MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said the current House Speaker debacle is making the Republican caucus look like a “malfunctioning Roomba vacuum cleaner, hopelessly stuck in the corner, ramming into the wall over and over.”
Hayes started the segment by noting that Wednesday’s House vote pushed Jim Jordan further away from securing the speakership.
“Jordan set a modern record. Nice work Jim! Earning the lowest vote tally for majority nominee to be speaker,” Hayes said.
“In total, 22 Republicans voted for someone other than Jordan, and he can only afford to lose four,” the MSNBC host continued. “So the congressman from Ohio has a lot of work ahead of him if he’s going to convert enough votes to win the gavel.”
Hayes said, “In the meantime, the house remains paralyzed on its 15th Day Without a speaker, longest vacancy of more than half a century, and that last gap in 1971 only occurred because Congress actually convened rather late in January.”
“Of course, we are stuck in the current debacle because of the fundamental deepening chaos in the House Republican caucus,” Hayes argued.
“It really does feel like they are a malfunctioning Roomba vacuum cleaner, hopelessly stuck in the corner, ramming into the wall over and over again,” the MSNBC anchor said. “Its censor has gone haywire. But they keep going.”
Hayes noted that “the current path is pretty clearly not working.” Jordan still needs 18 votes to get a majority and “he’s not exactly a unifying figure.”
According to Hayes, Jordan is “an extreme far-right coup plotter,” and getting GOP votes will not be an easy task for someone like him.
“The pressure campaign to bully those members into voting for him from Jordan from Donald Trump from Fox News hasn’t worked. It’s failed so far,” Hayes said.
“If the Republican Party does not want to keep ramming into the wall embarrassingly in front of the entire nation and world over and over and over again, they need to change direction,” the MSNBC host continued.
Hayes suggested they look elsewhere in the Republican caucus to nominate for speaker, “Although choosing a nominee the caucus can get behind is obviously easier said than done.”
