This is what happens when the monster you created turns on you:
In the closed-door meeting, several GOP members urged Rep. Jim Jordan to drop his bid for the speakership, but he is resisting those calls, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Jordan, who sources say scrapped a third vote today after failing to get enough to win the speakership in his first two ballots, is is now leaning toward backing a resolution to expand interim Speaker Patrick McHenry’s powers, sources said, but he wants to see how today’s House GOP conference meeting goes.
Here’s how it went:
A closed-door meeting of the House GOP Conference turned heated today, multiple sources tell CNN, a further sign of chaos as Republicans struggle to elect a speaker.
At one point, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who led the effort to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker, was told to sit down by McCarthy but refused. Illinois Rep Mike Bost then “got all emotional and ugly and was cussing him” and “telling him it’s all his fault,” one member said.
Other lawmakers, including some who support Jim Jordan’s speakership bid, slammed the Ohio Republican for backing an expected resolution to empower interim Speaker Patrick McHenry, calling him “self-serving.” Some members encouraged him to drop out of the race.
There was also an emotional and heated discussion over the death threats that some GOP lawmakers who oppose Jordan for speaker have faced.
Exiting the meeting, Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher said he was “going to the chapel to pray the rosary.”
“Temperatures are really high in there,” a deflated-looking Gallagher said.
Republicans on empowering interim speaker Patrick McHenry so the House can function: pic.twitter.com/wIKujB36if
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 19, 2023
The word is that McCarthy told Matt Gaetz to sit down and shut up when he tried to speak. And Marge and the gang are not happy. Not one bit.
Unfortunately, it appears that hiring a temp Speaker, presumably Patrick McHenry, in order to avoid blowing up the country, isn’t going down well with a huge number of Jordan’s henchmen. So the talking heads on cable news are now all floating the the idea that it’s up to the Democrats to vote for this far right wing Republican to save the country from the Republicans.
What the hell is happening here?