GOP picks Jim Jordan as latest House speaker candidate, but unclear if he can win

Geoff Bennett:

House Republicans have a new nominee for speaker 10 days after Kevin McCarthy was ousted and less than 24 hours after their last pick stepped aside.

Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan got enough votes in the behind-closed-doors meeting of the GOP Conference, but it's still unclear if he can get the 217 votes necessary to win on the House floor.

"NewsHour" congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins joins us from the Capitol with the latest.

So, Lisa, what happened? What happened now that Jim Jordan is the nominee, when, just a couple of days ago, it was Steve Scalise who beat Jim Jordan for the Republican nomination?

Lisa Desjardins:

Geoff, you are forgiven, so are all of our viewers, if this feels like deja vu.

This is where we're at. A candidate collapsed last night — candidacy collapsed on that perilous hill that is the Republican Party. And now another has risen to attempt to climb that hill. It's Jim Jordan of Ohio.

Now, a lot of viewers are familiar with him. Jordan is known especially as someone who is a fighter, pugilistic in style. He is the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, in fact, leading some of the efforts to investigate President Joe Biden. He's also someone who's a former champion wrestler.

But what's important about him is, he's someone who's very popular with the base. He is an ally of Donald Trump. Now, what was surprising today, Geoff, is that he did have a challenger, someone that no one expected, including the challenger himself. That was Austin Scott of Georgia.

His name may not be familiar to everyone. He has been here since 2011. He says he woke up this morning and didn't think he would run for speaker. But, as a McCarthy ally, he wanted to give others an option. His exact strategy is still a little bit confusing.

But I want to talk about the math here, because the real point is, can Jim Jordan become speaker? Let's look at how these votes went down today. First, Jim Jordan versus Austin Scott. There you go. Jim Jordan got 124 votes. Austin Scott got somewhere in the — 81.

So, you could see Austin Scott hadn't even announced until today, able to get 81 votes. Then there was a second ballot. Question was, will you support Jim Jordan, yes or no, on a floor vote? His number went up to 152. But look at this. A stunning 55 Republicans said, no, I will not support Jim Jordan on the floor.

And a reminder, of course, you need somewhere around 217 votes to become speaker. So, Jim Jordan has a very big hill to climb yet again. The math for him is very tough.

Geoff Bennett:

I know that you have been talking to Republican members of Congress all day. What are they saying about this?

Lisa Desjardins:

Right.

This was a conference that's looking for direction. But, if you heard from them this morning, you can see they're going all different directions.

Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY):

I think Jim should be given a shot. He — there were two candidates that self-identified, Steve and Jim Jordan, and they both stepped forward. If he can get to 217, he should be given the opportunity to try to get there.

Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL):

I'm back with Kevin McCarthy — since he, out of all of the folks that have thrown their hat in the ring, he is head and shoulders above the rest in the majority that he's able to put together.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA):

Just like never-Trump, never-Kevin, never-anyone just — just isn't a good way to go. So I'm for working out those issues and seeing if we can move forward.

Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA):

If someone gets the majority of the votes, my expectation would be everyone in the party should realize that there's a national security imperative here to fill the seat, put aside your political and personal differences and get on board for the big win.

Lisa Desjardins:

And with that, House Republicans went home for the weekend.

Jim Jordan has to make calls to make up that gap. He does have a long way to go. A vote for speaker could happen on the House floor on Monday. And the theory is, his team wants to try out a vote on the floor to see what happens. Why did they leave?

We asked — Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry was asked about it. And he just only said one thing: "It's been a long two weeks."

Geoff Bennett:

All right, we will check back with you on Monday, Lisa Desjardins from Capitol Hill tonight.

Lisa, thank you.

Lisa Desjardins:

You're welcome.