Jim Jordan’s effort to empower interim Speaker Patrick McHenry collapses

WASHINGTON — An effort backed by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to empower interim speaker Patrick McHenry of North Carolina collapsed Thursday after it became clear it wouldn’t get enough support from House Republicans.

Jordan, the GOP’s latest nominee for speaker who lost two rounds of votes this week, had floated the idea of temporarily empowering McHenry while he worked to shore up enough support for his own candidacy, according to three sources. The plan would have empowered McHenry until January, the sources said, allowing legislative business to continue in the face of two wars and a looming government shutdown.

But leaving a heated, three-and-a-half-hour closed-door meeting with GOP members on Thursday, Jordan said that empowering McHenry was not a viable option. He said it was a way to “lower the temperature and get back to work” but “we decided that wasn’t where we’re gonna go.”

Jordan reiterated that he was not planning to drop out of the race.

“I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race,” Jordan said.

Around 7 p.m., GOP leaders announced there would be no votes on Thursday. A Jordan spokesman said the next vote for speaker was scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.

Before that announcement, Jordan on Thursday evening attended a separate meeting with the 22 Republican holdouts. But there was no breakthrough. As they left the meeting, Jordan’s detractors said the goal of the meeting was to persuade the Ohio Republican to drop out.

“Our mind is set,” said Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla. “He needed to know there is no way forward for the speakership.”

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Though the effort to empower McHenry appeared to get some support from moderate members and even Democrats, several Republicans immediately threw water on the plan as they left the earlier private GOP meeting in the Capitol.

“This is the wrong thing to do,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a key ally of both Jordan and former President Donald Trump.

“It’s the biggest F-U to Republican voters I’ve ever seen,” added a second conservative Jordan ally, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. “We need to elect a speaker. We were sent here to elect a speaker. It’s a cop-out. … It’s a big mistake, and over half the Republicans in that room are against it.”

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus that Jordan co-founded, also opposes the resolution: “We shouldn’t be setting this precedent or this will be the way we elect speakers from now on.”

Jordan “doesn’t need to drop out. I’m going to stay with Mr. Jordan to the end,” Perry added.

McHenry, the Financial Services chairman and a former member of GOP leadership who helped negotiate the Biden-McCarthy deal, tamped down talk of the resolution as well.

Asked Thursday whether he backed the resolution to grant him broader powers, McHenry said he was still working to elect Jordan as speaker. McHenry also said he was not having any discussions about the matter with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

“I am focused on electing Jim Jordan, who is our speaker nominee, as speaker of the House,” McHenry told reporters. “That’s my goal. That’s my focus.”

Several GOP members expressed doubt Thursday that the plan would even make it to a floor vote.

“Reading the room, this thing is dead,” Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida told reporters about the resolution.

“It’s pretty clear at our conference meeting that the resolution is not gonna be supported,” Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said, adding, “I think that’s pretty much over.”

Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, said that around “two-thirds” of the conference is against empowering McHenry and they have discussed “four or five” names besides Jordan. Fallon floated Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., an Iraq war veteran and chairman of the select committee investigating the Chinese Communist Party, as a potential candidate.

Tempers flared during Thursday’s broader GOP Conference meeting.

At one point, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy stepped in and tried to calm the room. But when Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., his nemesis who forced the vote to oust him, stood up to speak, McCarthy shouted him down, two lawmakers said.

“Sit down!” McCarthy barked at Gaetz. “Yeah, sit down!” other Republicans chimed in.

When Gaetz tried to speak at the microphone, Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., approached him in an aggressive manner but still remained about 15 feet away, lawmakers said. Gaetz made a motion with his finger at Bost, as if to say, “Bring it on,” according to the lawmakers.

Bost later apologized to Gaetz in front of the entire room, and Gaetz said he accepted the apology, the lawmakers said.

A senior Democratic source told NBC News that Democrats had been “chatting” with Republicans about the McHenry empowerment plan.

Three Democratic lawmakers told NBC News that during a closed-door meeting Thursday, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York told rank-and-file members that Democrats would only support a temporary speaker who meets the following conditions: They voted to certify the 2020 election; have a track record of standing up to extremism” and defending democracy, as well as a “track record of governing”; and agreed to support the original debt limit deal struck between the White House and McCarthy.