Donald's Senior Moments

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The 2024 race has begun.

Michael C. Bender and Michael Gold at NYT:

Mr. Trump has had a string of unforced gaffes, garble and general disjointedness that go beyond his usual discursive nature, and that his Republican rivals are pointing to as signs of his declining performance.

On Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, Mr. Trump wrongly thanked supporters of Sioux Falls, a South Dakota town about 75 miles away, correcting himself only after being pulled aside onstage and informed of the error.

It was strikingly similar to a fictional scene that Mr. Trump acted out earlier this month, pretending to be Mr. Biden mistaking Iowa for Idaho and needing an aide to straighten him out.

In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has also told supporters not to vote, and claimed to have defeated President Barack Obama in an election. He has praised the collective intellect of an Iranian-backed militant group that has long been an enemy of both Israel and the United States, and repeatedly mispronounced the name of the armed group that rules Gaza.

...
During a Sept. 15 speech in Washington, a moment after declaring Mr. Biden “cognitively impaired, in no condition to lead,” the former president warned that America was on the verge of World War II, which ended in 1945.

In the same speech, he boasted about presidential polls showing him leading Mr. Obama, who is not, in fact, running for an illegal third term in office. He erroneously referred to Mr. Obama again during an anecdote about winning the 2016 presidential race.

“We did it with Obama,” Mr. Trump said. “We won an election that everybody said couldn’t be won, we beat …” He paused for a beat as he seemed to realize his mistake. “Hillary Clinton.”

...

 Last week, while speaking to supporters at a rally in New Hampshire, Mr. Trump praised Viktor Orban, the strongman prime minister of Hungary, but referred to him as “the leader of Turkey,” a country hundreds of miles away. He quickly corrected himself.

Mike Allen at Axios:

Why it matters: Trump, 77, often mocks the 80-year-old Biden as feeble and confused — even as some of Trump's foes are highlighting the former president's own gaffes and relatively light campaign schedule.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, trying to cut into Trump's big polling lead in the GOP presidential race, has been targeting Trump's age.

• Last week, DeSantis' campaign revealed a "Trump accident tracker" to compile the former president's verbal slips on the trail, and asked whether Trump had the "stamina" to be president — using a word Trump often has invoked against his opponents, particularly Hillary Clinton in 2016.
• "This is a different Donald Trump than 2015 and '16 — lost the zip on his fastball," DeSantis told reporters in New Hampshire last week.

Trump's campaign has posted many videos of Biden stumbling, while Biden's campaign has answered with ads with Trump looking heavy and sweaty, often while golfing.

One Year Out: Biden's Woes

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The 2024 race has begun.

At Axios, Mike Allen notes that many metrics (e.g., unemployment, GDP growth) should be good for Biden, but that things look bad politically.

But private polls show the same hurdle as public ones — brutally and stubbornly low popularity broadly, and on topics animating voters:

1. He's tied or trailing former President Trump nationally and in swing states — even though Trump was indicted four times on 91 felony counts and is spending many days in court (and storming out).

2. Biden gets crushed on his handling of immigration, crime and inflation — none of which will likely turn around in time to put a new spring in his step.It's not death by one issue, but by half a dozen hitting at once. "The load-bearing wall breaks," one Biden official conceded.

3. Many of Biden's own voters don't want him to run — a daunting design flaw for a re-election campaign.His popularity with his own supporters hit a new low in a poll this past week. Democrats are divided over Israel.

What to watch: Election Day is 53 weeks away, and Biden needs to excite young voters, Black voters and Hispanic voters.His core constituency is unlikely to vote for Trump. But Democrats are concerned about a combination of voters staying home or backing a third-party candidate.

Dems won in 2020 because of massive turnout. Now, many of Biden's base voters are over him. To try to rev them up, Democrats plan to lean into Trump, abortion and rising cultural issues, including book bans.

Johnson: The Morning After

 Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. 

