Jim Jordan’s Failed Speaker Bid Exposes Just How Bad Trump — and MAGA Media — Has Been For Republicans
Hard-right Republican Jim Jordan lost a second vote to become Speaker of the House on Wednesday — in a big loss for Donald Trump and the right-wing media that promoted him. The loss underscores just how damaging Trumpism and its proponents in the media have been for a functional Republican Party.
What’s currently unfolding with House Republicans can be fairly labeled a “carnival of idiots.” It’s an even bigger story when you look at who endorsed and supported Jordan to become speaker and how that reflects on the current state of the Republican Party and conservative media.
The most significant endorsement for Jordan came from the GOP’s Dominant Primordial Beast himself — none other than Trump — who not only threw his full support behind Jordan but did so repeatedly. Given how well Trump’s endorsements have performed during the last midterm elections, the endorsement from the 45th president should have been an ominous sign for Jordan.
Other losers in a failed Jordan bid are within the MAGA caucus itself. I refuse to call them the Freedom Caucus, which Jordan was a founding member because Ken Buck — also a member of the Freedom Caucus himself — has been a vocal opponent of Jordan’s bid, citing the Ohio Republican’s unwillingness to state publicly that President Joe Biden won in 2020 in a free and fair election.
The biggest backer of Jordan’s bid for Speaker in the media is Fox News host Sean Hannity, who put the full weight of his bully pulpit behind the far-right congressman. There were reports of Hannity’s producer emailing members of Congress asking why they weren’t supporting Jordan’s bid for speaker, which many saw as inappropriate. I didn’t see the emails as particularly damning, knowing full well how segment producers pre-interview subjects in great detail. It wasn’t pretty, but it was no cardinal offense.
But then the Washington Post reported that Hannity was calling members himself to urge them to back Jordan. Clearly, the pressure failed. I don’t know the specifics of those calls, but I do know that even Freedom Caucus member and Fox News favorite Byron Donalds admitted that the strong-arm tactics to support Jordan backfired.
(Lest we need more evidence of Hannity’s angle here, the website that bares his own name features a story with the breathless headline: “THE LIST: Here are 20 Members of the House GOP Who Failed to Vote for Jordan —and How to Contact Them!”)
There are other examples: Fox host Laura Ingraham featured James Comer Tuesday evening after Jordan lost his first vote, and they spent nearly five minutes lauding how good Jim Jordan would be for the nation as House Speaker. At the same time, hero shots of the Ohio Republican graced the screen. It was shameless sycophancy made only more embarrassing by the lack of self-awareness on display, given Jordan’s slim chances of winning.
Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon also got into the act in a manner that also backfired. Writing for The Washington Post, Sarah Ellison and Will Sommer reported:
Hannity has been joined in his quest by other high-profile hosts, including Bannon, who has helped to spur the pressure campaign for Jordan on his podcast, “War Room.” After the Republican caucus nominated Jordan on Friday, Bannon ran a segment on his show publicizing the congressional phone number of Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), who had hesitated to support Jordan.
Bannon urged his listeners to tell Womack to support Jordan.
“You’re in a super MAGA district, you gotta get your mind right,” Bannon said.
In many ways, Congress has become more like Fox since the rise of Trump: An institution stocked with podcast-hosting pundits who show up for TV hits more eagerly than votes. Jordan is not known for legislating — he is a political crusader, attacking his enemies on the other side of the aisle and waging political warfare in hearings and on the air at Fox News. Flip on Fox any given weeknight, and there is a better than decent chance Jordan will be staring back at you, blazer off, veins bulging as he decries the “Biden Crime Family.”
Look at the shitshow that the House GOP has become, or the flaccid Biden impeachment inquiry hearings, or the midterms going from predictions of a “red wave” to laments of a “red wedding,” or even Trump’s failed bid for re-election in 2020. One has to ask: is Trump and his supplicant media helping or hurting Republicans politically?
Given Jordan’s failure, I’d say it’s more the latter than the former.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
