The Battle for Speaker Takes A Dark Turn
Over the past few days, I’ve been covering Jim Jordan’s quest to become Speaker, which now looks in serious doubt. Over the weekend, in order to secure more votes, Jordan’s allies, as well as some notable online and right-wing influencers, began a pressure campaign to get holdouts, numbering 55 at the time, to switch their votes and support him.
But on Tuesday, Jordan still had 20 GOP votes arrayed against him, an embarrassingly far amount still to go, and more opposition than Kevin McCarthy had on his first floor ballot. So on Tuesday night, the MAGA right went to work, flooding the office and home phone lines of the holdouts and issuing more threats and condemnation.
It didn’t work. The opposition held, and even picked up a couple more votes. But we’re now learning some of the details about this second wave of attacks on those who refuse to elect an extremist like Jordan to the highest House office, second in line to the White House. And it’s not only ugly, it is deeply troubling and frightening. But there is also something in the air that feels a bit like hope, and something in the opposition that feels like the beginnings of a spine.
Let’s take a look at some of what went on and how the GOP conference is handling, and often mishandling, all of it.
Credible death threats
One of the pick-ups that the holdouts received on Wednesday was Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA). According to a press statement released by her office, Rep. Miller-Meeks had voted on Tuesday for Jordan, but then when it was clear Jordan was losing support, switched her vote to support Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), another holdout who serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Her statement is quite noteworthy for its defiance:
However, since my vote in support of Chairwoman Granger, I have received credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls. The proper authorities have been notified and my office is cooperating fully.
One thing I cannot stomach, or support is a bully.
Someone who threatens another with bodily harm or tries to suppress differing opinions undermines opportunity for unity and regard for freedom of speech. That’s why I spoke out forcefully against censorship and suppression during the COVID-19 pandemic. I did not stand for bullies before I voted for Chairwoman Granger and when I voted for Speaker designee Jordan, and I will not bend to bullies now.
I understand that voting against Rep. Jordan is not popular at this time. I respected Jim enough to vote for him, knowing he did not have the votes to be elected. We have had numerous calls to all our offices, and many have urged that I support Jim Jordan and many others urged me to look for a conservative consensus candidate.
When a Congressmember receives credible death threats, simply because of her vote, from extremist members of her own party, it’s a direct attack on the constitutional underpinnings of our democracy. For her to go public with it, especially in this poisoned atmosphere, is to be commended and may lend courage to others also under attack.
Pressure upon the spouse of a prominent holdout
Rep. Miller-Meeks’s experience of being harassed was unfortunately not isolated. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who has been vocal about his opposition to Jordan, revealed that before the first vote even occurred, his wife received anonymous messages warning that her husband needed to back Jordan or risk being ousted. The messages read,
Your husband will not hold any political office ever again. What a disappoint [sic] and failure he is.
Why is your husband causing chaos by not supporting Jim Jordan? I thought he was a team player.
Another message instructed her, in a long run-on rant, specifically to “talk to your husband” and to “tell him to step up and be a leader.”
Communications to spouses and other family members of Congressmembers about their votes carry an implicit threat: We can reach your family, and we know their personal information. Such messages, had they been sent only to the office of the House members, would simply be free speech. But when sent to a private number of a loved one, it’s reasonable to assume a threat was intended.
That’s why the downplaying of the pressure by Stephen Miller, the white nationalist top advisor to Trump, rings so hollow. Wrote Miller, in typical disingenuous fashion,
Imagine thinking organic phone calls from your citizen constituents asking you to support a conservative speaker represents an improper pressure campaign. It’s called public opinion.
Does he feel the same about actual death threats, or texts to spouses’ private numbers?
Other members step forward, but in less detail
At least four other holdouts went public with the fact that they were being threatened and intimidated for their votes, but they didn’t provide much more information. These included Rep. Granger, a supporter of Steve Scalise who warned, “Intimidation and threats will not change my position.”
Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) reminded others that she was a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Navy, that she was “standing up for the military and doing what’s right for Virginia’s Second District,” while underscoring that “threats and intimidation will not change my principles and values.”
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) brought up to Jordan in a phone call that there were robocalls being made in his district specifically targeting his opposition to Jordan’s bid. “I told him,” said Gimenez, “‘I don’t take well to threats.’”
Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL) mentioned that there had been threats to him and his staff, and he placed the blame squarely on Jordan. “He’s absolutely responsible for it. And look, it doesn’t work… nobody likes to have their arm twisted.”
Jordan talks the talk, but he is a MAGA flamethrower by nature
Jordan has publicly called for unity and for the attacks to stop. On the X platform, Jordan wrote,
No American should accost another for their beliefs.
We condemn all threats against our colleagues and it is imperative that we come together.
Stop. It’s abhorrent.
His spokesperson similarly labeled the threats “abhorrent” and said they have “no place in civil discourse,” adding “No one should receive threats and it needs to stop. We have condemned these actions repeatedly.”
But these statements came on Wednesday, after many of the threats had already issued. And it’s ludicrous to believe all of this intimidation arose organically on its own. Indeed, Jordan’s moves were straight out of the Trump playbook, where fanatical MAGA followers and online armies are unleashed while the beneficiary claims he was just trying to exercise free speech.
It is the kind of stochastic terrorism I have written about before, where a leader like Trump or Jordan can rely upon unstable and fanatical followers to take their words, delivered with more than a few winks, and act upon them. Our legal and political systems are ill-equipped to deal with this kind of threat, as judges in Trump’s cases are finding out as they wrestle with how to constrain his speech without running afoul of the First Amendment.
A new hope
There is a silver lining here. While Trump whole-heartedly has backed Jordan for the position, his influence was not strong enough to win Jordan the nomination over Scalise in the first round. And there are enough House members who dislike and distrust Jordan to form a bloc that can stop him, should they continue to act collectively.
These 22 members are affirmatively shielding others who don’t have the courage to step forward in defiance of the mob. Rep. Bacon told Axios that he has colleagues “coming up to me saying, ‘Don, I’ve got to vote for Jordan, but thank God you’re doing what you’re doing.’” That doesn’t sound like a healthy democracy.
If Jordan goes down to defeat despite these dangerous and chilling threats to his opposition, it will send a strong signal that extremism has its limits. And all indications are that the opposition has prevailed; the Washington Post is reporting, that Jordan will hold off for now on a third bid for Speaker and get behind a plan to grant emergency Speaker power to the speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC).
This development carries an important message. While Trump, because of his vast platform and god-like status among his flock, may be able to coerce party members and even stir-up violence in his name to achieve his goals through fear, someone like Jordan could and did fall short in the face of steadfast opposition. A relatively small group of determined and principled members can deny him what he wants, threats be damned.
I’m not ready to say this is a true inflection point for the GOP. Jordan is still on a mission to claim the Speakership sometime next year (though in the next round of balloting, I predict he will lose even more support as members realize the little emperor has no claws). But if Jordan is finally and utterly defeated, it will be an important victory for the forces of restraint, civility and moderation, even within the chaotic and dishonorable GOP conference.
Not only are the extremists behaving like rutting pronghorns, but they are distracting and detracting from very salient, poignant and urgent global concerns, all for self-indulgent tyranny. To label their behavior shameful is a woefully understating the circumstances. Let's deploy some King Solomon justice at least in effigy by cutting their parry in two and dispersing the foul winds.
If he goes for a third vote today it would be great if more than 22 votes were cast against him. About time a “No mas” message was sent.