time to elect Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as speaker, abandoning a plan to temporarily empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) after many Republicans opposed it.
GOP Tensions: The Republican caucus met for nearly four hours to consider their options in a reportedly tense meeting on Thursday. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reportedly “screamed” at Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to “sit your a** down.” McCarthy later denied yelling at Gaetz, saying, “I think the entire conference screamed at him… Listen, the whole country, I think, would scream at Matt Gaetz right now.” A source cited by the Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias) said Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) “went ballistic” on Gaetz after the exchange with McCarthy.
McHenry Alternative: Some House Democrats had considered backing the plan to temporarily empower McHenry, but Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reportedly decided to “wait and see” what offer, if any, Republicans made for a bipartisan deal. Across the aisle, several Republicans took a hard stance against empowering McHenry precisely because it would “empower Democrats,” with Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) calling it “the biggest F.U. to Republican voters.”
How the Media Covered It: Live coverage and sensationalism were common, particularly in outlets like HuffPost (Left bias). While most voices framed the situation negatively, some right-rated outlets highlighted voices opposing the McHenry plan. Echoing previous coverage framing opposition to Republican leadership as siding with Democrats, a Fox News (Right bias) homepage headline quoted conservatives labeling McHenry, a Republican, as a “Democrat-deal speaker.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
House Republicans shelved a proposal to install Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick T. McHenry in a more official role possibly through December just hours after the speaker-designate, Rep. Jim Jordan, gave it his blessing on Thursday.
Facing an increasingly imperiled bid to become speaker due to lack of support within the conference, Jordan had told House Republicans on Thursday morning that he would instead support expanding McHenry’s authority to get the chamber functioning again temporarily.
But GOP lawmakers leaving an hourslong meeting Thursday afternoon said there was little support for empowering McHenry either,...
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Francis Chung/POLITICO
House Republicans are abandoning a push to empower a temporary speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry, after it faced fierce pushback within the party on Thursday.
As they left a nearly four-hour internal meeting about the idea, multiple Republicans said there was no virtually no path forward. The proposal, which may still come back for a vote at some point, would have allowed McHenry and the GOP to reopen the House after 16 days without a speaker.
Many Republicans view that task as critical, given pending deadlines on government spending and an...
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The House will hold a vote for speaker later Thursday to give Republican nominee Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio a third shot at the gavel as he struggles to convince nearly two dozen holdouts to back him.
The stalemate, now in its third week, has empowered Democrats in the minority to ambitiously eye a deal to elect a speaker with some frustrated Republicans who would give them more power and perhaps an equal say over the agenda.
Mr. Jordan, the favored candidate of the GOP’s hardline conservative faction, has lost two...
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