Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) will be elected new House speaker on Tuesday because “this is not a time for the House Republican Party to look childish and in disarray.”
The once-Georgia representative was speaking on Hannity about how he feels the battle for the House’s top leader will shake out, as Jordan is in the driver’s seat for the position but still doesn’t have the requisite votes.
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Gingrich was complimentary of the House Judiciary Committee chairman, saying, “In his wrestling career, he was 156-1, he won two national championships. And if you know competitive wrestlers, they’re very focused, they’re very determined, they have an enormous instinct for figuring out how to get the other person to lose.”
“Jordan is a very serious, very competent person. … My guess is either on the first or the second ballot tomorrow, he will be the speaker. He has a good chance of making the first ballot. I think he almost certainly will make it on the second ballot,” Gingrich added.
While Jordan has faced opposition from some House Republicans, many of them centrists in districts President Joe Biden won in 2020, the Ohio Republican was able to whittle down his detractors on Monday to a more manageable number than where he stood on Friday when 55 Republicans vowed to vote against him. However, the numbers still don’t point to Jordan having enough support to secure the gavel on Tuesday. But that doesn’t appear to concern Gingrich.
The former House speaker believes that the representatives who were frustrated with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and the seven other House Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will “pivot” and vote for Jordan in fear that if they didn’t, they would be responsible for a similar drama they accused Gaetz and the others of causing.
“I suspect almost every Republican now understands with the war going on in Israel, with the war going on in Ukraine, with the problems we have on the border, this is not a time for the House Republican Party to look childish and silly and in disarray,” Gingrich said. “I think Jordan will be a very strong and compelling speaker. I think he will represent the whole party. He gets it. … I think he will be very smart at getting things done.”
The former House speaker also believes McCarthy made the right decision by working across the aisle to keep the government funded at the end of September, even if it cost him the speakership.
“He’s got the same deadlines McCarthy had,” Gingrich said of Jordan. “I do think, frankly, having the government still open with the war going on in Israel vindicates McCarthy’s judgment. He did the right thing for the country even if it made eight people angry at him in the conference.”
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While the government is funded until November 17, the House is still halted without a speaker. This fact has led many to criticize House Republicans for not coming to an agreement on who their, and the entire chamber’s, next leader will be.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) won the House GOP’s support for the speakership last week but subsequently withdrew his name from consideration after realizing he did not have enough votes to secure the gavel once Democrats voted too. Jordan is hoping to avoid a similar fate.
