Jim Jordan Has Surprising Answer When Asked If He'll Run For Speaker After McCarthy's Ouster
Republican lawmakers speak to reporters after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted as Speaker.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Those eight people are anarchists and they're chaos caucus members and the
00:04 fact of the matter is they get their power from the 212 Democrats voting with
00:08 them all of the time and so they have demands that nobody can meet and I think
00:13 Kevin recognizes that nobody can meet their demands and the conference is
00:16 going to have to figure out how we how we deal with you know eight people that
00:21 are here that candidly aren't interested in governing they're more interested in
00:25 you know grifting. It's a bad situation they did a tremendous amount of damage
00:29 to the country they did a tremendous amount of damage to our ability as
00:33 Republicans to rein in spending.
00:36 Mr. Jordan how disappointed are you with what happened here?
00:40 I thought it was unfair to Kevin. Kevin I think has done a fine job and he and I came in together he's a good man and he didn't deserve this in my judgment.
00:50 You run for speaker?
00:52 That's a decision for the conference.
00:54 So are you open to it?
00:56 Are you interested in being speaker sir?
01:01 Steve Scalise has been a friend for a long time. He would be a great speaker.
01:06 They're cheering for him of course then he graciously decided not to run again. I think that's a wise decision.
01:11 So no matter who's going to be the next speaker the challenges still remain but I think the opportunity is there to continue moving forward.
01:20 We set a precedent last week for how to start coming together to get appropriations bills done.
01:26 There's a template for getting the remainder of them done and a firm commitment and I think our conference is ready to keep moving forward.
01:34 Are you physically up for the job of speaker? Are you feeling okay with being able to handle that?
01:37 I feel great.
01:38 Mr. Good, Mr. Good, Mr. Good. Just to get a clarification here because Mr. Gates, we're live on CNN right now,
01:46 Mr. Gates just told us that McHenry just said that the House will not be in session until next Tuesday.
01:53 At that point is that when we expect the speaker's race? What did he disclose in there?
01:57 What Mr. McHenry said was that candidates would have the opportunity to make their intentions to run for speaker known
02:08 and to socialize that and to meet with folks and we would come together Tuesday evening to have a candidate forum for those who are interested
02:15 and then we would hope to vote on a speaker on Wednesday.
02:17 So then the speaker's race on the floor will be Wednesday but you'll have to nominate someone on Tuesday?
02:22 He said we would have a meeting Tuesday night to have a candidate forum and allow those candidates to make their case
02:29 and then we would hopefully, I use that term, hopefully vote on a speaker on Wednesday
02:34 and I don't know if that would mean within conference Wednesday or within conference Tuesday night or on the floor.
02:40 So the certainty was Tuesday night for a conference meeting to have a candidate forum.
02:46 What is your reaction as being one of the eight members who pushed Speaker McCarthy out,
02:49 his decision here to not be a candidate again for speaker?
02:53 I thank Speaker McCarthy for his service. My position on the situation was well documented.
02:59 But do you feel like you're going to be marginalized within this conference?
03:02 You are one of a very small minority who set this house into paralysis.
03:06 This is what I believe was best for the country and I will say there has been a blow dealt to the status quo
03:13 and if Americans are concerned that things don't seem to change in Washington
03:18 with 33 trillion national debt, a 2 trillion dollar deficit,
03:21 a federal government they believe is weaponized against them, oppressing them, not working for them
03:26 and that things again just seem to stay the same, I think this is a step in the right direction. Thank you guys.
03:34 I was very disappointed that Mr. McHenry said that we won't be engaging in the people's work until next week,
03:40 until Tuesday of next week and I think that's burning a lot of time.
03:43 Just to make clear, so he said that the house is leaving town until next Tuesday
03:47 and then the speaker's race is going to be then?
03:49 Yeah, it was very disappointing. I think we should stay, we should work.
03:52 I think we should have a speaker election this week.
03:54 I think we could easily come together as a conference to do that.
03:58 I just hate when we pause the clock. I hate when we stop our work and don't do the people's business.
04:04 Who are you going to get behind as a candidate?
04:06 I don't know who the candidates are.