REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS CONTINUE TO GET THREATS
Votes against Jordan for House speaker cited as reason
House Republicans continued to receive threats Friday aimed at pressuring them into voting to elect Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as speaker, hours before Jordan lost a third vote for the speakership and Republicans dropped him as the nominee in a closed-door meeting.
The coercion and intimidation reported by some lawmakers — coming from conservative entities and anonymous threat-makers — helped solidify existing opposition to Jordan, some said, amid concern that such tactics from outside groups would continue if the Ohio Republican were to become speaker. It also added another layer to the chaos that has enveloped the House GOP after nearly three weeks without a speaker.
Leaving the Republican conference meeting Friday afternoon, Jordan told reporters that none of the intimidation some holdouts had experienced had anything to do with him.
“Any threats that people experienced are as wrong as wrong can be,” he said.
Jordan had mounted a pressure campaign among Republican holdouts to whip support for his speaker bid. Some Republicans blamed him and his allies for threats that went further than that, though Jordan had condemned the intimidation earlier this week.
In addition to death threats reported by a number of House Republicans, lawmakers opposing Jordan were facing other pressure. In an email sent to Republicans, including vulnerable lawmakers representing swing districts, Gun Owners of America made what some lawmakers saw as a threat to dock their gun-rights ratings.
Citing support for Jordan because of his continual “A” rating for defending gun rights, the group said it “will be scoring any vote against confirming Rep. Jim Jordan as speaker of the House as anti-gun votes.”
Those who received the message saw it as a direct threat, especially because groups like these know that bad ratings could influence voters in upcoming primary and general elections. Some Republicans with long gun rights records, including those who have voted for Jordan, wondered why a vote against him would be equated to a vote against gun rights.
Just before Friday’s vote, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, RFla., told reporters that threats against holdouts had backfired, saying it was time for Jordan to drop out.
“If you’re a leader and you think that you have to basically pressure people and coerce people to follow you, what kind of a leader are you?” he said.
“There’s a large number of us that are not moving, and I don’t care what tactics are used,” Diaz-Balart added on the way into the House session, where he voted for Rep. Steve Scalise, R- La.
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., who supported Jordan in all three votes, said death threats should be taken seriously but said Jordan had nothing to do with them.
“All of us in Congress receive death threats. I don’t know if that’s a news flash for anybody here,” Perry told reporters Friday morning. “That’s nothing new to any member of Congress. We all know it. That is another red herring.”
Earlier this week, some Republicans said the intimidation was only strengthening opposition to Jordan’s bid.
Rep. Drew Ferguson, RGa., a Scalise ally who voted for Jordan in the first round, said he flipped and voted against Jordan in the second round, citing the bullying tactics as part of his decision.
After he voted against Jordan, he also began receiving death threats, he said.
At least seven Republicans have reported threats or pressure — in some cases leveled at their families or staffs — and several have taken extra security measures.