Republicans Vote to Drop Jim Jordan's Nomination for House Speaker and Return to Square One

Republicans in the House of Representatives dropped Jim Jordan as the nominee for Speaker, ending his aspirations to succeed Kevin McCarthy. They did so in a secret ballot at a closed-door session on Friday, following his third failure to be elected on the floor.

According to Bloomberg, the secret ballot yielded a 112-86 result. "We put the question to them, they made a different decision," said Jordan, a staunch ally of former president Donald Trump.

Republicans are immersed in a deep internal rift, unable to rally behind a leader. Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who had already failed to become Speaker before Jordan, said that lawmakers are going to "come back and start over" on Monday.

But there are no clear prospects of a breakthrough at the moment. According to different media outlets, republicans are trading blame on the reasons for their inability to make progress.

"We're in a very bad position as a party," said McCarthy, who had supported Jordan following his ousting. "We need to come together and figure out who the speaker is going to be. It's time to unite," he added.

Jordan lost support with each ballot, as more centrist Republicans showed discontent over his nomination and the "hardball tactics used to win their votes," according to AP. Some of them even reported receiving death threats to pressure them into supporting the chair of the Judiciary Committee. But the strategy backfired, as more lawmakers withdrew their support instead of providing it.

Republicans' slim majority (221 lawmakers and 212 Democrats) mean they can only lose a handful of supporters to get the 217 votes needed to elect a Speaker. The Democrats' leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, has consistently received unanimous support.

The crisis has been playing out against the tumultuous background of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Ukraine fending off a Russian invasion in its 21st month, and as the U.S. government prepares to shut down in less than a month unless new funding is approved by Congress.

It is in that context that President Joe Biden urgently requested Friday military aid for Ukraine and Israel in a massive $106 billion national security package.

"The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together and deliver on these priorities," White House Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young said in a letter to Congress regarding the impasse. "I urge Congress to address them as part of a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement in the weeks ahead."