After multiple tries and candidates, the House GOP finally settled on a speaker: Mike Johnson of Louisiana.  He has never chaired a committee or held a high leadership post.  He got the job because his lack of experience (elected 2016) left him with few enemies.  He is largely unknown outside of his district and the House GOP.  Picking someone who has never withstood national scrutiny has some disadvantages.

Shane Goldmacher

The decision to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker and replace him with a little-known congressman, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, has left a glaring financial gap for House Republicans headed into 2024 when the party has to defend its narrow and fragile majority.

Mr. McCarthy’s political operation brought in more than 100 times the amount of money that Mr. Johnson has collected so far in 2023 — $78 million to roughly $608,000, according to federal records and public disclosures. And in Mr. Johnson’s entire congressional career, dating to his first run in 2016, the Louisiana Republican has raised a total of $6.1 million — less than Mr. McCarthy’s average monthly take this year.

The willingness of House Republicans to trade a party rainmaker for a member who has raised less than some more junior colleagues has caused a deep sense of uncertainty at the highest levels of the conference, even as relieved lawmakers united behind Mr. Johnson to end weeks of political paralysis.

“Mike Johnson is not known to be a prolific fund-raiser. He’s raised money to meet his needs in a noncompetitive seat in Louisiana,” said Tom Reynolds, a former New York congressman and past chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “It remains to be seen: Can he raise money to help the members when it comes time next year?”

 Andrew Kaczynski and Allison Gordon, CNN:

In editorials that ran in his local Shreveport, Louisiana, paper, The Times, Johnson called homosexuality a “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle” that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy “the entire democratic system.”

And, in another editorial, “Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do,” he wrote. “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.

At the time, Johnson was an attorney and spokesman for Alliance Defense Fund, known today as Alliance Defending Freedom, where he also authored his opposition to the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas – which overturned state laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults.

ADF wrote an amicus brief in the case which supported maintaining criminalization.

“States have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse,” Johnson wrote in a July 2003 op-ed, calling it a public health concern.

“By closing these bedroom doors, they have opened a Pandora’s box,” he added.

On Thursday, Johnson was asked to respond to KFile’s report on the editorials during a lengthy interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

“I don’t even remember some of them,” Johnson told Hannity.

Support for Authoritarianism and Violence

 Our new book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. Some Republican leaders -- and a measurable number of rank-and-file voters -- are open to violent rebellion, coups, and secession.  

Public Religion Research Institute:

Just under four in ten Americans (38%) agree with the statement, “Because things have gotten so far off track in this country, we need a leader who is willing to break some rules if that’s what it takes to set things right,” while 59% disagree.

About half of Republicans (48%) agree with the need for a leader who is willing to break some rules, compared with four in ten independents (38%) and three in ten Democrats (29%). Majorities of Americans who most trust Fox News (53%) or far-right outlets (52%) agree that we need a leader who breaks the rules, compared with smaller shares of those who do not trust TV news (40%), or who most trust mainstream news (32%). Republicans with favorable views of former President Donald Trump are notably more likely than those with unfavorable views of Trump to agree with the need for a leader who is willing to break some rules (54% vs. 32%).

...

Disturbingly, support for political violence has increased over the last two years. Today, nearly a quarter of Americans (23%) agree that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” up from 15% in 2021. PRRI has asked this question in eight separate surveys since March 2021. This is the first time support for political violence has peaked above 20%.

One-third of Republicans (33%) today believe that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country, compared with 22% of independents and 13% of Democrats. Those percentages have increased since 2021, when 28% of Republicans and 7% of Democrats held this belief. Republicans who have favorable views of Trump (41%) are nearly three times as likely as Republicans who have unfavorable views of Trump (16%) to agree that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.

Americans who believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump are more than three times as likely as those who do not believe that the election was stolen from Trump — 46% to 13%, respectively — to agree that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.

The Vetting of Mike Johnson

  Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. 

