Jim Jordan won’t be the next speaker

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In today’s edition … five different ways of looking at the Republicans who have denied Jordan the speakership … a look inside Biden’s wartime trip to Israel … but first …

Jim Jordan won’t be the next speaker

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) says he’s going to hold a third vote for speaker today.

No vote has been scheduled but Jordan’s team is determined to fight on.

But Jordan will not be successful, many Republican sources say, and more and more GOP lawmakers are calling for him to drop his bid.

One House Republican told Jordan to his face Wednesday that he will never be speaker, one Republican aide said. It was a blunt assessment delivered with certainty. Since then, others have directly encouraged him to stand down.

Jordan’s spokesman Russell Dye responded to a request for comment by saying, “Jim Jordan will be speaker.”

The number of people who vote against him on the floor will only increase with each round of balloting, Republicans say.

There’s a coordinated effort among the 55 Republicans who opposed Jordan in an internal conference meeting last week to build on their votes of opposition to ensure that he loses more votes each round, according to three Republicans familiar with the plan. In other words, he loses more votes with each round he holds

That held true for the first two rounds. Twenty-two Republicans voted against him during the second round of voting on Wednesday — two more than the number who opposed him during the first round of votes. Reps. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) flipped to Jordan, but four more Republicans flipped against him.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), who doesn’t support Jordan, said that the opposition to Jordan was “profound” and that the members stood against him as a matter of principle, Leigh Ann writes with our colleagues Marianna Sotomayor and Amy B Wang.

Jordan has done little dealmaking, multiple Republicans say.

Jordan did try to allay the concerns of the four New Yorkers who voted against him in the first round by offering “options” that pertain to the state and local tax deduction that affects residents of states with high costs of living. But those efforts weren’t successful. Reps. Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito, Andrew R. Garbarino and Michael Lawler of New York voted against him again.

As we noted on Wednesday, Jordan has never had to build coalitions. He’s never had to strike a deal. He’s only been a bomb thrower happy to create chaos. He’s not experienced in governing.

Are we closer to Speaker McHenry?

A resolution by Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) and endorsed by the centrist Republican Governance Group that we reported on Wednesday, which would empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) with more authority until Jan. 3, has gained even more traction hour by hour as Republican dysfunction continues.

Democrats say that talks are “accelerating” and that members of both parties believe the resolution could reach the floor and pass before the end of the week. (Here’s how empowering McHenry would work, as our colleague Amber Phillips helpfully laid out.)

But there’s still a lot of work to do to build support.

Many liberal House Democrats think empowering McHenry is risky and they question if Democrats will get anything out of it.

“I am waiting to see what the assurances are around power sharing,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said of the proposal. “What do we have to ensure what happens here reflects the fact that Dems are essentially governing this body?”

Many Republicans to the right of the conference are opposed, too.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), head of the House Freedom Caucus, said he doesn't support it.

Some Republicans argue that it’s unconstitutional to empower a temporary speaker. Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) said that the more efficient way to empower McHenry would be for McHenry to run for speaker.

Advocates of the plan hoped to discuss it in a Republican conference meeting after Jordan’s second failed vote, but Jordan never called for one after realizing that it would probably be counterproductive to his efforts to be elected speaker.

So the House will begin its 16th day without a speaker today. Government funding runs out again in less than a month.

We first reported Monday morning about the hardball tactics Jordan and his allies have undertaken to try to persuade people to support him. But they’re not working.

Womack said office has received “nonstop” calls from Jordan supporters, most of them from out of state, and that his staff has been “cussed out” and threatened,” our colleagues report.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), provided a voice mail his wife received saying, “Your husband is destroying the Republican Party.”

“It's wrong that folks have no boundaries anymore,” Bacon said.

Rep. Jen A. Kiggans (R-Va.), a former Navy helicopter pilot who twice voted against Jordan, wrote on social media that “threats and intimidation tactics will not change my principles and values,” alluding to the pressure that Jordan and his allies have put on holdouts, our colleague Azi Paybarah wrote.

