The Future is Now: Reply to “Comment on ‘I Can’t Have That until We Have a Speaker’ ” by Hakeem Jeffries

The House will keep holding elections until someone succeeds in meeting that threshold. A speaker is usually elected after a single floor vote. But if that proves impossible, the process can drag on indefinitely. Mr. McCarthy only prevailed after five days and 15 votes.

In January the Democrats in the House banded together for the first time in history to vote for Hakeem Jeffries of New York as the minority leader. Most of them will not help elect Mr. Jordan, a far-right figure who has been labeled a terrorist by a former speaker of his own party and who many Democrats consider a partisan extremists.

Mr. Jeffries has pitched the idea of forming a coalition government that he describes as an “enlightened arrangement.” It is a long shot. And given that he has more votes than any Republican seeking the speakership, it is highly unlikely that Mr. Jeffries would agree to cede to a G.O.P. candidate without substantial concessions.

Mr. Jeffries said Democrats would team with Republicans to elect a speaker only if they agreed to change House rules to allow “governance by consensus”; in other words, allowing bills with bipartisan support to come to the floor. The Rules Committee has been simplified so that Republicans have total control of what bills the House considers. That means that the hard right has veto power on what is considered and what is not, so Democratic priorities are often blocked.

Other members worry that Jordan has a long history of opposing spending bills. The next speaker will be in a position to decide about military aid to Ukranian and Israel, funding for border security and an upcoming deadline to fund the government.

The House Republicans want to end weeks of infighting and chaos by holding a public vote on Jim Jordan’s nomination as Speaker of the House.

Jordan can only afford to lose a handful of Republicans to secure the gavel. Aides to Jordan say they expect he will fail to get enough votes on the first ballot and will move to a second vote. Additional ballots may be required but Jordan’s allies hope the public vote will force members to get in line.

The American people deserve their congress to work, Jordan told reporters on Monday night. “We can’t have that until we have a speaker.”

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told reporters he plans to vote for the ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the floor Tuesday, saying it’s “unacceptable” for a small minority of the majority dictating actions of the conference.

“It’s not about Jim – it’s about Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise and how they were treated,” Bacon said. I respect everyone’s opinions on this. We need a speaker. We’ve got a world on fire. We didn’t put them there and I didn’t place them. The small group of people that took out Kevin put us in this spot.

The problem of stealing the election: Where are the 20 Republicans? What can they tell us about the biden districts? — A pedagogical tribute to Buck

“I do think that the the 20 Republicans who are in Biden districts have a problem if everybody in leadership is saying the election is stolen,” Buck told reporters Monday.