After multiple tries and candidates, the House GOP finally settled on a speaker: Mike Johnson of Louisiana.  He has never chaired a committee or held a high leadership post.  He got the job because his lack of experience (elected 2016) left him with few enemies.  He is largely unknown outside of his district and the House GOP.  Picking someone who has never withstood national scrutiny has some disadvantages.  Justin Green at Axios:

New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) didn't have a national profile until this week, but his 20-year paper trail is an opposition researcher's dream.

Why it matters: Johnson is one of the most socially conservative speakers in modern memory — often far to the right of former President Trump — and Democrats are ready to make him a central figure in their 2024 campaigns.

• Johnson is making it easy on his researchers, with reams of op-eds and newspaper columns paired with legislation he's recently introduced and supported.
• "He actually has years of material, freestyle right-wing rhetoric, that nobody has looked under the hood on," one Democratic strategist told Axios.
• Johnson was unanimously elected by House Republicans on Wednesday.

It has begun.

Mike Johnson, while celebrating Roe v. Wade being overturned, called for doctors to be “imprisoned at hard labor for 1-10 years” if they provide reproductive health care pic.twitter.com/OoeRxdyeIV

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) October 25, 2023

Here is Mike Johnson railing against Roe v. Wade, arguing that if women were forced to give birth to more “able-bodied workers,” Republicans wouldn’t try to cut Social Security and Medicare pic.twitter.com/RN5FPNlvon

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) October 25, 2023

Here is Mike Johnson calling to cut Social Security and Medicare: “We’ve got to think about long-term reforms to those programs” pic.twitter.com/7wsh3POJvN

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) October 25, 2023

Trump Knifes Speakership Candidate

 Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. 

Trump comes out against Emmer for speaker as he struggles to lock down 217; calls Emmer a RINO pic.twitter.com/Gl1S21pI4B

— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) October 24, 2023

TRUMP: "Tom Emmer - looks like he's finished. Looks like he's finished. He was not a supporter. He was a RINO. And looks like he's finished. But we'll see. You never know. You never know."
"Do you support anyone else as Speaker, sir?"
TRUMP: "I'll let you know. I'll let you know" pic.twitter.com/8SCqlYuM2I

— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) October 24, 2023

Meredith McGraw and Alex Isenstadt at Politico:

Just hours after Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) won the Republican Conference’s nomination to be House speaker on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to deride the congressman as “totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters” and a “Globalist RINO.” He then got on the phone with members to express his aversion for Emmer and his bid for speaker. By Tuesday afternoon Trump called one person close to him with the message, “He’s done. It’s over. I killed him.” Just minutes later, Emmer officially dropped out of the race.

Tim Scott Is Flailing

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The the 2024 race has begun.

Natalie Allison at Politico:

Tim Scott is moving nearly all of his resources to Iowa in a bid to reenergize his faltering presidential campaign.

The South Carolina senator’s campaign announced the move to staff during a call Monday afternoon, according to two people with knowledge of the plan. Details on the shift in strategy were first published by the Des Moines Register.

The announcement — the first major reset of Scott’s campaign — comes with Scott polling at just under 2 percent nationally in the Republican primary, and as some prominent Republican allies express disappointment in the trajectory of his presidential bid. While Scott on Monday told reporters he was confident he would appear on the Nov. 8 debate stage (“We’ll be in Miami,” he said after a speech at a church in Chicago), his campaign has yet to announce meeting the Republican National Committee’s 70,000 donor requirement to do so.

 

'Beyond the pale': ABC host hits Tim Scott for saying Biden has 'blood on his hands' https://t.co/sHdPcLbPe3

— Raw Story (@RawStory) October 22, 2023

A Very Bad Place

 Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Lisa Lerer and Michael C. Bender at NYT:

Kevin McCarthy, the ousted speaker, was making his way through the Capitol when reporters asked what he thought of the chaos consuming House Republicans, who for nearly three weeks have been trying and failing to replace him.

