More turmoil ahead as House rejects Jordan for speaker

WASHINGTON — US lawmakers rejected hard-line conservative Jim Jordan's bid for speaker of the House of Representatives in the first round of voting on Tuesday, entrenching a stalemate that has paralyzed Washington for two weeks.

The tally, with 200 Republicans voting for Jordan and 212 for the Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, left no candidate with a clear majority as 20 Republicans voted for someone else. With Republicans in majority control 221-212, Jordan must pick up most of his GOP foes to win.

Lacking the 217 votes he needs to claim the speaker's gavel, Jordan postponed further action until 11 am on Wednesday, while he scrambled to pressure 20 fellow Republicans who voted against him.

"We need to get a speaker as soon as possible," the combative Judiciary Committee chairman said.

Jeffries swiftly intervened, declaring it was time for Republicans to partner with Democrats to reopen the House — in what would be an extraordinary, if not unprecedented, moment in congressional history.

"There's only two paths: Either you're going to continue to bend the knee to the most extreme members of your conference, who are not interested in governing; or you can partner with Democrats to do the business of the American people," Jeffries said.

However, Jordan voiced confidence that he would be able to win a majority, and announced after his defeat that he intended to return to the floor for a second try.

Tuesday's failed vote meant that the House remains leaderless, as it has been since a handful of Republican insurgents engineered Kevin McCarthy's removal. That has left Congress unable to respond to domestic and international challenges, with just a month to go before the United States government faces another partial shutdown deadline.

It was not clear whether Jordan, a close ally of former president Donald Trump, would pick up more support or see his opposition grow in a second vote on Wednesday.

Anger and worries

Some Republicans were angry that McCarthy was ousted and Steve Scalise was not supported by the whole conference. Others were worried that Jordan's rise would boost the influence of right-wing hard-liners in the party, and his confrontational style could cause further chaos, potentially leading to a government shutdown.

"I can't get past the fact that a small group in our conference violated the rules to get rid of Kevin, and then blocked Steve," Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon said, noting that it is "unacceptable" for a small minority of the majority dictating actions of the Republican conference.

Agencies - Xinhua