Jim Jordan fails again to win speaker gavel in second vote, getting less support than first try
Jim Jordan fails again to win speaker gavel in second vote, getting less support than first try

House speaker vote live updates: Jim Jordan falls short of reaching majority a second time

Sounds like they could easily solve this problem by making Hakeem Jeffries speaker.
Honestly, it could be a real power move for some blue state republicans to flip parties. If they could pull a Reagan and say that the Republican Party has changed but they haven’t, they could take both the democratic voters and centrist republicans while losing the MAGAs, and still carry their district.
That would be something for the history books.
I doubt they would be trusted at this point. Too many burnt bridges in the MAGA lifetime. They are on life support.
They don't even have to flip outright to Democrats, they could simply announce they are now Independent. They are probably getting a Primary challenger regardless, and maybe Democrats pay back the favor by forgetting to run a candidate in that district.
It could, but brass tacks: Who are these people? I mean which Reps could survive jumping ship here with their political careers intact? I'm genuinely curious because I love the idea. I just don't see it for the same reason I don't see a single Dem flipping to get a more center Republican speaker.
If you defect, you basically have to swap parties entirely, because you're not just signing up for the Speaker. You also have to expect to protect him or her from the next motion to vacate. And the next. So in for a penny, in for a pound.
This is the same reason it takes a majority to elect the Speaker in the first place: Otherwise you have a House with a Speaker that still can't actually govern.
What share of Republican voters are flexible enough to decide to vote for the Democrats just so they don't support the Trump/MAGA movement? Because these people would need need to decide to vote Republican come next election and US electors seem to be very entrenched in their support for one party or the other, no matter what...
I think you mean HAAAKEEEEM JEEFFFRIEEES
I hadn't heard that. That's fantastic. It reminds me of Barack Obama's announcement in his Epic Rap Battle of History
The correct pronunciation.
Thank you for that!!! Haha
Even tactically it would be the smart move for the Republicans.
If nothing gets done, they can blame the Democratic speaker, if things get passed the wingnuts don't like, they can blame it on the Democratic speaker, meanwhile, the republicans from the slightly more swingy states get creds with more moderate voters, when they vote sensibly.
But nooo, Republicans can only stand either having it all or blocking it all.
Republicans have painted themselves into a corner on this issue by refusing to reject the fascism that has taken over the GOP. Fascism requires "others" to blame. You see it over and over. "This is all the fault of foreigners from X." "This is because of Y minority group." And of course, one of the "others" is always whatever the rival political party is. In this case, the Democrats.
For a fascist, it's unthinkable to work with one of the "others". It would be like Hitler partnering with Jewish people.
Republicans are already blaming Democrats bizarrely for not voting for McCarthy, at a time when McCarthy and all of the Republicans were blaming Democrats for everything, and vowing never to work with them again.
What we really need is a small group of Republicans to say the situation plainly. "The GOP is letting fascists take over and is becoming unamerican. I will not be able to support GOP leadership until they publicly reject fascism and eject extremists like Trump, Gaetz, and Greene from the party. I will still vote for my constituency's conservative values, but I cannot let fascists control American politics, and so for House leadership, I am forced to vote for my conscience and support Hakeem Jeffries."
Good points, but any Republican who votes for a Democrat would see the entirety of the MAGA base vote against them. Hell, McCarthy got ousted for just negotiating with Democrats to avoid a shutdown. None of them are going to vote for Jeffries.
Just heard a republican on CNN blame the Democrats for the current situation with the Republican house.
In my opinion there's no chance of that happening. The next speaker will definitely be a republican.
I'm just saying, it's an easy solution. Only takes a few Republican votes.
There's no chance of them crossing the aisle to elect a Democrat, yes.
But there's also no chance of them siphoning off Democratic votes if they're unwilling to give anything up, and can't be trusted even if they offer something juicy.
So there's about as much chance that they'll elect Jeffries as there is that they'll elect one of their own.
There are Republicans where they were able to win their seat but Biden won the general. They might be feeling purple.