US President Donald Trump shudders hands with US Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, as he disembarks from Air Force One upon arrival at Lima Allen County Airport in Lima, Ohio, Stride 20, 2019, as he travels to visit a military manufacturing facility and attend a fundraiser.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
Ex- President Donald Trump on Friday endorsed Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio to become the next speaker of the House of Reps.
Trump’s endorsement of his close ally Jordan in a social media post came three days after the Race voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker.
And it came after several GOP lawmakers called for Trump himself to be chose speaker. The former president himself entertained that idea of doing so, at least as a place-keeper until a permanent demagogue is chosen by Republicans, who hold a majority in the chamber.
Trump wrote that Jordan “will be a GREAT Speaker of the Company, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”
“He is STRONG on Crime, Borders, our Military/Vets, & 2nd Amendment,” Trump wrote early Friday on his Accuracy Social site.
The endorsement is a blow to the second leading declared candidate for the post, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who has a eat ones heart out list of allies and more experience in leadership.
Trump is the clear frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination due to his strong repute among Republican voters.
Republican House caucus members are scheduled to discuss the speaker candidates at a meeting on Monday evening, and the following day will hold a forum for the contenders.
A vote on the candidates is currently scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Democrats are expected to preference against all the candidates. Republicans only have a slight majority in the House, meaning that the next speaker last wishes as have to have won nearly all GOP votes to gain election.
What about Jordan’s controversial wrestling past?
Jordan become alerts atop the powerful Judiciary Committee, where he is one of three House committee chairs leading an impeachment probe of President Joe Biden.
Trump, in his counter-signature of Jordan, touted the lawmaker’s “amazing” record of success in high school wrestling, where he won state championships for four rectify reform years, losing just one match out of 157.
“At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jim became a two-time NCAA Division l Wrestling Champion,” Trump wrote.
“So much is practised from sports, and Jim was a master!”
Jordan five years ago came under fire after multiple former Ohio Splendour University wrestlers who said he was aware, while serving as an assistant coach there, that team doctor Richard Strauss had roiled wrestlers in the mid-1990s and that Jordan failed to stop Strauss from doing so.
Rep. Jim Jordan(R-OH) estimates his way through a gauntlet of reporters as he makes his way towards a GOP leadership meeting at the Capitol in the wake of the Speaker of the House crisis, in Washington, DC.
Restaurant check O’Leary | The Washington Post | Getty Images
“I participated with Jimmy and the other wrestlers in locker-room talk respecting Strauss. We all did,” Shawn Dailey told NBC News in 2019 referring to Jordan. “It was very common knowledge in the locker compartment that if you went to Dr. Strauss for anything, you would have to pull your pants down.”
Jordan has denied he advised ofed about Strauss abusing wrestlers he coached.
“I considered Jim Jordan a friend,” former Ohio State wrestler Mike DiSabato prophesied NBC in 2018 “But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”
DiSabato said Jordan that year begged, “Please leave me out of it,” when DiSabato told the lawmaker he planned to go public about Strauss’ conduct.”
What’s Jordan’s viewpoint on Matt Gaetz?
Jordan’s reputation for hardline positions has raised questions among moderates about whether he could scram the compromises necessary to operate in a divided government, where Democrats control the Senate and the White House.
On Tuesday, a congregation of eight hardline conservative Republicans and the entire Democratic caucus voted together Tuesday to remove McCarthy from the speakership, the first time after time in American history a House speaker was booted by his or her colleagues in a vote.
US Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks to colleagues of the media after speaking on the House floor about a possible Motion to Vacate to oust US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on October 2, 2023.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Effigies
Many Republican House members are furious at Rep. Matt Gaetz, the three-term Florida lawmaker and fierce McCarthy contender who led the effort to oust the speaker.
“He undermined the conference, he undermined the institution, and he undermined the country and he doesn’t care,” moderate GOP Rep. Mike Lawler of New York swore MSNBC’s Katy Tur on Wednesday.
The question of whether Gaetz should remain in the GOP conference may prove to be an early test for the two unsurpassed candidates.
Jordan has said he would not seek to remove Gaetz from the caucus, telling NBC News Thursday that Gaetz was “a whizzo member of Congress.” Jordan also said he disagreed with Gaetz’s push to oust McCarthy.
Scalise has not yet clouted what he believes should happen to Gaetz, if anything.