Looking for the silver lining in the cloud of House chaos? It relates to the 25 Republican members of Congress who voted against Rep. Jim Jordan as Speaker in his third and final attempt.
But it goes beyond the centrist “squishes” who stopped being squishy. It’s about who they stood up to beyond Jordan, what they rebelled against, and what those things may foreshadow. The key point is that Jordan’s GOP opponents were also not intimidated by Donald Trump, Fox News’s Sean Hannity or uber-MAGA media personality Steve Bannon.
Only time will tell whether this is a turning point, or a singular break from the GOP’s fealty to Trumpism. But it’s at least a start.
Trump had backed Jordan with his “Complete & Total Endorsement.” The anti-Jordan House members knew full well that the former president retaliates against those who buck him by backing primary opponents — but they did it anyway.
As important, they stood up to Hannity. He personally phoned several of them trying to “whip” votes for Jordan. Not only is this not normal, it also violates virtually every rule of objective journalism. Hannity even had one of his producers reach out menacingly to members of Congress, according to Newsweek, which printed an excerpt of one such email:
Hannity would like to know why during a war breaking out between Israel and Hamas, with the war in Ukraine, with the wide open borders, with a budget that’s unfinished why would Rep. xxxx be against Jim Jordan for speaker? Please let us know when Rep xxx plans on opening the People’s House so work can be done.
Hannity later carried out his unspoken but obvious threat, calling anti-Jordan Republicans “sensitive little snowflakes” on his nightly broadcast.
Steve Bannon joined the fray on his show “War Room,” publicizing before the vote the office phone number of Rep. Steve Womack. Womack nonetheless ended up not supporting Jordan.
Some of those voting against Jordan, like Rep. Drew Ferguson, stood up to death threats. Because all the Jordan opponents knew they might get those threats, their willingness to accept risk of harm to themselves and their families is a first, and a very big deal.
Why they took a stand matters. They got fed up. Jordan and his backers had “the knives out,” and it backfired. This time, Trumpist attempts to use politically murderous tactics had an effect opposite the one intended.
The ice has been broken. When the bullied refuse to cower and then win, it can melt the bullies’ power. Resistance can become a habit.
None of this means, of course, that House Republicans will soon find their way out of the morass they’ve sunk themselves in, or that we will have a Speaker any time soon. We’re in the dynamic of dysfunction for a reason, and it’s been going on a long time. As Norm Ornstein, Washington’s dean of experts on Congress, tweeted, “House GOP leadership chaos is the norm. For 30 years.”
Chaos, of course, has been Donald Trump’s home turf for decades. Witness January 6. Chaos is the field from which strongmen rise.
On October 3, Matt Gaetz, the best known practitioner of Trumpist carnage in Congress, began this round by filing his motion to vacate the chair against then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He and his allies will continue to block any halfway-sensible Republican for Speaker in the weeks ahead.
Trump has already told associates, for example, that he opposes Rep. Tom Emmer, the leading contender for the speakership and third-ranking member of the House leadership team. Why? On January 6, Emmer stood against Trumpism — he followed the Constitution and voted to certify the election of President Joe Biden.
This, Trump and his chaos caucus cannot abide. So look for the House to continue headless in the short term, and for Congress to remain unable to attend to the needs of Americans or to a world in crisis.
Still, in the significant headcount of votes against Jim Jordan, some learning took place. There is strength in numbers. There is a faint glimmer of hope that some ground has been prepared for the growth of a party again ready to govern.
Dennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator, currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy.