USA. Republicans Nominate Trump Ally Jim Jordan For Speaker

For Donald Trump, former US President and current front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Jim Jordan is a “star.” And now, Jordan meets all the requirements to “take up the hammer” of the Speaker of the US Congress. In Friday’s secret vote, Jordan, Ohio congressman known as a hawkish Trump ally, was favored over Austin Scott, an ally of ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, by 124 votes in favor and 81 against.

Jordan’s candidacy followed Steve Scalise’s decision to drop out of the race for House Speaker. However, overall support remains unknown: the candidate will have to gain at least 217 votes in his favor in the House.

“Congressman Jim Jordan was a star even before his success in Washington. He will be a great Speaker of the House of Representatives and has my full and absolute support,” Trump wrote on his Truth social media site. The former president could visit Capitol Hill early next week, ahead of the final vote on a successor to Kevin McCarthy, who was torpedoed by Republican “comrades” for charges of making secret pacts with Democratic lawmakers.

Jordan, 59, was first elected in 2006 to represent a deeply conservative rural district in northern Ohio. Before entering politics, Jordan honed his boxing style during an athletic career in high school, college, and then as a wrestling coach at Ohio State University. Jordan often refers to his “boxing and fighting” background due to his reputation as a fighter in Congress. Indeed, the congressman is known for the aggressive style of conducting hearings of his Judiciary Committee, which was investigating, among other things, allegations of “political interference” in the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). “I look at it like a wrestling match,” he said in an interview with the New York Times. Jordan is the founder of the “hardline” faction of the House Freedom Caucus, which former GOP leader John Boehner called “legislative terrorists.”

Finally, Jordan has earned the reputation as one of Trump’s most “loyal” allies in Congress. The likely future speaker defended “his president” during impeachment proceedings and sided with Trump, according to whom the results of the 2020 presidential election “were widely doctored and rigged.”