PBS News Hour

GEOFF BENNETT: In the first round of balloting for the next House speaker, Congressman Jim Jordan got 200 votes from his GOP colleagues.

That's short of the 217 votes that he needs.

But the Ohio Republican is closer to the gavel than he's ever been before.

Lisa Desjardins has this look at his controversial record in Congress.

LISA DESJARDINS: Jim Jordan, the firebrand in the House Republican Conference, now with his sights on the speaker's gavel.

The Ohio congressman first arrived in Washington in 2007, having served a dozen years in the state House and Senate.

A champion wrestler in college, he started his career as an assistant coach for the Ohio State University wrestling team in the 1980s and '90s working with team doctor Richard Strauss, who the university later found had molested dozens of student wrestlers over two decades.

When the university investigated in 2018, several former students claimed Jordan knew about sexual abuse and harassment by Strauss and failed to report it.

DUNYASHA YETTS, Former Ohio State University Wrestler: I don't understand why that Jimmy would say he didn't know when I personally, as a team captain, had conversations with him.

LISA DESJARDINS: Jordan has repeatedly denied any accusations of wrongdoing.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): I knew of no abuse, never heard of it, never had any reported to me.

If I had, I'd have dealt with it.

LISA DESJARDINS: In Congress, Jordan was a founding member of the hard right Freedom Caucus, where he gained a reputation for forgoing suit jackets and for his combative in-your-face style of politics.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT (R-PA): Jim Jordan was never known as a compromiser, as a deal-cutter.

LISA DESJARDINS: Republican Charlie Dent served with Jordan in Congress until 2018.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT: He was known better for blowing up deals than he was for putting them together.

LISA DESJARDINS: As a rank-and-file member, Jordan changed the game, attempting to extract gains with the threat of a government shutdown.

Former Speaker John Boehner, who Jordan helped push out of that position in 2015, dubbed Jordan a legislative terrorist.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT: John Boehner probably would have rather set himself on fire than given Jim Jordan any position of authority.

LISA DESJARDINS: In recent years, Jordan became a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, who even awarded Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the closing days of the Trump administration.

The former president endorsing Jordan in his bid for speaker.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I think that Jim will be speaker of the House.

LISA DESJARDINS: Their strong ties were on display in the days after the 2020 presidential election, when Trump claimed the election was stolen.

Jordan echoed and amplified those doubts and worked on plans to keep President Trump in power.

REP. JIM JORDAN: Something doesn't feel right here.

Our president got nine million more votes this time than he did four years ago.

LISA DESJARDINS: In the days leading up to the January 6 insurrection, Jordan, Trump and other Freedom Caucus members held a discussion on strategies for delaying the certification of the electoral vote, according to the House January 6 Committee report.

And the day before, the committee wrote, Jordan texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, passing along a memo advising that Vice President Pence should "call out the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all."

Jordan and Trump spoke several times on January 6, and the day culminated with Jordan joining many of his Republican colleagues to object to the certification of the Electoral College vote.

Jordan has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying the committee has twisted the evidence.

He refused to comply with a subpoena to testify.

Jordan's history pushing for Trump's stolen election lies could be politically toxic for some moderate Republicans in swing districts next year.

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): Every Republican who casts their vote for him is siding with an insurrectionist against our democracy.

LISA DESJARDINS: Democrats have already begun attacks that could be central to the 2024 campaign.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT: I could see Democrats trying to tie a Republican to Jim Jordan and the more extreme positions he has taken over the years.

He brings a style of politics that I think will make pragmatic members in those swing districts very, very anxious.

LISA DESJARDINS: But, at the same time, Jordan is beloved by the conservative and Trump base, seen as someone who will knock down Washington-style politics and entitlement.

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): Jim Jordan is strategic, scrappy, tough and principled.

He is a mentor, a worker, and, above all, he is a fighter.

LISA DESJARDINS: Since Republicans gained the House majority in January, Jordan's been a champion for conservatives who want the party to aggressively go after the Biden White House.

And he has, as Judiciary Committee chairman, pounding away at investigations into the president and his son Hunter's business dealings.

And Jordan is a key figure in the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, appointed to that role by ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

He spoke at his first hearing last month.

REP. JIM JORDAN: We know all kinds of false statements have been made by the White House.

Joe Biden's made them.

LISA DESJARDINS: No witness, however, presented direct evidence of wrongdoing by Biden, and one said there was not enough to impeach.

But, as speaker, Jordan will have to find a way to work with the White House and a Democratic-controlled Senate on big issues, with a government shutdown looming next month.

FMR.

REP. CHARLIE DENT: I always thought Jordan was better in the opposition, where he could be against things, rather than being for things.

And he's going to have be four things if he's in -- the speaker and holding the majority.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now Jim Jordan also hopes to be the one in charge of wrangling a narrow Republican majority.

