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  • Jim Jordan nominated for speaker by House GOP amid worries over government shutdown and support for Israel

    Jim Jordan nominated for speaker by House GOP amid worries over government shutdown and support for Israel

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    Rep. Jim Jordan won the nomination Friday to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives after launching a fresh bid for the position, as analysts warned that the process of finding a replacement for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was preventing the Republican-run chamber from addressing crucial matters.

    Jordan, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said “yup” on Friday morning when he was asked if he was running again for speaker after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, ended his bid late Thursday.

    House Republicans voted in favor of Jordan in the afternoon, with 124 supporting him and 81 backing another candidate for speaker, GOP Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, according to multiple reports. Republican lawmakers then left for the weekend and were expected to reconvene Monday.

    Rep. Austin Scott, a Georgia Republican, also spoke to reporters about the House speaker position on Friday.


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    Scott, who has been in office since 2011, said in a post on X that he wanted to “lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people.”

    To become speaker of the GOP-led chamber, a candidate must earn the support of a majority of House Republicans. Jordan has crossed that hurdle but now must prevail in a vote on the House floor. Scalise bowed out of the running after it appeared he did not have sufficient support for a floor vote.

    See: House speaker election — how it works

    “[W]e need to be unified and get to the floor, and we want that to happen as soon as possible,” Jordan told Cleveland.com before the GOP vote on Friday.

    Scalise’s decision to drop his bid “delays the resumption of meaningful legislative
    business at least well into next week,” Benjamin Salisbury, director of research at Height Capital Markets, said in a note on Friday.

    A similar warning came from Greg Valliere, chief U.S. policy strategist at AGF Investments. The House has had a temporary speaker — GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina — since Oct. 3, when McCarthy was ousted in a historic vote.

    “This paralysis in the House is becoming a serious issue, as major legislation has stalled,” Valliere said in a note. “A government shutdown can’t be ruled out as the next deadline approaches on Nov. 17. More aid to Israel and Ukraine is widely supported in both parties and in both houses, but can this funding overcome procedural hurdles in the House?”

    Related: Kevin McCarthy’s ouster means chance of government shutdown next month ‘just went up to 80%,’ analyst says

    One betting market, Smarkets, was giving Jordan, a co-founder of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, a 42% chance of becoming speaker. The Ohio congressman “faces difficult math,” as at least five Republican lawmakers are expected to vote against him on the House floor, and their ranks “may balloon by the time a floor vote is called,” Height’s Salisbury said.

    Other options that have gotten attention include giving more power to McHenry, the temporary speaker, or making a bipartisan deal on a speaker.

    U.S. stocks
    SPX

    DJIA

    COMP
    closed mostly lower Friday, with the selling blamed in part on the Israel-Hamas war.

    Now read: What U.S. political dysfunction means for the stock market and investors

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  • ‘Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else’: Atty. Gen. Garland rips House Republican scolds

    ‘Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else’: Atty. Gen. Garland rips House Republican scolds

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday is set to come face-to-face with his most ardent critics as House Republicans prepare to use a routine oversight hearing to interrogate him about what they claim is the “weaponization” of the Justice Department under President Joe Biden.

    Garland is appearing before the House Judiciary Committee for the first time in two years and at an unprecedented moment in the Justice Department’s history: He’s overseeing two cases against Donald Trump, the first former president to face criminal charges, and another against the sitting president’s son, Hunter Biden.

    “Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate,” Garland will say, according to prepared remarks.

    “ ‘I am not the President’s lawyer. I will also add that I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people.’ ”


    — Attorney General Merrick Garland in prepared remarks

    Republicans on the committee were tight-lipped about what they planned to ask Garland, telling the Associated Press on Tuesday that they wanted to keep lines of attack under wraps until the hearing.

    But Garland will likely face tense and heated questions about the Trump and Hunter Biden criminal cases, forcing him to defend the country’s largest law enforcement agency at a time when political and physical threats against agents and their families are on the rise.

    Context: ‘He’s being squeezed’: McCarthy yields to right-flank insistence on Biden impeachment inquiry amid intensifying threat to speakership

    Also see: Kevin McCarthy’s near-impossible task: to get Republicans on the same page and fund the government for another month

    “All of us at the Justice Department recognize that with this work comes public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate oversight. These are appropriate and important given the gravity of the matters before the department,” Garland will say, according to his prepared remarks. “But singling out individual career public servants who are just doing their jobs is dangerous — particularly at a time of increased threats to the safety of public servants and their families.”

    Democrats say they plan to “act as kind of a truth squad” against what they see as Republican misinformation and their ongoing defense of Trump, who is now the Republican frontrunner to challenge Biden in next year’s election. They say Republicans are trying to detract attention from the indicted former president’s legal challenges and turn a negative spotlight on Biden.

    “I’ll be using this opportunity to highlight just how destructive that is of our system of justice and how once again, it is the GOP willing to undermine our institutions in the defense of their indefensible candidate for president,” Rep. Adam Schiff, a senior Democrat on the committee, told the AP.

    Garland’s testimony also comes just over a week after Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from inland south-central California, launched an impeachment inquiry into his boss, Biden, with a special focus on the Justice Department’s handling of Hunter Biden’s years-long case.

    The White House has dismissed the impeachment inquiry as baseless and worked to focus the conversation on policy instead. Hunter Biden’s legal team, on the other hand, has gone on the offensive against GOP critics, most recently filing suit against the Internal Revenue Service after two of its agents raised whistleblower claims to Congress about the handling of the investigation.

    Republicans contend that the Justice Department — both under Trump and now Biden — has failed to fully probe the allegations against the younger Biden, ranging from his work on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma to his tax filings in California and Washington, D.C.

    “I am not the President’s lawyer. I will also add that I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people,” Garland is expected to say.

    “ Democrats have said they plan to ‘act as kind of a truth squad’ at the House hearing. ”

    An investigation into Hunter Biden had been run by the U.S. attorney for Delaware, Trump appointee David Weiss, who Garland had kept on to finish the probe and insulate it from claims of political interference. Garland granted Weiss special counsel status last month, giving him broad authority to investigate and report his findings. He oversees the day-to-day running of the probe and another special counsel, Jack Smith, is in charge of the Trump investigation, though Garland retains final say on both as attorney general.

    Last week, Weiss used that new authority to indict Hunter Biden on federal firearms charges, putting the case on track toward a possible trial as the 2024 election looms.

    The Republican chairmen of the Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees launched an investigation into Weiss’ handling of the case, which was first opened in 2018 after two IRS agents claimed in congressional testimony in May that the Justice Department improperly interfered with their work.

    Gary Shapley, a veteran IRS agent assigned to the case, testified to Congress that Weiss indicated in October 2022 that he was not the “deciding person whether charges are filed” against Hunter Biden.

    That testimony has been disputed by two FBI agents who were also in the room for that meeting.

    Hunter Biden has since sued the IRS, alleging that the episode has breached his right to privacy.

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