His anser veered into the existential. “We are,” he said on Friday, “in a very bad place right now.”

That might be an understatement.

In the House, Republicans are casting about for a new leader, mired in an internecine battle marked by screaming, cursing and a fresh flood of candidates. In the Senate, their party is led by Senator Mitch McConnell, who spent weeks arguing that he remained physically and mentally fit enough for the position after freezing midsentence in two public appearances. And on the 2024 campaign trail, the dominant front-runner, Donald J. Trump, faces 91 felony charges across four cases, creating a drumbeat of legal news that often overwhelms any of his party’s political messages.

As national Democrats largely stand behind President Biden and his agenda — more united than in years — Republicans are divided, directionless and effectively leaderless.

Bad Blood

 Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

NEW: Rep. Tom McClintock is taking aim at the members who ousted McCarthy’s recent vow that they would be willing to be disciplined and expelled from the conference in order to get Jordan the gavel, with the California Republican clapping back in a sassy new letter. pic.twitter.com/UgY8WhcOWR

— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) October 21, 2023

NEWS: Trump has privately told allies he doesn’t back Tom Emmer’s speakership bid, and those in his orbit - including on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast today- are coming out against him aggressively https://t.co/uPSPFd26VA

— Alex Isenstadt (@politicoalex) October 21, 2023

A Bad Day for MAGA

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Friday Update:

—Jordan/GOP fail, for a 3rd time, to elect a House Speaker. No plan forward in sight.
—Kenneth Chesebro pleads GUILTY in 2020 election subversion case, flips on Trump, takes a felony plea.
—Trump is threatened w/ jail time for violating gag order in NY fraud case

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 20, 2023

The 2023 Field of Blood

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Jim Jordan has never sponsored a bill that became law, even though he has served in the majority. Newt Gingrich developed the modern "outside game" of congressional politics.  Jim Jordan is bringing it to peak -- so far without success.

 

Several House Republicans who have voted against Rep. Jim Jordan for speaker are seething after threats have been made against them, their offices or even their spouses — including one that a lawmaker called a "credible death threat." https://t.co/wIAXg2lAU8

— ABC News (@ABC) October 19, 2023

JORDAN’s close ally does him no favors, suggesting death threats due to opposing Jordan is overblown and a “red herring” https://t.co/r1TQV1kM7k

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 20, 2023

Damage to the House GOP

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Jim Jordan has never sponsored a bill that became law, even though he has served in the majority. Newt Gingrich developed the modern "outside game" of congressional politics.  Jim Jordan is bringing it to peak -- so far without success.

 Annie Karni at NYT:

The latest round of House Republican infighting has badly damaged the G.O.P. brand. It has left the party leaderless and one chamber of Congress paralyzed for more than two weeks. The chaos is raising the chances that Democrats could win back the majority next year, and it has given them ample ammunition for their campaign narrative, which casts Republicans as right-wing extremists who are unfit to govern.

“It hurts the country; it hurts the Congress; it’s hurting our party,” said Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, one of 18 Republicans who represent districts won by Mr. Biden in 2020. “It’s putting us in a bad hole for next November.”

He said his hard-right colleagues who moved to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this month and touched off the intractable scramble to replace him “want to be in the minority.”

Mr. Bacon added: “I think they would prefer that. So they can just vote no and just yell and scream all the time."

A bizarre, unforced error. Tom Cole has been both executive director and chair of the NRCC. He should know better than any of his R colleagues that he just cut an ad for @dccc. https://t.co/83VszXMfdn

— Jack Pitney 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@jpitney) October 18, 2023

Yikes -- Stefanik is jeered when she mentions Jordan's background "on the wrestling mat" pic.twitter.com/ZnLDmpJx8j

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 17, 2023

Trump's America: "Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) said that after she flipped from voting for Jordan on Tuesday to Rep Kay Granger on Wednesday, she received “credible death threats & a barrage of threatening calls” Threats now woven into US politics https://t.co/3NaP8uXnRc

— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) October 19, 2023

Jordan Tactics Backfire, Big Time

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Jim Jordan has never sponsored a bill that became law, even though he has served in the majority. Newt Gingrich developed the modern "outside game" of congressional politics.  Jim Jordan is bringing it to peak -- so far without success.

