House Republicans Scared of Trump? TRUMP’S Scared!

Jim Jordan is determined to “fail upwards”, right into the position of Speaker of the House and second in line to the Presidency. Take a moment to shudder over that, then read on.

Is it just me, or is it strange Trump has had so little so say over the weekend about the issue of electing a new Speaker of the House? Yes, before the first round of voting back when it was Jordan vs. Scalise Trump came out for Jordan. However as you know when House Republicans met and held a secret ballot Scalise beat Jordan, and not by a handful of votes but by a solid margin. No, not a wipeout but large enough that it was clear the bulk of Republicans didn’t agree with Trump. Jordan I’m sure was as stunned as he was pissed off. But you know who else was stunned? Donald Trump! Good ole Fox News dutifully reported both Trump’s backing of Jordan, but then when it happened his failure. 

Former President Trump’s endorsement for the new House speaker failed on Wednesday when the GOP picked House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., as their nominee for top House lawmaker.

Trump endorsed House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to be the new House speaker last week, which many expected could push Jordan over the finish line.

Fox even rubbed a little salt in the wound:

Scalise took the nomination over Jordan in a secret ballot, drawing questions about the strength of the former president’s endorsement.

That had to be a “bigly” OUCH! for Trump. Once again he’d back a loser! And we all know how Trump feels about losers, and that he doesn’t want their “loser” stench to rub off on him. No, when Trump endorses someone for something and they come up short he tends to drop them like a hot potato. For Trump, Jordan (and him too) LOST when people were free to vote their conscience without fear of retribution in the form of a primary challenge. If you don’t think that didn’t scare Trump I’ll bet his niece Mary would be happy to weigh in.

Jordan, who has been in Congress since 2006 thanks to a weirdly gerrymandered district that resembles a fat, stubby ladle designed to scoop up MAGA only voters has never authored or passed a single piece of legislation. His career was pretty much being a toxic, RWNJ (sh*t) bomb thrower but thanks to the “Free-Dumb” caucus he wound up with actual influence. Hell, even though he’s not even a lawyer he became ranking member of, and now with the GOP in control of the House Chair of the Judiciary Committee. Using that position he was by golly going to, along with James Comer’s Oversight Committee going to finally “get” Hunter Biden and by extension his father, President Joe Biden.

It was going to be “bigly HUGE”, the hearings. HE was going to make those January 6 Committee members look like rank amateurs. Except as you know it hasn’t worked out that way. In fact, Jordan has repeatedly tripped over the sportcoat he refuses to wear and throws to the ground, and face-planted. Let’s just say fellow GOPers who were expecting big things are more than a little disappointed, and even grumbling to journalists over how badly Jordan (and to be fair Comer too) has flopped. However, this is the GOP and “promoting” failures is something they’ve done long before Jordan came along. Also, let’s face it – Jordan has always had delusions of grandeur. So when Bratty Matty Gaetz decided it was time to settle his grudge with former Speaker McCarthy Jordan started licking his chops.

That House Republican pow-wow hadn’t even ended and Jordan set about sabotaging Scalise’s ability to whip votes to get him to the needed number of 217, which was going to be a challenge. In fact, it was probably an impossible task. Jordan was going to make sure of it and less than an hour after that meeting he met with Scalise in the latter’s office and told him he’d (Scalise) would get ONE ballot and after he failed he (Scalise) would turn right around and back ole Gym Jordan for Speaker. Word got out of course, and between Jordan’s totally ungracious remarks in the closed door House meeting after getting his butt kicked and his meeting with Scalise he didn’t create much good will with his colleagues. (Not to mention many had valid reservations. His role in the January 6 insurrection, and hypocrisy blowing off a Congressional subpoena while demanding others respect ones HE issued. The matter of his failing to protect student wrestlers under his charge back at Ohio State starting to heat up again. And whether he even had any of the knowledge and skills to do the job at all!)

Still, for all that Scalise dropped out when he knew he’d never get to 217 and he endorsed Jordan, just as Jordan had demanded. So the House decided to meet last Friday and try again. We’ll never know for sure, but a Congress Critter from Georgia no one had heard of before (Austin Scott) threw his hat in the ring at the last minute. And, without even time to lobby his colleagues made a damned good showing against Jordan. Gym-bag of course demanded a re-vote and got more votes but still nowhere near enough. Plans to move directly to the House floor for a public, “on the record” vote were scrapped as Republicans decided to wait until Tuesday (tomorrow) to meet again and take stock of where they were.

I posted an article speculating on whether time would be helpful or hurtful to Jordan’s bid to become Speaker. The question of whether and how much Trump would weigh in was addressed. Trump does after all have plenty of his own stuff to deal with and as I’ve noted even with his endorsement Jordan failed. TWICE. First losing to Scalise, and then some nobody gave him a serious run, and though Jordan “won” he was way short of what he needed.

