After two straight days of unsuccessful speaker bids, Rep. Jim Jordan started Thursday by not immediately going for a third vote, but instead backing a plan to temporarily empower acting House Speaker Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.
But that plan hit a snag after a contentious meeting of House Republicans on Thursday, continuing more than two weeks of disfunction and chaos in Congress’ lower chamber.
Thursday marks the House of Representatives’ 16th day without a speaker, paralyzing Congress and leaving crucial priorities like funding the government and providing aid to Israel in limbo.
After a more than three-hour meeting — which Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz described as “tense” — Jordan told reporters that they “made the pitch” to Republicans on the McHenry resolution “as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work,” but House GOP lawmakers “decided that it wasn’t where they were gonna go.”
“I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race, but I want to go talk with a few of my colleagues,” Jordan said, particularly the 20 lawmakers who voted against him “so that we can move forward and begin to work for the American people.”
A spokesperson for Jordan said that there will be a third speaker vote on Friday at 10 a.m. ET. But it’s unclear if any of those holdouts would be swayed — or if that number had already grown. Colorado Rep. Ken Buck told CBS News that the number of defections could grow to between 30-40.
After the meeting, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the recently ousted House Speaker, told reporters that the resolution to empower McHenry should not come to the floor without the support a majority of Republicans.
“I just think we need to make sure government still runs and I think we should be having a resolution on the floor in support of Israel,” McCarthy said. "I have a five point plan to support Israel but the question right now is, you can't do anything until you elect a speaker and apparently there's not enough votes to elect a speaker.”
And Florida Reps. Kat Cammack and Byron Donalds told reporters after the meeting that the resolution was “dead on arrival,” leading to continued chaos at the Capitol.
"It would be foolish for us to go to the floor without 217 [votes]," Cammack said. "It's honestly a sign of where we are within the conference."
"I just don't think that it's going to happen," Donalds added. "We do not have support in our conference for it."
Ohio Rep. Dave Joyce, who proposed the resolution, disagreed with the assertion that it was dead.
“I didn’t hear it was dead,” he told reporters. “I think there are some of these folks in [the meeting] who wish it was dead, but I think the overwhelming majority of the people in there agree that we can't continue down in this paralysis.”
Republicans were heavily divided on the prospect of giving McHenry enhanced powers, which would mean that they'd need Democratic support in order to get this over the finish line.
“I was [at the meeting] to make the substantive argument that speaker light is a bad idea, just like Bud Light,” Gaetz said of the prospect of temporarily elevating McHenry.
“As I have made very clear over the last few days, we should never allow a Democrat-backed coalition government. Ever,” said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn. “The only coalition we should be looking to build is a Republican coalition uniting all of our conference.”
Some Democrats have signaled an openness to doing so, but Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said that they have not had conversations about such a move.
"We haven't had a caucus meeting about this issue and about this potential path, because we're not sure yet what the Republicans on the other side of the aisle plan to do," Jeffries, who emerged from both speaker votes as the top vote-getter, with 212 each time. "Until they can figure out the path that they want to follow, it's premature for us as a caucus to have a conversation."
"There's no deal on the table," California Rep. Robert Garcia told Spectrum News. "So it's hard to make a decision on something that doesn't exist. What does exist is we got two votes on Jim Jordan, those have failed. We have no idea what they're going to do next ... their plans seem to change on the hour, so we're not exactly sure what's going to come forward.
"Democrats are united to continue to support Hakeem Jeffries as our leader, that's where we're at right now, we've no plans beyond that," he said, later adding: "I think Republicans have a responsibility to the American people to get their act together."
"The Republican Conference is in complete chaos," Garcia said.
Fellow California Democratic Rep. Lou Correa called the possibility of elevating McHenry "good news."
"If you think about everything that's going on, not only in this country, but around the world," he told Spectrum News. "The war in Ukraine has continued to rage, Middle East challenges that threaten to engulf other countries in this war, and, of course, here at home a lot of other issues. So we need leadership, we need to have this Congress actually work."
"I don't know McHenry, well," Correa admitted. "I've not served with him in any committees. But I've seen his work, I've seen the reputation that he has, and he seems to be a guy that wants to get things done. And that's what we need here in Washington.
New York GOP Rep. Marc Molinaro, who supported Jordan's speaker bid, told reporters it was "not his intention" to support a third ballot and "the most appropriate approach" is to empower McHenry, which would give them "a little bit of time to decompress but, more importantly, to get back to work."
"I think that short-term empowerment, and if necessary, renewal is the most appropriate thing until we can come to a position where there’s consensus around the permanent speaker," Molinaro said.
Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, who opposed Jordan's speaker bid both times, told CNN "there's pros and cons" to empowering McHenry.
"On the good side, we’ve got to move some legislation," Bacon said, citing the need to give aid to Israel and fund the government past mid-November. "I think for our country we need it, but I think it may delay the speaker’s thing. And we’ve got to come to a conclusion and get it done."
But others were not so easily convinced.
"I’m against speaker-lite, I'm against Bud Light," said Florida Rep. Gaetz, who led the charge to oust McCarthy from the speakership earlier this month. "I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a Speaker of the House. We need to stay here until we elect a speaker, and if someone can’t get the votes, we need to go onto the next person, but twisting and torturing the Constitution to empower a temporary speaker is having a speaker-lite."
"I will vote NO on a resolution to empower a short-term Speaker," far-right Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "I’m not sharing our power with Democrats, after our voters gave us the majority. Republicans working with Democrats is how we got here. Our conference must unite and elect a full-term Republican Speaker. I'm voting for Jim Jordan."
"We have a job which is to elect a speaker not a speaker pro tem," said Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles. "Any resolution, anything that undermines that process, is a mistake.”
Some Republicans have also urged Jordan to step aside as speaker-designee.
"Jim Jordan, it is a waste of time," California Rep. Judy Chu told Spectrum News. "I know he's going through his grieving process, but it's very clear to the rest of America that it's not happening ... I am ready for a bipartisan proposal because we can see what's going on with this vote, and we can see the inevitability of inevitability of its failure."
"He needs to keep voting and then he needs to get out. He doesn’t have the votes, it’s going to get worse for him, so let’s not delay this," Bacon told CNN.
The White House, meanwhile, blasted House Republicans for continuing "their downward spiral into chaos and away from governing."
"As President Biden acts to make America more secure, grow our economy for the middle class, and protect our freedoms, House Republicans are falling over one another to find out who can be the most erratic and out of step with the priorites of working families," said White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates. "They need to get their act together and join this president at the adults table."
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.