Ex-GOP Congressman Warns Republicans Aiming to Be Speaker Are ‘Dangerous’

Former Republican Representative David Jolly warned that the GOP members running for the House speakership position could be just as “dangerous” as Representative Jim Jordan while speaking to Newsweek on Sunday.

On October 3, Representative Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, became the first House speaker in U.S. history to be ousted from the role by a floor vote, after a motion to vacate was brought against him by GOP Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. Since then, successive GOP candidates for speaker have failed to garner the necessary majority of votes, an issue worsened by the party’s razor-thin margin of control in the House.

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana was the first candidate chosen, but he ultimately failed to get the votes needed on the chamber floor and withdrew from consideration. Jordan of Ohio, the candidate initially endorsed by Trump, was next up, but he also failed to garner the needed votes, losing more and more support in three consecutive rounds of voting.

Nine Republicans announced their candidacy to be the next House speaker including: Representatives Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Pete Sessions of Texas, Austin Scott of Georgia, Byron Donalds of Florida, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, and Gary Palmer of Alabama.

Jolly, who served Florida’s 13th Congressional District from 2014 to 2017, told Newsweek via phone on Sunday that Jordan is “one of the more dangerous Republican leaders in his willingness to undermine democracy and as he sought to assist Trump in stealing the election in 2020, I’m sure he would try to do so in 2024.”

He continued: “So his elimination from the speakership race, I think is a net positive all around. That does not mean that there’s a wide gap between him and who comes next, to be honest. If you look at the field of current candidates for speaker, they probably lack the tactics of Jordan, but I think many of them would arrive at the same destination.”

Jolly explained that the candidates may not start off at such a dangerous spot as Jordan, but may end up there.

“I made that point for those who thought Jordan was so much worse than McCarthy. My point was McCarthy always ended up where Jordan started. It just took him longer to get there,” he said. “McCarthy blessed the impeachment of Joe Biden, he covered for Trump on the January 6th stuff, [and] he negotiated in bad faith with Biden and then broke his promise. So it’s not as though other leading Republicans are significantly and qualitatively less dangerous than Jordan, but Jordan just starts from a very dangerous spot.”

Although the Republicans hold a slight majority in the House of Representatives and have been struggling to find a nominee that can garner at least 217 votes necessary to win the House speaker vote, Jolly said he is “cautiously optimistic” and that he believes Republicans are close to resolving this issue.