CBS has put up a story saying there are up to twenty strong holdouts against Jordan. (If other reporting can be believed that number might be even higher) Jordan can’t afford to lose more than four votes. I can’t find an article I read over the weekend (should have bookmarked it – dammit!) that reported five Republicans who were “not only no but HELL NO!” votes on Jordan. And it named some names, which is why I’m furious with myself for not bookmarking it. The point though is that there are those willing to go on record in effect telling Trump “Go ahead and try to primary me out of my seat.” Add in the roughly twenty Republicans (many in their first term) who scratched out wins in districts President Biden carried in 2020. They have NO hope of getting re-elected if they vote for Jordan. They also know that if they can’t get re-elected some fire-breathing Trump MAGA goober can’t which means even the few who might somehow survive will be back in the minority. Also, as Murfster keeps pointing out the Cook Report indicates there will be at least fifty and even as many as sixty competitive House races a year from now. Jim Jordan as Speaker will mean doom for the GOP. “Bigly.”

All of this matters, because as the CBS article I linked states:

Jordan has been relying on right-wing groups he has long backed, as well as allies close to former President Donald Trump. He has also counted on the support of activists, such as Amy Kremer, to win over those who were undecided this past weekend. Trump has taken calls about the speaker race but has not weighed in heavily beyond his past endorsement of Jordan, leaving some close to Jordan wondering if he will help close the deal in the coming days in a way that is significant and helpful.

Which again begs the question, where is Trump? Granted, Truth Social is we learned late last week officially broke but it’s still there, at least for now. And Trump has been out there campaigning in his own f**ked up way. If he’s been making a personal public push to his MAGAs to turn up the heat I’ve not been seeing it. If you have by all means post a link in a comment. I’m betting there won’t be much. But I’m still bumping on Fox, FOX and the comment from their article I block quoted earlier. The one that questioned the strength of Trump’s endorsement. However, while we might see differently as this day progresses Trump seems to be relying on surrogates to ramp up the pressure. I for one think he’s giving himself a face-saving “out” because HE fear, yes fears he can’t push Jordan over the line!

Yes, Republicans including most in the House are scared of Trump unleashing the MAGA hordes on them. I also know that while I’m reasonably smart there are lots of others out there who are too. Many who are smarter than I am. Still, for a politician all but the dumbest can be coldly calculating when things get dicey. It doesn’t take one, say a House Republican who a) knows Jordan as Speaker would be a disaster, and b) that while there’s good reason to fear the “Wrath of Trump” that on this Trump’s bark might be worse than his bite.

Because after that initial endorsement of Jordan back when it was Scalise vs. Jordan (seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?) Trump hasn’t personally said jack about the Speaker’s race. I’m sure you’ve seen reports of grumbling, some even from Jordan backers (Dan Crenshaw comes to mind) that Jordan’s approach from the time he lost that first vote to Scalise has alienated a LOT of his fellow GOPers. Even his backers wonder how the hell Jordan can run the House having created so much ill will. So with Trump having gone “radio silent” it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

The PLAN is to have another vote, which Jordan will win and then take things to the floor and try to pressure holdouts into caving in because they are afraid of Trump. Except as I’ve written, there is ample reason to believe Trump has realized Republicans aren’t quite as scared of HIM as they have been to date. Hence his relative silence. I’m hesitant to make a prediction but right now I don’t see a vote on the floor for a new Speaker tomorrow. I think that once again that will get pushed back. Especially since I saw something earlier about a new House Republican ready to run if Jordan isn’t able to get 217 votes come tomorrow.

If we’re lucky (and the country could sure as hell use some good luck right now) sometimes tomorrow afternoon or evening Jordan will make a self-aggrandizing announcement that his work as Chair of Judiciary and the “Impeachment Inquiry” needs to be his focus and he can be of more value doing that than as Speaker. He will get a proverbial standing ovation from fellow GOPers for his “self-sacrificing” decision which hopefully will be enough to ease his butt-hurt while a someone else is chosen as Speaker. Hell, when he thinks about it he can have a much better profile with MAGAs and raise a whole lot more money taking potshots at the new person. That IS after all his specialty, which sadly he’s quite good at.

Finally, if we are VERY lucky once the dust settles House Republicans, the majority of them will have a moment of rationality and elect a hard-core but sometimes reasonable Speaker who can be trusted to keep his/her word in working out deals with House Democrats, the Senate and the White House. I’m not terribly hopeful on that, but then I once believed I’d never see my beloved Cubbies in the World Series (much less winning it) in my lifetime (I’m in my mid sixties and became a fan when I was five) but it happened so you never know!

Support the site with a subscription today and see no more ads!

Go Ad-free Now!