America First Works, a Trump-aligned group, announced Wednesday that it would “score” the speaker’s vote.

Based on everything House Republicans have gone through this week, this seems like the least threatening power play.

There’s little that unites the Republicans who voted against Jordan on Wednesday.

They include some of the most moderate Republicans in the House as well as one member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. Some of them represent swing districts, and others hail from deep-red ones. And not all of them voted to certify the 2020 election.

Instead, what binds many Republicans who voted for ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) or one of several other protest candidates instead of Jordan is anger with the way Jordan and his team have sought to cajole them into supporting him, Theo and our colleague Kati Perry report.

Here are five different ways of looking at the coalition of Republicans who have denied Jordan the speakership so far:

6 hail from districts Biden won in 2020

Most of the Republicans who voted against Jordan on Wednesday represent solidly Republican districts.

But Reps. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), Michael Lawler (R-N.Y.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) and Jen A. Kiggans (R-Va.) represent districts that President Biden carried in 2020 — in some cases by big margins.

One of the surprise votes against Jordan was House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Tex.), a veteran lawmaker who first voted for Scalise on Tuesday.

She voted against Jordan again on Wednesday — and so did six other Republicans on her committee: Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Jake Ellzey (Tex.), Tony Gonzales (Tex.), John Rutherford (Fla.), Mike Simpson (Idaho) and Steve Womack (R-Ark.).

8 belong to a bipartisan group of moderates

Membership in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus is a rough proxy for how moderate Republicans are.

Eight of the Republicans who voted against Jordan are members: Reps. Andrew R. Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and John James (R-Mich.) as well as Bacon, Chavez-DeRemer, D’Esposito, Gonzales, LaLota and Lawler.

The Republican Governance Group describes itself as supporting House Republicans’ “governing wing.”

Five Republicans who aren’t in the Problem Solvers Caucus also voted against Jordan: Reps. Carlos A. Gimenez (Fla.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa) and Pete Stauber (Minn.) as well as Diaz-Balart and Womack.

Just 4 opposed certifying the 2020 election

Two-thirds of Republicans in the House at the time objected to certifying that Biden won the 2020 election, but only four of the 22 who refused to back Jordan on Wednesday did so: Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Diaz-Balart, Giménez and Rutherford.

Eleven other Jordan opponents — Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) as well as Bacon, Garbarino, Gonzales, Granger, Miller-Meeks, Simpson, Stauber and Womack — voted to certify Biden’s victory. Granger, who had covid at the time, did not vote, while Chavez-DeRemer, Ellzey, James, Kiggans, LaLota and Lawler weren’t in Congress at the time.

Today at 9 a.m. Eastern time, Leigh Ann will speak with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) on Washington Post Live about their work to lower the cost of health care. Tune in here.

Inside Biden’s wartime trip to Israel

The president received a hero’s welcome in Tel Aviv on Wednesday on his wartime trip to Israel as he hugged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told the Israeli public that he didn’t think Tuesday’s hospital strike was Israel’s fault, our colleague John Hudson reports.

It was his second trip to an active war zone in less than a year.

“The Israel trip allowed Biden to showcase the power of the American presidency in dramatic fashion,” our colleague Matt Viser writes . “He announced, for example, that his military had ordered two aircraft carriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, into the region.”

He warned Israel to exercise restraint in its treatment of Palestinians: “I’ve made wartime decisions. I know the choices are never clear or easy for the leadership,” Biden said while cautioning Israelis not to be “consumed” by rage.

He consoled grieving Israelis: Biden “met Israeli first responders and families affected by the Hamas attack, something that Netanyahu has faced criticism for being slow to do,” Matt writes. “God love ya,” Biden told one survivor.

Biden’s diplomatic mission to Tel Aviv came as Israeli forces were preparing for a ground invasion into Gaza.

But it also came a critical moment in the 80-year-old’s own life: “Biden’s aides saw the trip in part as a rebuttal to questions about his age — he was born about six years before the country of Israel and recounts events from five decades ago — and as a way to showcase the strengths of a president who prides himself on his foreign policy know-how,” Matt writes.

