Jim Jordan wins GOP House Speaker nomination – latest

Prior to serving in Congress, Mr Jordan attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he became a champion wrestler in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association. Shortly thereafter, he received a master’s degree from Ohio State University and a law degree from Capital University Law School, though he never took the bar exam and never practised law, telling NPR in 2018, “I’m just a wannabe”.

He later served in both chambers of Ohio’s General Assembly before he won a seat in the US Congress in 2006. In the following years, he became one of the loudest voices in the Tea Party movement that served as a backlash to Barack Obama’s presidency.

Early in the morning of 6 October, former president Donald Trump threw his support behind Rep Jim Jordan in the race to become speaker of the House. The endorsement was not entirely surprising given Mr Jordan, an Ohio congressman, occupied the same lane in the House of Representatives that Mr Trump has as a presidential candidate and president – as an expression of conservatives who were dissatisfied with Republican leadership and a candidate who channelled their rage.

Following the failure of Majority Leader Steve Scalise to get the backing he needed for vote on the floor of the House, the focus returned to Mr Jordan, who was the only challenger to Mr Scalise in the first internal GOP vote on who should be the next speaker. Mr Scalise won that vote 113 to Mr Jordan’s 99.

A product of the Tea Party wave and founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, Mr Jordan’s tenure in the House led to the ouster of former speaker John Boehner, which set the stage for Kevin McCarthy’s downfall earlier this month, despite his steadfast support for the speaker.

In addition, as a previous chair of the House Oversight Committee and now the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he has defended Mr Trump vociferously. Fast-talking, pugnacious and prone to inflammatory rhetoric that veers into outright falsehoods, Mr Jordan often can be seen roaming the halls of the House not wearing a suit jacket.

But he also played a significant role in Mr Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and spreading misinformation since then. He’s faced further scrutiny about whether he refused to report the sexual abuse of wrestlers he coached while at the Ohio State University.

However, the Louisiana Republican failed to secure enough votes for a deciding vote, prompting him to withdraw from the race. “There are still some people that have their own agendas,” he said as he announced that he was quitting. “And I was very clear we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs this country is counting on us to come back together.”

The House hullabaloo follows the ouster, just over a week ago, of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Social media commentators didn’t have much faith in Steve Scalise’s aspirations to become the next House speaker, including one user who correctly predicted that a head of lettuce would outlast the Majority Leader’s goals.

“My money’s on the lettuce,” MeidasTouch Network posted on X on Thursday, alongside a picture featuring a framed photo of Mr Scalise next to an example of the salad ingredient adorned with googly eyes.

“Winning. Winner. Won,” one user wrote.

“The undefeated Lettuce wins again,” another joked.

The post was an echo of memes by British newspaper the Daily Star that haunted embattled UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose short tenure in the post was compared to the “shelf-life of a lettuce” in The Economist.

Amid the GOP’s seemingly never-ending struggle to agree on a new speaker, Mr Colbert asked Mr Fetterman if the members of the upper chamber “feel pretty good right now that they’re not the most dysfunctional part of the government?”

“Well it’s a low bar, really,” Mr Fetterman said.

“I just want everybody to realise just how truly dysfunctional it really is,” he added. “And I always tell people, don’t worry, please don’t worry. It’s much worse than you think.“

“Sometimes you literally just can’t believe, like, these people are making the decisions that are determining the government here. It’s actually scary,” Mr Fetterman told Stephen Colbert during an appearance on The Late Show on CBS.

“Before the government almost shut down, I mean, it came down to a couple hours,” he noted about the last-minute deal struck between Republicans and Democrats to fund the government until the middle of next month that prompted the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“I was in my office, and they finally came over from the House. And they’re like, ‘Okay, well, this has to be unanimous in the Senate.’ And out of 99 of us, if one single one of us would have said no, the whole government would have shut down,” Mr Fetterman said.

“That’s how dangerous that is to put that kind of power in one’s hands because you have some very less gifted kinds of people there that are willing to shut down the government just as score points on Fox,” he noted.

The speaker seat has been empty since eight Republicans – led by Rep Matt Gaetz – joined Democrats to vote to remove Mr McCarthy from the speakership on 3 October.

Mr McCarthy had grown increasingly at odds with the far-right wing of the party – notably lead rebel and MAGA Republican Mr Gaetz.

Mr Gaetz had filed a motion to vacate the speaker in outrage that Mr McCarthy struck a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown – one that could have temporarily shuttered key services for American people and furloughed federal workers.

After Democrats declined to bail out the speaker and members of his own party turned on him, Mr McCarthy was removed in a 216-210 vote to vacate – marking the first time in American history that a speaker has been ousted by other lawmakers.

CNN reporter Kristin Wilson noted that in the two weeks since Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the role, the House has been in session for less than nine hours – stalling the passage of bills for the American people.

“They’ve been in session a total of 8 hours and 39 minutes since McCarthy cancelled recess two weeks ago tomorrow,” she posted on X.

Because of the Republican party split, a candidate can only afford to lose four Republican votes to pass the threshold of 217 votes.

Former US Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal questioned how the GOP can hope to run the country when they can’t resolve their infighting.

“This Party wants to govern America, yet they can’t even govern themselves,” he posted on X, sharing a link to an article about Mr Scalise’s exit from the race.

Gun control activist Fred Guttenberg posted that Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries should take the gavel.

“A bipartisan solution is the only path forward. It is time for Speaker Hakeem Jeffries,” he said.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes revealed his shock that the US has been thrown into this “totally unprecedented” situation.

“This is all totally unprecedented in American history. We haven’t had this before,” he said.

“It’s 100 years since we had a motion to vacate the chair. Amidst an unfolding global crisis, the second in line to the president and constitutional office of Speaker of the House remains vacant, with no clear path for this House Republican caucus to rally behind anyone for an election.”