Jordain Carney, Sarah Ferris, and Oliva Beavers at Politico:

Jim Jordan’s allies attempted to badger House Republicans into making him speaker. Those tactics backfired on Tuesday, and could soon doom his speakership push outright.

The Ohio Republican’s most vocal GOP defectors during Tuesday’s failed speaker vote said they were pressured to back Jordan by party bosses back home and national conservatives with big megaphones. Most of those skeptics viewed it as a coordinated push with a threatening theme: Vote for Jordan — or else.

The arm-twisting campaign, which in many cases included veiled threats of primary challenges, was meant to help rally support behind Jordan’s candidacy. Instead, it has put the Judiciary chair’s bid on life support and threatened to plunge House Republicans deeper into turmoil with no clear way out.

“Jim’s been nice, one-on-one, but his broader team has been playing hardball,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told POLITICO about Jordan’s network of supporters, adding that he’s been getting calls from party chairs back in Nebraska. He added that his wife even received multiple anonymous emails and texts saying: “your husband better support Jim Jordan.”

He’s not the only one who faced significant pressure. Other Republicans, too, told POLITICO they have received a barrage of calls from local conservative leaders. They blame the onslaught on his backers even though, by all accounts, he isn’t directly involved. Even some of Jordan’s supporters acknowledge that the aggressive moves have set him back ahead of a potential second speaker ballot.

“I think some of it did backfire … and I think it was to the detriment of Jim,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a Freedom Caucus member who voted for Jordan, told reporters.

Trump Is Rigging GOP Rules

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The the 2024 race has begun.

Shane Goldmacher, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman at NYT:

As Mr. Trump dodges debates and is regularly seen on his golf courses in branded white polo shirts and red MAGA hats, it can seem that he is bypassing the 2024 primary fight entirely. He has done relatively few public campaign events until recent weeks. But Mr. Trump and his political team have spent months working behind the scenes to build alliances and contingency plans with key party officials, seeking to twist the primary and delegate rules in their favor.

It amounts to a fail-safe in case Mr. DeSantis — or anyone else — scores a surprise victory in an early state. And it comes as Mr. Trump faces an extraordinary set of legal challenges, including four criminal indictments, that inject an unusual degree of uncertainty into a race Mr. Trump leads widely in national polling.

“They’ve rigged it anywhere they thought they could pull it off,” said Ken Cuccinelli, a former Trump administration official who founded Never Back Down, the pro-DeSantis super PAC that was essentially ousted from the Nevada caucus.

Jordan's Outside Game

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Jim Jordan has never sponsored a bill that became law, even though he has served in the majority. Newt Gingrich developed the modern "outside game" of congressional politics.  Jim Jordan is bringing it to peak]

 A campaign ad. For speaker.

One of the most important races in our lifetime. I am voting for @Jim_Jordan. pic.twitter.com/yl59wTrtMh

— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) October 14, 2023

Moderates are growing increasingly irritated with the tactics Jordan allies are using to pressure them into voting for him, with one member noting the Hannity show has gotten involved in the efforts sending potential defectors the email below. One lawmaker said the push is… pic.twitter.com/ulOn0ZEbts

— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) October 15, 2023

Jordan on January 6

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

From the House J6 Report:

Representative Jordan was a significant player in President Trump’s efforts. He participated in numerous post-election meetings in which senior White House officials, Rudolph Giuliani, and others, discussed strategies for challenging the election, chief among them claims that the election had been tainted by fraud. On January 2, 2021, Representative Jordan led a conference call in which he, President Trump, and other Members of Congress discussed strategies for delaying the January 6th joint session. During that call, the group also discussed issuing social media posts encouraging President Trump’s supporters to “march to the Capitol” on the 6th.661 An hour and a half later, President Trump and Representative Jordan spoke by phone for 18 minutes.662 The day before January 6th, Representative Jordan texted Mark Meadows, passing along advice that Vice President Pence should “call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.” 663 He spoke with President Trump by phone at least twice on January 6th, though he has provided inconsistent public statements about how many times they spoke and what they discussed.664 He also received five calls from Rudolph Giuliani that evening, and the two connected at least twice, at 7:33 p.m. and 7:49 p.m.665 During that time, Giuliani has testified, he was attempting to reach Members of Congress after the joint session resumed to encourage them to continue objecting to Joe Biden’s electoral votes.666 And, in the days following January 6th, Representative Jordan spoke with White House staff about the prospect of Presidential pardons for Members of Congress.667

The Mess on the Hill

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Mary Ellen McIntire and Aidan Quigley at Roll Call:

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan became Republicans’ nominee for speaker Friday, winning a secret-ballot election against Georgia Rep. Austin Scott, a last-minute entrant into the race.
...

“We’re done here until Monday,” Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., said after the second ballot to gauge how many GOP members would back Jordan on the floor came in at 152-55. One member voted “present” on that second ballot, according to Cammack and Rep. French Hill, R-Ark.

...

The second vote indicated slightly higher margin than the initial 124-81 vote Friday to nominate Jordan, a founder of the House Freedom Caucus who became an ally of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in recent years. Still, according to Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, the second-round vote total was “enough to not know if we could go to the floor today.”

...

“I don’t know, but the math is not good” for Jordan, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a Scalise backer, said Friday. “I think ultimately, we’re gonna have to find somebody who can truly unify us.”

Another Scalise ally, Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan, said ahead of Friday’s votes that he didn’t believe Jordan could get to 217 votes and that a quick turnaround to considering his bid was unfair to any challengers.

“I like Jim, but I just think that Steve got a raw deal,” Buchanan said. “I think he’s worked hard, he’s earned it and I think if [Jordan] would’ve given him a little bit more support — that really changed my mind a little bit on Jim Jordan.”

Sahil Kapur and Julia Jester:

Democrats are standing firm in their refusal to bail out the House Republican majority as it struggles to elect a new speaker 10 days after after booting Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

They're also dialing up the rhetoric against the GOP’s new nominee for speaker, prominent Donald Trump ally Jim Jordan of Ohio, blasting him as an insurrectionist, election denier and extremist.

“House Republicans have selected as their nominee to be the speaker of the people’s House the chairman of the chaos caucus, a defender in a dangerous way of dysfunction, and an extremist extraordinaire,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday on the steps of the Capitol, flanked by dozen of Democratic lawmakers. “His focus has been on peddling lies and conspiracy theories and driving division amongst the American people.”

  Corky Siemaszko at NBC:

Four of the former Ohio State University wrestlers who have accused Rep. Jim Jordan of failing to protect them from a sexual predator when he was the team’s assistant coach in the 1980s and '90s said Tuesday he has no business being the next speaker of the House.

“Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys?” said former OSU wrestler Mike Schyck, one of the hundreds of former athletes and students who say they were sexually abused by school doctor Richard Strauss and have sued the university. “Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?”

Trump on Events in the Middle East

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Neil Vigdor, Alyce McFadden and Nicholas Nehamas at NYT:

Former President Donald J. Trump drew scorn from both sides of the political aisle on Thursday for remarks that he made one day earlier criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and referring to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, as “very smart.”

During a speech to his supporters in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, he weighed in on the Hamas attacks on Israel, the worst experienced by America’s closest Middle East ally in half a century.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group, has clashed with Israeli forces in the days after Hamas fighters from Gaza attacked border areas in southern Israel, intensifying concerns that the country could be drawn into a conflict on a second front.