Happening today: Biden will deliver a prime-time Oval Office address this evening “to discuss our response to Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel and Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement Wednesday evening.

While you wait for the 8 p.m. address, here are the latest Israel-Gaza developments:

Humanitarian aid is on the way to Gaza: Biden, during a refueling stop in Germany on his flight back from Israel, told reporters that “Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi had agreed to open the Rafah crossing to let as many as 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Biden, during a refueling stop in Germany on his flight back from Israel, told reporters that “Egyptianhad agreed to open the Rafah crossing to let as many as 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza,” per our colleagues Tyler Pager, Ben Brasch and Claire Parker . “Biden said there are about 150 trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies meant for Gazans waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing. But only the 20 or so will be allowed in … Biden said he the earliest the aid could arrive would be Friday.”

The U.S. says Israel was not behind the deadly hospital strike: “ Adrienne Watson , a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement Wednesday evening that the U.S. government assessment was based on ‘available reporting, including intelligence, missile activity, overhead imagery, and open source video and images of the incident,’” , a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement Wednesday evening that the U.S. government assessment was based on ‘available reporting, including intelligence, missile activity, overhead imagery, and open source video and images of the incident,’” per our colleagues Tyler Pager, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Dan Lamothe and Shane Harris . “The intelligence, she said, indicates that some Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip believed the explosion was caused by a rocket or missile launched by a militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”

Jack Lew’s nomination hearing was … contentious: Wednesday’s Senate hearing on Lew’s nomination to become the next U.S. ambassador to Israel “centered on what lawmakers overwhelmingly agreed is Israel’s need for a steadfast American ally in the wake of this month’s devastating Hamas attack,” Sen. James E. Risch (Idaho), the committee’s top Republican, said, adding later that “holding hands with Iran under the table doesn’t work for me.” Wednesday’s Senate hearing on Lew’s nomination to become the next U.S. ambassador to Israel “centered on what lawmakers overwhelmingly agreed is Israel’s need for a steadfast American ally in the wake of this month’s devastating Hamas attack,” our colleagues Abigail Hauslohner and Michael Birnbaum report . But many Republicans signaled it would be difficult for them to support Lew given his past work to implement the now-defunct nuclear deal with Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy. “It’s important we get the right person in this position,”(Idaho), the committee’s top Republican, said, adding later that “holding hands with Iran under the table doesn’t work for me.”

Relations between Washington and its Arab partners hit a snag: The glowing reception Biden received in Israel contrasted the Bruce Riedel, a Middle East scholar who previously served in senior positions at the CIA, told John. “It reinforces unintentionally the perception that America doesn’t care about Arab and Muslim voices.” The glowing reception Biden received in Israel contrasted the outrage and condemnation he received from the Muslim world following the hospital strike, John writes. “The cancellation of Biden’s trip to Jordan is a setback for efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the worsening crisis in the region,”, a Middle East scholar who previously served in senior positions at the CIA, told John. “It reinforces unintentionally the perception that America doesn’t care about Arab and Muslim voices.”

We heard it was a busy day on the Hill…

Hundreds of primarily Jewish protesters are currently in the Capitol’s Cannon building staging a sit-in protest, calling on Biden and Congress to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

They’re slowly being arrested. pic.twitter.com/mGLELwRj6p — Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) October 18, 2023

Pro-Ceasefire demonstrators interrupt the Senate Foreign Relations Committee nomination hearing for Jack Lew as Ambassador to #Israel

The expedited hearing occurs just a day after Israel faced accusations of bombing a #hospital in #Gaza, killing 500+ people @TheNationalNews pic.twitter.com/wFlSn4avwh — Ellie Sennett (@EllieMSennett) October 18, 2023

McHenry: Jim Jordan has received 199…

McHenry: Hakeem Jeffries has received 212

*cheers* pic.twitter.com/B7Zk4dsNx8 — Acyn (@Acyn) October 18, 2023

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