- Jordan is locked in a speaker’s battle with the House’s Number Two Republican, Steve Scalise
- ‘Six or eight years ago people would have said he’s too conservative. Today, the question is, who is the most conservative candidate they can get to 218’
- Trump expected to make appearance at House GOP’s candidate forum on Tuesday
By MORGAN PHILLIPS, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
GOP Rep. Darrell Issa is making the case that Rep. Jim Jordan is the ‘mainstream leader’ that can unite the far-right and establishment conservatives as speaker – and says Donald Trump does not have much sway over the matter.
Even though only a few short congressional terms ago Jordan was considered ‘too conservative’ to rise the leadership ranks, ‘he has become very much, if you will, a mainstream leader among the conference,’ Issa told DailyMail.com in an interview.
Jordan is locked in a speaker’s battle with the House’s Number Two Republican, Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
While both have pulled a handful of early supporters from the conference, they offer different appeals.
Jordan, a founding member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, has used his chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee to probe ‘weaponization’ of the Department of Justice against Donald Trump. He is likely to appease Kevin McCarthy‘s most vocal detractors.
Scalise, who is currently battling blood cancer, is already a member of GOP leadership and knows how it operates. Seen as more conservative than McCarthy but less than Jordan, he is likely to have good relationships with establishment and moderate Republicans.
But Issa, who works with Jordan on Judiciary, said the conference would need an outsider to bring the eight Republicans who voted against McCarthy back into the fold – and that Jordan has the ‘energy’ for the job.
‘Who’s got the energy to do the fundraising, to do the campaigning for the various candidates and so on, that’s all going to be part of it.
Issa has been making calls on Jordan’s behalf and trying to build support for the chairman’s bid.
‘One reason that [McCarthy opposers] clearly were stating that they feel that we need to have more of a principled direction.’
‘Six or eight years ago people would have said he’s too conservative. Today, the question is, who is the most conservative candidate they can get to 218.’
Issa also swatted away at the prospect of Donald Trump becoming speaker – and suggested his appearance at the House GOP speaker candidate forum would be a ‘campaign appearance for himself.’
Trump is expected to make an appearance Tuesday as the conference’s debate over speaker before a vote on Wednesday.
‘The president will be well-received and the press will have a good time. But just as people are talking about, you know, the president being the speaker, he’s got his hands full. His appearance is going to be a campaign appearance for himself.’
‘This is not about Trump supporters or Trump dislikers, this is going to be about who can unify us. Because you know if it was just about Trump, Kevin McCarthy, who had been a very, very good supporter of Trump- he’d still be there.’
Ohio Republican Rep. Max Miller, who worked in the Trump administration, suggested to CNN the former president’s presence at the forum would not be ‘helpful.’
‘I don’t know if that would be the most helpful thing,’ he said. ‘I certainly welcome the president’s presence, if you would like to come up to Capitol Hill, I’d love to see him. I’m a big fan of his. Other than that, I believe we should work together as a conference to sort this out to elect a speaker.’
With only a four-vote majority, Republicans can’t afford to lose many votes in their conference – or they risk Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries becoming speaker with all Democratic votes.
If Scalise became speaker, Whip Tom Emmer is gunning to move up to majority leader and Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler would seek the whip’s job – a fact that Issa said is swaying votes for the majority leader.
‘Steve moving up creates vacancies down the chain, so a lot of people supporting Steve are supporting someone else moving up.’