While Rep. Jim Jordan failed to secure the Republican support needed to become House speaker after two votes Wednesday, a backup plan began bubbling: tapping Rep. Patrick McHenry to act as a temporary speaker through January.
This move would allow temporary continuance and guidance through crucial congressional business, which includes addressing the looming Nov. 17 deadline to avert a government shutdown. But with that fix in sight, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the notorious hard-line Republican from Georgia, slammed the proposal, emphasizing that “this conference is completely broken.”
Fixing it, she said, will require “humility,” “putting the egos down,” and demanding “the eight Republicans that worked with Democrats to put us here asking for forgiveness.”
“I do not support this plan. Republican voters worked too hard to give us the majority for us to enter some sort of temporary speakership. Our conference has a responsibility to the American people, to our districts, to work together and unify, and this conference is absolutely broken,” Taylor Greene told reporters Thursday. “And the reason why we’re broken is because Republicans worked with Democrats and put us here. It’s outrageous. We have serious issues happening in our country. Terrorists have come across our border, war is breaking out in Israel, war is continuing in Ukraine, the economy is getting worse and worse and inflation is crushing everyone’s ability to afford to live.
“This is the most disappointing thing, and it has to change,” she said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on resolution to empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) to be the temporary Speaker: "This conference is absolutely broken. The reason why we are broken is because Republicans worked with Democrats and put us here.” pic.twitter.com/GMyO8t12Pl
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 19, 2023
Rep. Jordan, meanwhile, at least temporarily supported the idea of halting his campaign for a third vote and getting Congress back up and running until he garnered the numbers needed.
Taylor Greene said she was “absolutely” disappointed in that decision.
“We voted for him to be our speaker nominee. We only had two votes. I wanted to see it keep going today and find a way to work with the holdouts to get together so that we can continue doing our work,” she said. “I don’t know why this is happening and so I’m very disappointed.”
She continued: “I think that’s the wrong thing to do. He wants to do that while he continues talking to people and finding a path. I completely disagree. I think that we should all be able to find a path in that room right there, and that requires putting the egos down, it requires humility, it requires the eight Republicans that worked with Democrats to put us here asking for forgiveness in the conference and people giving forgiveness and us moving forward. This is not a plan for a strong majority.”
As of Thursday afternoon, Jordan caved to outlier representatives like Taylor Greene and renounced his support of the interim plan of a temporary speaker. He said he intends on plowing ahead to a third vote.
“We made the pitch to members on the resolution as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work. We decided that wasn’t where we’re going to go,” he told reporters. “I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race.”
Watch Taylor Greene’s encounter with reporters in the tweet embed above.