“You know, Hezbollah is very smart,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re all very smart.”

He took swipes at Mr. Netanyahu on the “Brian Kilmeade Show,” a Fox News Radio show, broadcast on Thursday, arguing that intelligence lapses by Israel had left it vulnerable to the sweeping attack, kidnappings and slaughter of civilians leading to the war.

Donald Trump blames Joe Biden and the "stollen" election for Hamas's attack on Israel pic.twitter.com/VnXb94mO7z

— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) October 13, 2023

Scalise, Jordan, Trump

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Paul Kane at WP:

Despite a boisterous endorsement of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to be the next speaker, Trump’s pick got just 99 votes in the behind-closed-doors vote in a sprawling committee room, less than 45 percent of the GOP caucus.

Instead, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) leveraged his long tenure in multiple leadership positions over the past decade to secure the nomination, winning with a time-honored inside game that was built on personal relationships with lawmakers and not outside endorsements.

Currently the House majority leader, Scalise still faces some doubt that he can unify Republican ranks enough to get the necessary 217 votes, out of 221 eligible GOP votes, when the full House holds its roll call later this week.

Scalise vanquished Jordan despite the Judiciary Committee chair’s higher-profile campaign, beginning with Trump’s “complete” and “total” endorsement Saturday in a social media post

Scooplet: Trump Not Expected to Help Scalise in Speaker Bid (Exclusive)

Three sources close to Trump tell me and @MarcACaputo that he isn't planning to come to the aid of Scalise, who is having trouble securing enough support to become speaker.https://t.co/kOHZs3Rp69

— Stephen Neukam (@stephen_neukam) October 12, 2023

Mace

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  

Jonathan Weisman at NYT:

When South Carolina’s First Congressional District evoked wide sand beaches, Spanish moss, oyster and cocktail bars and hot yoga, its Republican congresswoman, Nancy Mace, made her name appealing for moderation on abortion, climate change and marijuana legalization, while calling out the G.O.P.’s biggest bomb throwers as bigoted clowns.

Then in 2022 came the redrawing of district lines, as rural reaches like Cordesville, S.C., with their modest one-story brick homes and prefabricated double-wides, replaced the graceful mansions and Black neighborhoods of Charleston. So last week, when Ms. Mace shocked Washington and joined seven hard-core conservatives to oust Representative Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair, her new constituents were not surprised.

“I’ve always heard the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and when you’re a female, you don’t get heard unless you’re loud,” said Janet Jurosko, a new constituent of Ms. Mace’s from Cordesville and the auditor of Berkeley County, S.C., which joined the First District in its totality last year. “I think she’s doing a good job — I really do.”

Ms. Mace still calls herself an iconoclast, but her transformation from denouncing the likes of Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, to joining him in the first overthrow of a sitting speaker underscores a truism: Voters lead their politicians; politicians don’t lead their voters.

Brennan: Do the past allegations of Jim Jordan that he turned a blind eye to sexual abuse give you reservations?

Mace: I'm not familiar or aware of that.

Brennan: Ohio state university allegations.

Mace: I don't know anything pic.twitter.com/OGQQFqR9pt

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 8, 2023

Brennan: McCarthy said his ouster is personal payback from Gaetz for the house ethics committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct… Does that bother you?

Mace: Well, again, he's not indicted for anything. I don't really -- I don't know much about it. pic.twitter.com/i9qINKGP2m

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 8, 2023

Mace: I’m wearing the scarlet letter after the week I had being a woman and being demonized for my vote and voice. pic.twitter.com/guVpxGHUq7

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 10, 2023

Mace: There are Democrats who trust Jordan

Tapper: Jim Jordan?

Mace: Yes

Tapper: From Ohio?

Mace: Yes

Tapper: Name one pic.twitter.com/22QdZLARx2

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 11, 2023