Kevin McCarthy Endorses Jim Jordan for Speaker

Even though he was removed from his job as House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy is proving to be a team player, putting his support behind Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, who was nominated to be the next speaker on Friday.

On Sunday, the former Speaker of the House called out the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to remove him from the job, accusing them of disrupting the nation.

Here’s part of what he had to say to Fox News:

“The real challenge here is eight Republicans did something. No one would have thought that they would work with every single Democrat to disrupt this nation, to remove me as speaker,” McCarthy said.

“It has taught people now that why don’t you just go work with Democrats and disrupt government? This will go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes these eight have made in the process,” he continued.

McCarthy made the comments 12 days after he was voted out as Speaker.

I am proud to support Rep. Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House.

Jordan’s dominant candidacy signals a massive, positive change in the energy of the Republican Party. Jordan is a founding member of the Freedom Caucus and a Tea Party, America First brass-knuckle brawler for… pic.twitter.com/cs4MzaDfBt

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 11, 2023

Despite endorsements from President Trump and McCarthy, Jordan is still more than 50 votes shy of the 217 votes he will need to become the next Speaker.

This is everything you need to know about Steve Scalise for Speaker

Can’t happen

Has to be Jim Jordan to avoid WW3 pic.twitter.com/9xAnxdERXz

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) October 11, 2023

On Friday, Jordan told CNN that he thinks he will be able to get the 217 votes needed to win the gavel, but refused to say if he would drop out if he doesn’t have enough votes. Jordan’s backers also expressed confidence he still could get there.

Here’s a portion of what he said to CNN:

On his way into an earlier House GOP conference meeting Friday morning, Jordan told CNN’s Manu Raju that he thinks he will be able to get the 217 votes needed to win the gavel, but refused to say if he would drop out if he can’t get there by the end of the day.

“I think we’ll get 217 votes,” Jordan said. “I think we’ll get 217 votes – that’s the quickest way to get unified and get to the floor.”

Unlike the previous votes, which were secret ballot votes, Tuesday’s vote for Speaker will be on the House floor. This will force some of the RINOs who are against Jordan to vote for him or face the wrath of their constituents in the next election cycle.