That brings us to tonight, where Jim Jordan, the original rebel in modern Republican politics, is himself trying to quash a rebellion against his own attempt to become speaker.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Lisa, as we mentioned, Jim Jordan fell 17 votes short of the 217 that he needs to become House speaker.

Did he expect to lose that many members on the first round of voting?

LISA DESJARDINS: That depends on who you ask.

I think it was a bigger total than many Jordan allies were expecting.

Let's look at exactly what that vote total looked like.

As you say, he received 200 votes, but there were 20 Republicans who voted for someone else.

And there were a slew of other ideas there, including Steve Scalise, the former nominee for speaker who lost just last week.

Then we see Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, receiving the most votes of anyone today, 212 votes.

So, indeed, that is a problem.

We know that at least one of those no-votes for Jordan has switched tonight to Jordan, but there are also people, I'm told, who may be going the other way, a very difficult moment for Jim Jordan, and also this, tonight, a strange kind of tension, Geoff.

I have reporting that the Jordan camp and some allied with Steve Scalise are now shooting kind of barbs at each other.

At a time when Jim Jordan needs to be broadening the tent, he's in sort of a skirmish at the moment with Steve Scalise.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, look, it's been two weeks now since Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, paralyzing the chamber.

How is the GOP explaining yet another show of disunity and dysfunction?

LISA DESJARDINS: There are a very few number of Republicans now still trying to cast the blame on Democrats, but the vast majority of Republicans admit the obvious here, that this is a failure on their part, not just of cohesion, but perhaps political culture itself.

First, I want to play some sound.

We went and talked to those who support Jim Jordan and what they thought after this vote today.

LISA DESJARDINS: What's your reaction to this vote?

REP. DAN MEUSER (R-PA): I think we're a mess.

I think my constituents believe that we're dysfunctional, and now we're showing that we're dysfunctional.

I mean, we need to get back in there.

REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): I still believe he can unite this conference, and we will see that if that happens today.

And what I have said a few times today is, what we have to recognize is that may not happen on the first ballot.

It took Pope Francis five ballots to get elected.

So I think somewhere between the five of Pope Francis and the 15 it took Kevin McCarthy to become the speaker, that's where we will see this thing land.

LISA DESJARDINS: How concerned are you about this?

REP. DAVID SCHWEIKERT (R-AZ): It can't go on much longer.

And I'm concerned because we're chasing sort of this emotional theater, instead of the actual things that could bring down or create great stress to this republic.

LISA DESJARDINS: Why should Americans return you guys to power after seeing what's happened here the last two weeks?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): Well, we're the only - - this is the only branch of government that we control.

And I think it's important to keep us in power here as a check on Joe Biden and the Senate.

LISA DESJARDINS: But do you control this chamber?

I mean, are you able to govern?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: I think we will get to a speaker soon.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, those who opposed Jordan today are taking a lot of heat from callers around the country, talk radio sort of ginning up support for Jim Jordan.

But I spoke to one, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, and he said this wasn't just about Jim Jordan, but about the idea that Steve Scalise won fair and square, and here are a group of Republicans that refused to accept it.

Here's Mike Kelly.

REP. MIKE KELLY (R-PA): If we can't follow our own rules, if we break our own rules, there's a little thing called integrity.

This should be the basis of everybody's -- what they think and what they believe.

For me, that was the loss of that integrity, the breaking of our own rules because it wasn't what some people wanted.

I don't believe that's any reason to do what we're going through right now.

LISA DESJARDINS: Could you consider changing to Jordan at any point?

REP. MIKE KELLY: No, I can't, because we already had elected somebody to be our speaker-designate.

And it's not -- it's nothing against Jim Jordan.

I have nothing against Jim Jordan.

I just don't like when people break the rules because it's not -- it's not something they like.

LISA DESJARDINS: And a sign that indeed there are not more people being swayed tonight by Jim Jordan is that there is not another vote scheduled tonight, Geoff.

So it does not seem like they want to roll the dice again on a speaker's vote, at least not tonight.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, we heard from Congressman Kelly there in your conversation with them.

What about the other 16 Republicans who are opposed to Jim Jordan?

What are they giving as their reason?

LISA DESJARDINS: Let me quickly highlight two others that were significant, the first, House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger.

When Jim Jordan was nominated today, I saw her sit in her seat, one of the only Republicans who did not applaud.

Now, it's notable that many -- that we saw several of the no-votes come from appropriators.

There are real doubts about Jim Jordan and whether he would try to shut down government or end up shutting down government or lead to an appropriations mess.

Now, another voice I want to highlight, Ken Buck, that congressman we talked about before.

His voting for -- his reason for voting no today he said is because Jim Jordan would not answer a simple question.

Does he still believe or did he ever, I guess does he believe now that the 2020 election was stolen?

Ken Buck says that Jim Jordan has not answered that question.

He spoke to him last night, and he is a real concern that this is an election denier who could be speaker.

And, for that reason, he is a no.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the next vote is scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.

Lisa Desjardins on Capitol Hill for us tonight.

Lisa, thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.