Gov. Spencer Cox called the chaos of the House speaker race an ‘embarrassment’

It’s Day 15 of the House speaker race, and Republicans still haven’t reached a consensus. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called the situation “an embarrassment” to the Republican Party during his monthly PBS Utah news conference on Thursday, adding that “a sense of urgency should be driving” the decision.

His comments came as Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, called off holding a third vote on his candidacy after not garnering enough support on the last two ballots.

He instead chose to join the effort to empower a temporary speaker until January, perhaps in hopes of shoring up support for himself in the meantime, as The Associated Press reported. Jordan hasn’t dropped his bid for speakership.

Reporter Jake Sherman noted Thursday that Jordan told his Republican colleagues in a closed-door meeting that he wants the House to get back to work, which is why he plans to support Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., for speaker pro tempore.

A growing number of Democrats and Republicans are open to supporting McHenry but the House GOP is souring on the idea, according to CNN.

Majority Leader Steven Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana who also didn’t have enough votes to earn the gavel, said he’d rather “focus on getting a speaker elected,” per The Guardian. Many Republicans are following his lead and plan to hold another vote for Jordan over Jordan’s objections, according to Sherman.

It’s clear that the chaos in the House GOP won’t be resolved anytime soon. Consider the closed-door meeting earlier on Thursday, which was described on X by Axios reporter Juliegrace Brufke. Things became heated when Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who led a small group of Republicans to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker, was told to sit down by McCarthy. Gaetz refused, which aggravated Illinois Rep. Mike Bost, who almost lunged at the Florida congressman.

Gov. Cox on why House Republicans need to work together

Cox said at Thursday’s news conference that congressmen should “disagree better” and work together to analyze their obstacles and disagreements before finding a way forward, which might include finding a speaker candidate no one has yet considered.

“I mean, probably a candidate that maybe hasn’t even had their name mentioned yet, someone where both sides are unhappy, but they realize that because of the pressure, the urgency to actually get something we have to move forward,” he said.

Cox said that, as a former Utah state representative, he has experience with these situations: “You come together as a caucus, you have your arguments, you vote and somebody wins and somebody loses.”

“And then you go out as a caucus and you support the winner,” Cox said, adding that it’s about being a team player and working alongside the party’s position.

Why are Dems supporting Rep. Patrick McHenry for speaker?

Although many Republicans aren’t united behind McHenry yet, some House Democrats seem eager to support him for speaker. California Rep. Judy Chu told CNN that she was “ready for a bipartisan proposal” to back McHenry, especially since he voted to raise the debt ceiling, avoid a government shutdown and certify the 2020 presidential election.

Chu said McHenry’s past votes to raise the debt ceiling, keep the government open and certify the 2020 presidential election results would make it easier for Democrats to support him.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said House Republicans will still need to make some concessions to get Democrats to vote for McHenry.

Sen. Lee urges caution over Rep. Patrick McHenry as speaker

Sen. Mike Lee chimed in about the situation on X, formerly known as Twitter, Thursday morning, and said, “House moderates are about to turn over the GOP majority to Democrats. This is an existential threat. If they do this, the policy losses will be catastrophic.”

“House Uniparty GOP members insisted last week that a ‘Speakerless House’ was a national crisis, but they’re now willing to experiment with unprecedented long-term pro-tem powers when asked to vote for a more conservative Speaker. Stunning hypocrisy,” he said in a separate post.

Rep. Jordan’s support sent congressmen threatening messages

Lee supported Jordan for speaker but Jordan ended up losing some votes due to the strategy used by his supporters, as several Republican representatives said.

Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-Ga., released a statement on Wednesday night, saying that he initially supported Jordan but after the Ohio congressman’s campaign deployed “threatening tactics and pressure campaigns,” Ferguson switched to supporting Majority Leader Steven Scalise, who didn’t have enough votes to become speaker.

Ferguson said that shortly after casting his vote for Scalise, he and his family began receiving death threats, which, he said, “is simply unacceptable, unforgivable, and will never be tolerated.”

The wife of Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and the staffers for Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., also received threatening texts, according to NBC News.

Jordan condemned the violent threats in a post on Wednesday evening.

“No American should accost another for their beliefs,” he said on X. “We condemn all threats against our colleagues and it is imperative that we come together. Stop. It’s abhorrent.”

Contributing: Brigham Tomco